Planets 3D

The purpose of Planets 3D is to show a simulation of our solar system. The focus lies on a nice graphic (3D OpenGL) and the possibility to modify the objects of the solar system to see what happens.

This program is written on Linux using C++. In theory it should be portable to windows, because I've used only plattform independent libraries. Anyone who tries to port it please contact me even if unsuccessful, perhaps I can help overcome arising errors.
By now there is included a small program which converts different coordinate systems into each other. It is called Astroconvert.

Features of Planets3D are:

simulate the development of the solar system based on calculations of the gravity power
take screenshots
load and save solar systems
modify solarsystem
switch between different cameras to view the solar system (e.g. look through a shuttle window)

Platform: Linux, but it should also Compile under Windows (Libraries used are available under Windows)
Uses: OpenGL
Programming language: C++
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Libraries used

QT
OpenGL
Glut
DevIL (available at sourceforge)

Programming Environment

Debian Linux (unstable)
gcc3.3
QT 3.2/ qmake
AMD Athlon 1 GHz/ AMD Athlon PowerNow 2200+
IDE: Gideon

You can get either the cvs version via anonymous checkout:

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/planets3d co opengl

this gets the appliction and the needed camera library. Follow the instructions in

opengl/INSTALL

for instructions about the install process.
Or you can download the latest snapshot from sourceforge download area.

Screenshots

The GUI:

Modifying the solar system:

Author: Benjamin Mesing
last updated: 2004-01-20

Background picture sligthly modified from http://deimos.physics.uiowa.edu/labimage/observational/galaxies/hst-far4.gif