Gravity simulators

[Camacha]

With the release of the Universe Sandbox² alpha people interested in space flight and space in general got a great looking new toy to play with. However, despite physics being improved compared to the first version of the program, there are probably more accurate and comprehensive simulators out there. I have had a look around and could come up with several that seem to have various goals and performance when it comes to physics and graphics. I found programs like MPL3D, which seems like a Universe Sandbox competitor, and AstroGrav, which seems a little more concerned with accurate physics and less with a snazzy user interface. Of course, another option is to write something yourself, but that is something easier said than done if you want to do it right and probably overshooting the mark a little bit for most people.

I can imagine more people have been tinkering with this, so I curious what you came up with. It might be interesting to create a list of available options with the pros and cons of various programs.

[Camacha]

Let me kick off with what I am looking for: I would like to have some software that enables you to do fairly accurate simulations, is reasonably affordable and that is somewhat understandable. It does not have to run real-time - maybe it is even better if it does not - and graphics are required only as far as they are needed to view results in an understandable manner. Of course, it should be capable of running on (fast) consumer grade hardware, no sense in fiddling with something that can only be run on supercomputers or large farms (although I would love to hear about software that does).

Edited August 28, 2014 by Camacha

[Camacha]

I know people are fooling around with these, so I would love to hear what you are using

[mangekyou-sama]

Lately I've been playing with Universe Sandbox 2 for my simulations (featured in my other thread). For pure exploration on the other hand, I use SpaceEngine.

Universe Sandbox 2 has pretty much everything I need, except maybe improved collision graphics and proper daylight simulation (I deleted the sun once but there's still illumination as if it was still there). Then again, it's still in alpha so I expect those changes in the future.

[Camacha]

Universe Sandbox 2 has pretty much everything I need, except maybe improved collision graphics and proper daylight simulation (I deleted the sun once but there's still illumination as if it was still there). Then again, it's still in alpha so I expect those changes in the future.

Sandbox Universe² needs some polishing indeed, especially the galaxies still need a lot of love. The combination of KSP, SpaceEngine and Sandbox Universe² is a wonderful combination that teaches you a lot and also conveys the scale of things unlike other methods (especially SE). Yet I cannot shake the feeling that SU² takes, for a number of reasons, a couple of shortcuts. However cool it already is, I must add.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Camacha