Solar System Model (Pygame)

A simple interactive solar system visualization built with Python and Pygame.

Demonstration

Explanation

It renders:

• A sun at the center of the world
• Multiple planets orbiting the sun
• Orbit rings for each planet
• A starfield background with slower camera movement for a parallax effect

Features

• Real-time orbit animation
• Camera movement with WASD
• Mouse-wheel zoom in and out
• Zoom-aware planet distances and orbit circles

Project Structure

• src/system.py: Main loop, input handling, camera, rendering order
• src/planet.py: Planet orbit math and drawing
• src/star.py: Background star rendering

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• pygame

Setup

1. Create a virtual environment (optional but recommended): python -m venv venv
2. Activate it: Windows PowerShell: .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
3. Install dependencies: pip install pygame

Run From the Solar-system-model folder: python src/system.py

Controls

• W: Move camera up
• A: Move camera left
• S: Move camera down
• D: Move camera right
• Mouse wheel up: Zoom in
• Mouse wheel down: Zoom out
• Close window: Exit simulation

Notes

• Zoom is clamped to a min and max range to keep rendering stable.
• Stars use a slower camera offset than planets/sun to create depth.