Week 8 Update

Overview

We are at a point now where the app is just about done. We made a lot of progress over the last couple weeks and just this morning (Monday of Week 9) sent the app to a physics teacher for beta testing with his students.

Progress

One major change I made was updating the launch simulation to be more realistic. I incorporated the Runga Kutta method instead of Euler’s Method to provide more accuracy with less processing. The code used can be found here:

https://github.com/njwidmann/OrbitSimulator/blob/master/core/src/com/application/orbit/LaunchSimulation.java

I also finished adding functionality to the menu buttons. They now all do what they’re supposed to do on click. Jiho also got the icons set up and I implemented those in as well. In addition, I added tooltips that pop up when someone mouses over a button and I added messages that show up to alert the user with the selected body and warnings such as when a body isn’t selected.

New Menu Icons

Messge overlay showing selected body (Body_1) and alert

Tooltip explaining function of scale button

Here’s the code for the menu:

https://github.com/njwidmann/OrbitSimulator/blob/master/core/src/com/application/orbit/HUD.java

And here’s the code for the message overlay:

https://github.com/njwidmann/OrbitSimulator/blob/master/core/src/com/application/orbit/MessageOverlay.java

Ebed made an assortment of 10 skins to put on the bodies. He made them different colors but all similar so that they would look consistent. Below is a texture atlas with 9 of them. I then put them into the app and set it up so that they would be randomly put on a body every time one was created.

Texture atlas of 9 body skins

The last major change I made was making it so that the app can be used online. I contacted the computer science department here at Drexel and they helped set me up with a free website. I then used Android Studio and libGDX to export the app in html form (see FAQ for a how-to). The app can be found and used here:

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~njw59/

I then sent the app to my high school physics teacher who said he would test it out with his students over the next few days. Ebed created a survey that the students will fill out so that we can decide what changes need to be made. Here’s the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BTTTJS9

Future Plans

In the next week, we need to plan out our presentation and finish our report. We will compile and analyse the results of the survey to do the results section of our report. We’re hoping we get nominated for the poster fair that will take place at the end of next week. Only one group from our section will make it.