Changelog for Alpha 13.

We fixed an issue that caused errors when trying to open a new simulation.

We also made some minor performance improvements, added further debugging, and
fixed a few more bugs.

Improvements:

Performance Optimization
Optimized calculation of integration error
Changed maximum suggested auto tolerance to 10 milkyway diameters
Tolerance now autosets when adding a body with the Add panel or via the number keys

Additional debugging for simulation startup and initialization

Fixes:

Fixed issue that caused errors when attempting Home New...

Changelog for Alpha 13

Were unveiling our collision overhaul, which means performance boosts and better
collisions more of the time. This update also introduces Mars climate simulation,
an interactive planetary cutaway view, working orbital elements controls, and an
improved graphing tool. Weve implemented basic tidal heating and tidal evolution,
made further improvements to the UI and graphics, and fixed a good number of bugs.

New Features:

Overhauled Collisions
Major rewrite of the collision system
Better budgeting and handling results in better collisions more of the time
Improved timestep consistency
Increases overall performance
Toggle collisions (re-enabled when loading sims)
Sim (gear icon) Collisions Enable Collisions
Toggle fragments
Sim (gear icon) Collisions Enable Fragments
Improved calculations for fragment ejection velocity
Mars Climate
Similar to the Earth climate calculations which transport heat between equator and
poles, Mars also accounts for CO2 frost formation.
Graph seasonally fluctuating atmospheric pressure or add to atmosphere mass.
Assumes pure CO2 atmosphere.
Planetary Cutaways
View a visual representation of a bodys material composition
Automatically shown when Materials tab is selected
Fixed Orbital Elements
Adjusting sliders is now much less likely to produce errors/strange orbital
behaviors
Tidal heating & tidal evolution (works-in-progress)
Turned off by default
Sim Thermodynamics Tidal Heating
Sim Orbit Evolution Tidal Evolution
Click (+) next to each option to adjust multiplier effect
View amount of energy per second from tidal heating in Properties Temperature
Tidal Power
Exoplanet Detection
New calculations for radial velocity and simulated light curves
Properties Motion Camera Relative
Create Chaotic Orbits
New Simulations
Chaotic Orbits
Supernova Type Ia
Experimental > Earth Moon x6 No Collisions
New Collision presets
Asteroid 1000 vs 50
Earth & Moon Slow Motion

Improvements:

Graphing
Now plots simulated time instead of real time
Autoscales/scrolls based on selected timespan
Customizable X and Y values (WIP)
Easily switch between units
Shows data closest to cursor
(+) button to add targets Select one or more bodies Ok
Click the X on any target to remove it from the graph
Graphics
New milky way background (default in Solar System sim)
Body Colors modes
View Body Colors
Sets body and trail colors based on Mass, Acceleration, or Velocity
Defaults to Realistic (normal)
Improved planetoid rendering
Tweaked shockwave visuals
Improved visualization of cooled hydrogen gas
Increased crater cooldown times
Collision particles now properly scale relative to the camera
Added surface detail to molten gas giants
Improved background rendering for low-end machines
Improved auto-settings selection for some hardware configurations
UI & UX
Left/right scrolling tabs & filters (mousewheel or buttons)
Improved Properties window
New Motion tab
New Temperature tab for Terrestrial, Planetoids, & Gas Giants without Climate tab
Added icons for mass, radius, density, temperature, and luminosity
Added icons for tabs
Reenabled "Distance to You" and "Distance to Star"
Toggle trails for individual body in Motion Display Settings
View orbital path
Toggle for an individual body in Properties Motion Display Settings
Toggle for all bodies in View window
Appears temporarily when changing orbital elements
Trail fades out when orbital path is shown
New font
New icon tray at bottom of screen shows bodies bound to 1-8 number keys (launches
body)
Click arrow below to show/hide
Any object from the database plus user-saved objects can now be chosen for Home
Create presets
Choreography filters
All; 2D or 3D; Stable or Unstable; Number of Bodies (slider)
Toggle between grid and list display in Open/Create/Add/Find/Chart with
icon at top-right of window
Search fields show input focus
Un-editable properties no longer show input textbox
Search window shows live thumbnails of bodies
Double-clicking on body in Search window selects target and opens Properties window
User-saved sims now display representative thumbnail
Camera now zooms close to body when placing it in an empty sim
Added gravity unit type
Changed gravity input field to use gravity unit type
Added unit type for Power and Energy
Set Celsius as default unit for temperature
Keep Window Open option for Create and Open windows (push-pin icon)
Modal windows (such as Feedback) now darken background
Added 1280x720 16:9 option to screenshot menu
Alt+F to toggle FPS display
Simulation
Galaxy simulation improvements
Adjusted dark matter particle size and camera scale
Galaxy scales now dynamically computed
Better placement of galaxies when creating more than one
Now lie on X, Z plane (previously X, Y)
Random orientation option (checkbox in settings)
Tolerance setting for timestep controls
Unsafe Global Adaptive mode: scales the gravity-based safe timestep
Global Adaptive mode: sets minimum accuracy
Suggested tolerance set at simulation initialization
Adjust tolerance:
Simulation Settings (gear icon) Gravity Tolerance
OR hover Timestep controls and adjust slider
New Global Adaptive integration mode
Sim Gravity IntegrationMode Global Adaptive
Maintains a specified accuracy (tolerance) for each step of the simulation
This ensures accuracy even at large timesteps
Sim Actions
Halt All Rotations
+2% / -2% All Velocities
+2% / -2% All Rotations
Expand / Shrink System
Focus on Center Body
Improved Sedna and VP113 tutorial
1 sedna now and corrected VP113s position
Changing the radius of a body now increases/decreases rotation to maintain angular
momentum
Supernova cloud now heats bodies through drag calculation
Tweaked volatile loss rate so bodies are destroyed at very high temperatures
Bodies with mostly gaseous composition now classified as gas giants
Brown dwarves can no longer become volatile
Better handling of dust trail particles which previously slowed performance
Increased post-collision cooling time for craters and planet temperatures
Climate
Possible future emission scenarios can now be viewed for Earth climate
Properties Climate tab Greenhouse Gases Select an RCP Scenario
Enable then click (+) to choose a scenario
For more information:
Home Activities Climate Scenarios
Now uses substep positions to account for daily solar input
Now ensures that water is shown as frozen and not liquid at pressures below the
triple point pressure
Overhauled effective temperature calculations to account for further types of
heating
Improved integration between climate and collisions
Sound
Added sound effects for shockwaves
Added swoosh sound to objects quickly passing the camera (experimental)
Adjusted volume of collision sounds to better match event magnitudes

Fixes:

Fixed an issue that prevented all bodies in the simulation rotating visually with
Velocity Verlet enabled
User-saved sims no longer appear under wrong filters
Fixed an issue with collision effects spawning too frequently
Fixed an issue that caused sounds to crackle when they started playing
Fixed issues with time step flickering in single steps
Fixed collision issue with 85m asteroid created with Body Launcher (1 key)
Radius now interpolates visually when changing material sliders without first
changing radius
Fixed bug in which new stars in solar system didn't have attraction
Corrected Earth starting temperature
Corrected temperature variables for emissivity calculations (climate)
Numerous changes to logging for better debugging
Headings in Home Main can now be expanded/collapsed
User sims no longer appear when filter isnt selected
Fixed Wolf 359 visualization
Glow from gas giants now shows when overlapping other gas giants
Earth now retains texture when adding then removing hydrogen
Removed second Pluto
Small collision particles no longer become invisible if they have a very small
radius
Added -singlecore as a startup option
Commandline switch -SafeMode also enables -singlecore compatibility