UniverX!

The 3D Solar System Simulator.

Versión española

What is it?

UniverX is an interactive software which simulates the Solar System. It shows visually all planets moving and rotating, and allows the user of the application to set the camera in any position in real time. Several other parameters are adjustable, like time scale, planet scale...

These are the most relevant features about the program:

Screenshots

Better an image than a thousand words... here they are (click to zoom):






Requirements

The program works on any system with OpenGL. We provide precompiled binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. It should be easy to compile it for another systems with Glut support.

Any card with 64Mb or higher, and proccessors about 500Mhz should be enough to run it smooth.

Under linux you need DRI support enabled and working for better performance.

Download!

You can download any release from our SourceForge's project page.

Note that there are no binary releases for linux. This is because it is very difficult to make a single version for all distributions. If you can make a package for your favourite distribution, please send it to me and I will publish it here.

Source Code: UniverX-0.1-src.tgzs

This program is released under the GPL license, feel free to use it, modify it, share it with your friends... In fact, you should do it!

Usage

The usage is very simple. Just launch it and you will get a default view of the planets. Then you can rotate the view by click and drag with left mouse button, and zoom with middle button (or holding shift and left clicking for mac users). With a right mouse button click you can open a context menu which shows you all options and their shortcuts.


Using numeric keys from 0 to 9 you can select which planet to center the camera on, being 0 the Sun and 9 Pluto.

Alternatives

You should give a try to Celestia. It is a really complete program to explore the Solar System including really detailed views. UniverX intends to be much simpler and show just a global view, focusing mainly in the movement of the planets.

Developers

Developers:

TODO List

Any sugerence? Tell us.

Links

SourceForge.net Logo