5 ms·

Isn't this just... they made the planets have the correct orbit times, and retrograde motion just drops out from that?

• gs17 2y ago
  Yeah, it's impressive that they bothered to animate them with the correct ratio of periods, but it's not like they had to add epicycles.
• QuercusMax 2y ago
  When I took the sophomore-level Computer Graphics class as an undergrad in 2001, the final project was to build a solar system simulator in OpenGL. It didn't have to be especially faithful (all orbits perfectly round, don't care about starting positions, etc). The most complicated part was implementing a view from a planet's surface which would rotate at the proper rate for the given planet. This was not a difficult assignment (for me, can't say anything about my classmates!). Making it marginally more accurate for a real product would only have been a bit more effort.
  • antithesizer 2y ago
    Saty?
    • QuercusMax 2y ago
      I don't know who that is... I went to Kent State.