ChrisBAshton / solar-system-webgl

This is a solar system in WebGL, made for a university assignment. It scored 89%.

CS32310 - Advanced Computer Graphics assignment

The assignment, worth 50% of the module, requires visualising a 3D animated solar system in WebGL.

Instructions

Run:

cd assignment

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Then go to http://localhost:8000/source/ to see the solar system, or http://localhost:8000/api-docs/ to see the documentation.

Hooks

The program adds a webgl_solarsystem__loaded class to the body to tell you when all the assets have finished loading. You can hook into this and add your own loading gifs, etc.

The loading gif I use in the example is taken from the BBC's iframe scaffold.

Maintenance

I use Grunt to make sure my JavaScript is linted and to generate my documentation. To replicate this on your machine:

• download and install Node.js, and then Grunt
• cd into this directory
• Install the node modules (npm install)
• You can now run grunt to run the automated processes.

Acknowledgements

Orbit distances taken from:

http://www.northern-stars.com/solar_system_distance_scal.htm

Orbit periods and rotation periods taken from:

http://www.windows2universe.org/our_solar_system/planets_table.html

Planet sizes taken from:

http://www.universetoday.com/36649/planets-in-order-of-size/

Planet axes taken from:

http://www.astronomynotes.com/tables/tablesb.htm

Jupiter's Galilean moons info taken from:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/J/Jupitermoons.html

Saturn's rings info taken from:

http://cseligman.com/text/planets/saturnrings.htm

Planet texture maps were taken from:

http://planetpixelemporium.com/

Lots of code taken from/inspired by various lessons at:

http://learningwebgl.com/blog/?page_id=1217

Phong shading very much taken from:

http://learningwebgl.com/blog/?p=1658