Game of Gravity

Forum Attachments

Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 03 Oct 2008 02:52

I thought of an idea for an interesting thinking game. I was sitting and started thinking about gravity and outer space and thought up this: Guide a pixel into a box by using gravity centers in a vacuum. For example, a pixel might start on one end of a screen with a box on the other. The player must place four gravity pixels at different strengths on the field that, when activated, will guide the pixel to the box. It's a challenge, but it seems fun. I suppose the hardest part would be the massive amount of calculations needed which would make the game slow. The graphics are basic (a few pixels; wow), but that would make it faster. Does this idea sound feasible?

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

builderboy 03 Oct 2008 03:02

like this?
http://www.flasharcade.com/arcade-games/sputnik-game.html

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 03 Oct 2008 03:12

A lot like that game. Actually, adding planets with repelling gravity (which is physically impossible) would make the game more interesting.

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

architeuthiskid 03 Oct 2008 05:09

Maybe some black holes, and wormholes too? The graphics for this game might be pretty hard, if you want to make it high
quality, and the mathematics might be hard to do with the limited commands in the TIOS… Sorry for being pessimistic.

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 03 Oct 2008 13:37

Wormholes are a nice idea, but black holes (in theory) would eat the screen with their immense gravity. Unless, of course, that was nullified for the purpose of the game. For the calculations, the two that would be most significant are the inverse square law and w=mg. With a vacuum, there is almost no friction, so that's no problem. And the graphics don't need to be extreme since the calculations would slow it down. Maybe a four-pixel ship and four-pixel planets.

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

p06 03 Oct 2008 15:35

hm… how about using the idea of fields?

have 2 huge matrices with each value representing the acceleration experienced at that point (x and y direction respectively). whenever a planet/star/we is placed, use loops to add a preset pattern of numbers to the entries of the matrices around that point. Whenever the object passes through a pixel, the values of the corresponding entry in the matrix is added to the x and y velocity variable of the object…

Like simple example here:

00000
00000
00000 we have an empty field here

-1-1-1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 0 0 matrix for y acceleration field

1 0 -1 0 0
1 0 -1 0 0
1 0 -1 0 0 matrix for x acceleration field

If the object is within the 9 squares, its velocity would be changed and it falls towards the center.

Have bigger matrices with more elaborate patterns for more massive objects.

All this is done while the objects are placed, hence actual animation during the simulation is (relatively) smooth.

Possible problems: takes up memory, max size of matrix, problems due to object being too fast (jumps through certain points in a field) or too slow (repeated accumulation of velocity in one single point)

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 03 Oct 2008 18:21

Maybe we could have one matrix with decimal parts and use iPart( and fPart( for the x and y velocities. That itself poses a small problem (negative y velocity), but I think the major problem is the matrix being 62x94 which is so much memory it's ridiculous. Actually, it kills the memory. So, the main problem becomes fixing that. The field can instead be divided into quadpixel format which makes the matrix 31x42, which of course is still ridiculous, but better. Any smaller, and the game begins to become too small. We have to remember the extent of a planet's field and the decay rate and use a net force to determine the acceleration. The pixel going to slow is okay, since it is acceleration being calculated, but going to fast poses the "skipping planet" problem. I think that after some careful considerations and good planning, the game might actually be possible.

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

builderboy 03 Oct 2008 18:50

I had just written a test program that worked for an arbitrary amount of planets, and used no matrices.
this is basicaly how it worked

ZoomFit
ZoomInt
0→X        //Starting Position
0→Z
0→A
0→B

{1, 10→L1        //Planets
{10, -10→L2

PntOn(1, 10
PntOn(10, -10

While 1            //Loop Forever

For(F, 1, Dim(L1            //For all of the plannets
L1(F→V
L2(F→W
1/(40sqrt((V-X)²+(W-Z)²)→R        //Distance inverted (Force gets smaller as distance gets bigger)
A+R(V-X→A
B+R(W-Z→B                //Applied In the direction
End

PntOff(X,Z,2
X+A→X                    //Aplying the new vectors
Z+B→Z
PntOn(X,Z,2
End

Last edited on 03 Oct 2008 22:09 by builderboy Show more

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 03 Oct 2008 21:24

Pretty good way of using points to indicate gravity, but the numbers kept getting too big too fast.
Using your idea of points, I created a small test that increases the speed of the point as it nears a planet and decreases as it goes away, and it works for multiple planets. Thing is, (and ironically enough) the ship doesn't go towards the planets. It just moves on a slope of about 1.
It works like this

:ClrDraw
:0→Xmin:1→(delta)X
:0→Ymin:1→(delta)Y
:6→dim(L1
:3→L1(1
:4→L1(2
:For(C,3,5,2
:Input
:X→L1(C
:Y→L1(C+1
:End
:For(C,1,5,2
:Pt-On(L1(C),L1(C+1
:End
:While 1
:0→A:0→B
:For(C,3,5,2
:sqrt((L1(C)-L1(1))+(L1(C+1)-L1(2))^2→D
:A+200/(D^2→A
:B+200/(D^2→B
:End
:Pt-Off(L1(1),L1(2
:L1(1)+A→L1(1
:L1(2)+B→L1(2
:Pt-On(L1(1),L1(2
:End

I think that with this general principle with a few adjustments, the ship might do what we want it to do.

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

builderboy 03 Oct 2008 22:13

would the numbers be getting so large that they overflow the calculator by any chance?
I misplaced a ( and thats what ended up happening. I fixed it, and it should work now.

And your code acts strangely on my calculator
A and B get up to 13 and above.

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 04 Oct 2008 00:46

Yeah, it was getting an overflow, but it is fixed now. The code does work quite well, but the planets must have variating strengths because as the ship nears a planet, its chances of going into the planet should increase.

On mine, A and B do end up reaching over thirteen because the planets are immense. The 200 makes the A and B very large, but that number can be changed (hence the difference of the planet strengths). I had it that high so the animation could be seen cleanly. Otherwise, the numbers were quite small. Using a part of your code, I added direction to mine. With two planets, the ship has trouble identifying which one is closer, and it goes the average of the two which is a problem. Here is the new code:

:ClrDraw
:0→Xmin:1→(delta)X
:0→Ymin:1→(delta)Y:0→E:0→F
:6→dim(L1
:3→L1(1
:4→L1(2
:For(C,3,5,2
:Input
:X→L1(C
:Y→L1(C+1
:End
:For(C,1,5,2
:Pt-On(L1(C),L1(C+1
:End
:While 1
:0→A:0→B
:For(C,3,5,2
:sqrt((L1(C)-L1(1))+(L1(C+1)-L1(2))^2→D
:A+1/(D^2→A
:B+1/(D^2→B
:E+A(L1(C)-L1(1)→E
:F+B(L1(C+1)-L1(2)→F
:End
:Pt-Off(L1(1),L1(2
:L1(1)+E→L1(1
:L1(2)+F→L1(2
:Pt-On(L1(1),L1(2
:End

Now, it will go faster towards planets until it passes one and come back after undergoing deceleration. When it collides with a planet, the pixel flies into oblivion somewhere…somewhere…
Does this work a little better?

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

ibly31 23 Oct 2008 21:00

When i ran that on my calculator, it said ERR: NONREAL ANS , which makes me think you're trying to sqrt(a negative). Maybe do abs(#) and then depending on if it was negative or positive first, change it back so…

:1->B
:sqrt(blah blah blah abs(B->D
:If B >= 0:-D->D
:blah blah blah

Re: Game of Gravity

Timothy Foster 23 Oct 2008 22:43

Well, my calculator is on mode ai+b so that it can handle imaginary answers.

---

~Timothy

---

Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me

Re: Game of Gravity

noahbaby94 23 Oct 2008 22:51

Yes I see some of those errors but I would deal with it with this code.

real(L₁→L₁

Then it doesn't effect negatives.

---

Join Codeworld.
Also check out my blog.

Re: Game of Gravity

Matthias1992 14 Apr 2009 09:22

i cannot find the sqrt function anywhere…help?

---

Re: Game of Gravity

Weregoose 14 Apr 2009 13:09

If you're stuck, ask Google for help.

You'll find that "sqrt" is an easy-to-type replacement for the "√" symbol.