USER MANUAL

INTRODUCTION

Note about scientific accuracy

THE INITIAL MENU

STARTING THE APPLICATION

Handling philosophy

CONTROLS AND FUNCTIONS

1.- MOUSE CONTROLS

Orbital camera

Free camera

Mouse controls layout

2.- KEYBOARD CONTROLS

2.1.- CAMERA CONTROLS

Planet shortcuts

Handling the camera

Camera controls keyboard layout

2.2.- TIME CONTROLS

Entering dates manually

Time controls keyboard layout

2.3.- DATA CONTROLS

Data controls keyboard layout

2.4.- SPECIAL CONTROLS

The main menu

The planet gallery

Reducing orbits

Special controls keyboard layout

CONFIGURATION

Additional note about TV or monitor adjustment

NAVIGATION AND OBJECT SELECTION

1.- ENTERING AND LEAVING SYSTEMS

Leaving the Solar System

Visiting extrasolar systems

2.- SEQUENTIAL NAVIGATION

Automatic sequential advance

3.- SELECTING OBJECTS

3.1.- SELECTING A VISIBLE OBJECT

3.2.- USING THE OBJECT SELECTOR

The star selector

Activate or deactivate the selection

Nebulae, clusters, and galaxies selectors

4.- FREE NAVIGATION

5.- RANDOM NAVIGATION

6.- RETURNING HOME

IMPORTANT WARNING

How to use and handle video games

APPENDIX I: Description of scientific codes

APPENDIX II: Minimum recommended system requirements

APPENDIX III: MPL3D Solar System v1.2 -  Menu Options & Features

CREDITS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to MPL3D Solar System, a real-time simulation about our close Universe.

The objective of the simulation is to provide a visual tool, with easy handling, to increase the user's understanding about the place that we hold in the Universe.

You can visit the stars with a simple mouse click, select the ones you want to see, and observe their evolution through time. It is also possible to visit most of the known planets, inside and outside our own Solar System. Likewise, most known nebulae and star clusters are represented, as well as several galaxies.

Note about scientific accuracy

Real data has been used to represent all visitable stars, planets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies, and most of them can be observed at night with the naked eye. Best practices have been used to calculate derived data when needed, using real data to obtain it. However, there are other scientific approaches that may output different results. Artistic concepts have been applied for those bodies with unknown appearance, or to enhance the user's perception about some particular phenomenon.

THE INITIAL MENU

When the application starts, this screen is shown:

There are four options to choose from:

STARTING THE APPLICATION

Press 'Start' from the initial menu.

When the simulation begins, the Earth will be shown at its current position in space, inside the Solar System. The camera orbits the Earth with mouse movement.

Handling philosophy

Handling philosophy is very simple: with the 'left mouse button' you advance to the next celestial body, with the 'right mouse button' you reverse to the previous celestial body, and while pressing the 'center wheel mouse button' you switch between orbital camera and free camera.

This way, if we press the 'left mouse button' when we are watching Earth, we will travel to the Moon. Whereas if we press the 'right mouse button', we will travel to Venus:

In the same manner, we can have access to all Solar System planets and their moons. The different modes for direct access to these celestial bodies are explained further on.

To access the main menu, press the 'space bar'. If you want to quit the simulation, press 'Escape'.

CONTROLS AND FUNCTIONS

When you press the 'Controls' button, this screen is shown:

With this screen you can open the mouse and keyboard control layouts.

Although most of the basic functions can be controlled with the mouse, the keyboard controls provide important functions such as changing time speed or returning to the Solar System.

 

1.- MOUSE CONTROLS

Mouse movement is used to move the camera in orbital mode, and to orientate the camera in free mode. The possible actions are explained here:

ACTION / MODE	ORBITAL CAMERA	FREE CAMERA
MOUSE MOVEMENT	Moves camera around the orbited body.	Orientates camera to the pointed direction.
LEFT BUTTON CLICK	Next celestial body.	Click: Select object. Keep pressed: Rotates camera in Z axis.
RIGHT BUTTON CLICK	Previous celestial body.	Object selection request. Cancel object selection request.
CENTRAL WHEEL CLICK	Switch to free camera mode.	Switch to orbital camera mode.
CENTRAL WHEEL DOUBLE CLICK	Cancel actual trip.	-
USING CENTRAL WHEEL	Gets the camera closer and farther from the orbited body.	Increases or decreases camera zoom.

As you can see, the 'center wheel mouse button' is used to switch to free camera mode when in orbital camera mode, and vice-versa.

 

The orbital camera

The orbital camera is the default camera mode in the simulation. In this mode, the camera always points to the center of the celestial body orbited at that moment.

If orbital camera mode is not set, switch to it at any time by pressing the 'center wheel mouse button' (or 'Enter' key).

Mouse movement, in orbital camera mode, moves the camera around the orbited body.

Roll the 'mouse wheel' to change the orbiting distance. Hold 'Shift' for a higher speed or 'Right Control' for a smooth movement.

The right and left button clicks are used for advancing forward or backward, respectively, between the celestial bodies, as described in section "Handling philosophy".

To know more in detail about the sequential navigation order and the object selection operation, review the "Sequential navigation" and "Navigation and object selection" sections.

Read the "Handling the camera" section to know about the handling of the orbital camera using the keyboard.

 

The free camera

Enter the free camera mode by pressing the 'center wheel mouse button' (or 'F' key). In this mode, mouse movement is used for pointing the camera, while the 'arrow keys' are used for moving:

 

To know more about free camera mode, visit the "Free Navigation" section.

 

Mouse controls layout

 

2.- KEYBOARD CONTROLS

All the additional funtions of the program are controlled with the keyboard. These are divided in four categories:

2.1.- CAMERA CONTROLS

2.2.- TIME CONTROLS

2.3.- DATA CONTROLS

2.4.- SPECIAL CONTROLS

Each one of them is described here:

 

2.1.- CAMERA CONTROLS

The function of each key may vary according to the current camera mode. Those variations are described here:

KEY / MODE	ORBITAL & FREE	ORBITAL CAMERA	FREE CAMERA
F1	Orbit the Sun.	-	-
F2...F12	In a system with orbiting bodies (or barycenters), the camera orbits the body nº.	-	-
UP ARROW	-	Moves camera near the orbited object.	Moves camera forward.
DOWN ARROW	-	Moves camera away from the orbited object.	Moves camera backward.
RIGHT ARROW	Moves camera right.	-	-
LEFT ARROW	Moves camera left.	-	-
INSERT	-	Moves near the orbited object - minimum distance.	-
DELETE	-	Moves away from the orbited object - minimum distance.	-
START	-	Moves near the orbited object - medium distance.	-
END	-	Moves away from the orbited object - medium distance.	-
PREVIOUS PAGE	-	Moves near the orbited object - maximum distance.	-
NEXT PAGE	-	Moves away from the orbited object - maximum distance.	-
INTRO	-	-	Switch to orbital camera mode.
F	-	Switch to free camera mode.	-
U	-	Moves camera up.	Orientates camera upwards.
J	-	Moves camera down.	Orientates camera downwards.
I	-	-	Moves camera up.
K	-	-	Moves camera down.
, (comma)	-	-	Orientates camera leftwards.
. (period)	-	-	Orientates camera rightwards.
RIGHT CONTROL	Decrease camera speed. Press at the same time as movement keys.	-	-
SHIFT	Increase camera speed. Press at the same time as movement keys. (The longer the movement keys and/or the 'Shift' key are kept pressed, the faster the camera will move.	-	-
Z	Activates or deactivates the automatic magnification (or zoom). When activated (by default), after using the magnification, it decreases automatically to the normal magnification.	-	-

 

Planet shortcuts

To go directly to a planet without using sequential navigation, press the corresponding function key from inside of a system: 'F2' being the first planet or center of mass, and 'F12' the last possible.

The shortcut keys to planets only work inside the system itself. To know how to enter or exit systems, see "Entering and leaving systems".

Planets cannot be selected directly with the object selectors (although their stars can), but they can always be selected as a visible object from the free camera.

To facilitate the visual localization of the planets, activate the names with the 'N' key. Also, orbits can be reduced with the 'S' key. Increasing ambiental light from the configuration menu facilitates the location and the visualization of the planets as well.

If you want to view an extrasolar planet, select its star with the star selector and travel to the system to visit it directly or sequentially.

These are the function keys values for the planet shortcuts inside the Solar System:

KEY	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	F7	F8	F9	F10	F11	F12
PLANET	Mercury	Venus	Earth	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus	Neptune	Pluto	Comet Halley	Asteroid Belt (only if activated)

 

Handling the camera

The most useful keys for handling the camera are the 'arrow keys'. They are used for getting the camera closer to or farther from a selected object. The keys corresponding to getting closer/farther in predetermined gaps are: 'Insert/Delete', 'Home/End', and 'Previous page/Next page'.

The predetermined gap keys are designed to save time in the movement of the camera, and to avoid having to press the arrow keys too many times in order to get closer or farther:

For example, 'Previous page' will locate us as near as possible to the orbited object, normally until it fills most of the screen. If you try to keep on getting closer from orbital camera, the camera magnification or zoom will activate.

Its opposite key is 'Next page'. It takes us as far away as possible from the orbited object. The maximum orbit distance depends of the kind of orbited object. Whilst for the galaxies the maximum distance is half a million light years; for the standard stars, the maximum distance is about 15,000 light years. For planets and moons or stars with orbits, the maximum distance is 100 astronomic units (A.U.).

If you wish to get closer or farther with an intermediate distance, use 'Home' and 'End' respectively. For instance, for the stars it allows you to get farther or closer in gaps of 100 light years, while for the planets the gaps are of 10 astronomic units.

Finally, 'Insert' and 'Delete' get closer or farther in minimum gaps, respectively. For the stars the minimum gap is 10 light years, while for the planets the minimum gap is 1 A.U. (the distance between the Earth and the Sun).

During the automatic transition of the camera, the text "Travelling" will be shown at the central bottom side of the screen. While the text remains in the screen, the camera won't obey mouse orders. However, if you wish to cancel the trip at anytime, it can be cancelled by pressing 'Up arrow' or 'Down arrow'.

The trip can also be cancelled by switching to free camera mode, which is done by pressing the 'F' key or clicking the 'wheel mouse button'. If you wish to cancel the trip with the mouse while staying in orbital camera mode, simply double click the 'wheel mouse button'.

The automatic camera transition will leave you orbiting at the same distance that you were orbiting the previous body, or at the current distance, if you are nearer than the previous orbiting distance.

To speed up the camera hold down 'Shift', while to slow it down, hold down 'Right Control'.

 

Keyboard camera controls layout

 

2.2.- TIME CONTROLS

Advancing forward or backward in time within the simulation can be controlled with these keys:

KEY	FUNCTION	Comments
+ (plus)	Increase speed to the next factor.	Maximum factor 10.
- (minus)	Decrease speed to the next factor.	Minimum factor -10.
RIGHT CONTROL	Small factor increasing.	Press at the same time as '+' or '-' to get inter-factors values.
* (asterisk)	Sets to normal speed.	1 second in the simulation is equal to 1 second in the real world.
0 (zero)	Return to the current date and hour and set normal speed.	Represents the current location of the celestial bodies.
E	Enter date. A menu will be shown to enter the desired date.	The limits go from the 1st of January of 1800 to the 31st of december of 2199.

There are 20 speed factors that can be changed with '+' and '-' keys ('plus' and 'minus'): 10 positive speed factors to advance time (from +1 to +10), and 10 negative speed factors to reverse time (from -1 to -10).

To increase or decrease time speed with smaller amounts, hold down 'Right Control' while pressing '+' or '-' ('plus' or 'minus').

 

Enter dates manually

A date and a time can be entered directly to locate the celestial bodies at a specific moment. On pressing the 'E' key, the next screen shows up:

Enter the desired date and time in their corresponding fields, or press the calendar button to choose a date from it. Choose the desired date from the calendar and press 'Accept' to return to the previous screen.

On entering the time, that value is taken as the local time for the time zone set in the operating system. That is, you have to enter the time that your local clock shows. Universal Time (UT) will be calculated automatically.

 

Keyboard time controls layout

 

2.3.- DATA CONTROLS

The information that the program shows can be displayed or hidden with the following keys:

KEY	FUNCTION	Comments
TAB	Shows or hides time information.	Includes actual local date and time, simulation date and time, Universal Time (UT) and date, and the actual time speed factor of the simulation.
N	Switch between showing names, showing names + data, and hide all.	Press to switch between the different options.
D	Show scientific data.	When names + data is activated, it will show the available scientific data.
C	Switch between showing constellations, showing constellations + constellation boundaries, and hide all.	Press to switch between the different options. The constellation boundaries can only be seen from the Solar System. If you travel outside the Solar System, only the constellation of the currently orbited star will be shown.
O	Shows or hides planet orbits.	In multiple star systems, star orbits and star barycenters are represented.

The time information will be shown in the left upper part of the screen, while the data of each celestial body shows up underneath them.

The information showed for each object depends on the kind of object we are orbiting.

When names are activated, if an activated selection exists and if we are near enough, the name will show up at all the stars and celestial objects that fulfill the established conditions. (To select stars or other objects, establish and activate or deactivate selection conditions see "Using the object selector").

 

Keyboard data controls layout

 

 

2.3.- SPECIAL CONTROLS

There are certain additional functions to handle the application. The most important is the 'space bar' that opens the main menu, and the 'M' key that is used for marking or unmarking the object selection made at the selectors.

KEY	FUNCTION	Comments
SPACE BAR	Show main menu.	Used for accesing the object selectors, configuration, controls and credits.
M	Mark or unmark selected objects.	Activates or deactivates the established selection at the object selectors. Marking the selection allows the sequential navigation with orbital camera through the selected objects with minimum effort.
LEFT CONTROL	Go to the next kind of object.	It is used for orbiting the next kind of object. The order of the types is: Stars->Singularity->Nebulae->Clusters->Galaxies.
G	Activate or deactivate planet gallery.	Presents all the bodies of a system in order.
S	Activate or deactivate reduced orbits.	Reduces orbits in size for better observation. There are three sizes to choose from: normal, medium, and minimum.
P	Save the current screen to disk.	The current screen is saved at "Screenshots" directory. The file name results from the orbited object and the simulation date. The file type is .bmp.
R	Activate or deactivate random travel.	The simulation will travel randomly through the celestial bodies, staying 20 seconds on each of them. It is possible to continue using the mouse, the camera controls, data, time, etc.
W	Activate or deactivate the automatic sequential travel.	The simulation will travel sequentially through the selected celestial bodies, staying 20 seconds at each of them. It is possible to continue using the mouse, the camera controls, data, time, etc.
A	Activates or deactivate the auto-orbit function.	It automatically orbits the selected celestial body. It is possible to continue using the mouse, the camera controls, data, time, etc.
`, ~ (grave accent, tilde)	Show or hide statistics	Shows or hides exploration statistics about the visited bodies in the simulation.
ESCAPE	Quit from the simulation.	To quit from the simulation, press accept in the confirmation dialog.

 

The main menu

By pressing the 'space bar' in the simulation, the main menu, which can be used to access the object selectors, controls layouts, configuration and credits, will be shown as follows:

Press any button to open the corresponding option or press the arrow at the bottom-left corner to return to the simulation.

 

 

The planet gallery

The planet gallery orderly disposes all the bodies that orbit in a determined system. This allows an easy comparison between the size and aspects of planets and moons of a system.

The planet gallery is activated by pressing the 'G' key. For instance, at the Solar System, the planets and moons will be arranged as follows:

The camera automatically selects the first planet as the object (in this case Mercury), and switches to orbital mode.

This function is also available for systems with extrasolar planets and for binary and multiple star systems; in the latter case, the stars that conform the systems will be shown in order in the same way as the planets of other systems.

If you wish to leave planet gallery, press 'G' again.

 

Reducing orbits

In most of the systems, the celestial bodies are too separated for practical comparisons. To understand the orbits and positions of these celestial bodies more clearly, orbital radii can be reduced by using the 'S' key.

During the process orbit reduction, the controls become momentarily frozen. It is recommended to activate the planet orbits plot by pressing 'O' to appreciate the transition between the different size options.

There are three size options: normal, medium, and minimum. Use the 'S' key to switch between them.

The size of the planets or stars doesn´t change except for the minimum size of the Solar System, in which the size of the Sun is reduced for a better observation:

This function is also available for systems with extrasolar planets, and for multiple or binary star systems.

The reduced size doesn't change orbital periods, and all simulation controls are still available.

 

Special controls keyboard layout

 

CONFIGURATION

The simulation can be configured to show more or less detail to adapt it to the performance of your computer. You can access the configuration screen from the initial menu or from the simulation menu by pressing the 'space bar' and then the 'Configuration' button. The following screen will be opened:

If you click at the bottom-right corner arrow, the following additional options will be opened:

These are the available options:

(*) The 'Resolution', 'Object quality' and 'Texture quality' options can only be changed BEFORE the simulation starts. If you want to change these values, close the simulation and make any changes at the configuration screen before pressing the 'Start' button.

Note that on certain video cards some special effects cannot be turned off once they are activated. If you desire to ensure these type of changes, please restart the application.

When the desired changes have been made, press 'Accept' to save them, or 'Cancel' to discard them.

Additional note about TV or monitor calibration:

It may happen that you need to adjust your monitor's brightness for an optimum visualization. You can check this with the following image:

If you can see the halo surrounding the galaxy, while keeping the external side black, the calibration of your monitor is correct and it will allow you to appreciate all of the details in the simulation, as well as the dimmest stars.

NAVIGATION AND OBJECT SELECTION

There are different ways to travel across the simulation. In the following sections, each one of them is described.

1.- ENTERING AND LEAVING SYSTEMS

When the simulation starts, we are inside our Solar System. Planets can be visited, as well as any other represented celestial body.

Our Solar System is a set of celestial bodies that orbit the Sun. In the simulation, these celestial bodies are the planets, some of their moons, Comet Halley, and the asteroid belt (only if activated; to activate the asteroid belt, go to the "Configuration" menu).

There are many systems represented in the simulation. They can be stars with extrasolar planets or multiple or binary stars, known as star systems.

Leaving the Solar System

To leave the Solar System, the camera must get far away enough from the Sun. Once outside the Solar System, neither the planets cannot be seen, nor their names, their data, and their respective orbits. Also, the "Planet shortcuts" will not be available.

There are different ways to leave the Solar System:

To enter the Solar System, just get close enough to the Sun.

The planets will be shown again, their names, their data, and their orbits (only if activated using the 'N' and 'O' keys, respectively. See "Data controls").

Visiting extrasolar systems

Within an extrasolar system it is possible to visit their components, whether those components are planets or other stars.

To enter or leave an extrasolar system, follow the same procedures from the previous section. That is, select the main star from the system and travel to it. See"Entering the Solar System" and"Leaving the Solar System". To select a star see "Selecting objects".

An extrasolar system has been entered when the camera is close enough to discern its celestial bodies, their orbits or their names, and data.

The needed distance to enter or leave an extrasolar system depends on the distance between its components. For most systems with planets, this distance is about 1,000 astronomic units or A.U. (1,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun), although for multiple and binary star systems the distance can be much greater.

2.- SEQUENTIAL NAVIGATION

From orbital camera mode, the camera can be moved forward or backward sequentially by the celestial bodies in the simulation with the 'left and right mouse buttons', respectively. This is described in the "Orbital camera" section.

The precise order of sequential navigation is defined as follows:

Inside a system, all existing celestial bodies are observed. So when advancing sequentially, all planets, moons, or companion stars within the current system are visited.

When the last celestial body of the system is reached, clicking on the left mouse button will lead us to the next system, star, or object, that falls into the current object selection. The initial selection when starting the program includes all celestial objects (to know how to select objects, see the "Selecting objects" section).

If you are not inside a system (whether it is the Solar System or any other extrasolar system), the camera travels directly to the next star or celestial body. That is, if the camera is too far away to distinguish the planets or components of a system, sequential navigation will take us directly to the next star or celestial body. To know how to enter or leave the systems, see "Entering and leaving systems".

When orbiting the last object in the Solar System through sequential navigation, which is Comet Halley (or the asteroid belt, if it is activated), the next left mouse button click will take us to the first star of the constellation Andromeda, Alpha Andromedae.

Consecutive clicks will allow you to visit all of the stars in the constellation Andromeda, ordered by their Bayer/Flamsteed designation, until you reach the next constellation.

If you want to move back (advance in reverse order), click the 'right mouse button'.

When the last star of the last constellation is reached, the camera travels to the next object type. The order of the object types is as follows:

Stars-->Singularity-->Nebulae-->Clusters-->Galaxies

After the last galaxy (the Milky Way), the camera returns to the first star, our Sun. If some object type is not activated, the camera jumps to the next type. If you want to jump directly to the next object type, press the 'Left Control' key (next object type).

Automatic sequential advance

For an automatic sequential advance, press the 'W' key. Sequential navigation will endlessly advance within the current selection, stopping for 20 seconds at each celestial body. When automatic advance is used, the camera, data, time, and special controls are still available. However, some requests, like switching to free camera mode, will cancel automatic advance. To deactivate automatic advance, press 'W' again.

The time speed factor is automatically increased by a factor of 3 when activating automatic sequential advance. If you want another time speed, press the '+' (plus) or '-' (minus) keys.

3.- SELECTING OBJECTS

If you want to orbit any other body other than the current one, there are different ways to select them:

3.1.- SELECTING A VISIBLE OBJECT

In free camera mode ('wheel mouse button' or 'F' key) you can show the mouse cursor to select a visible object (1).

To show the mouse cursor, press the 'right mouse button' (2) in free camera mode. Then, place the 'mouse cursor' over the center of the object that you want to orbit (3). Its name will appear in red. Press the 'left mouse button' to select it (4):

If you want to cancel and hide the mouse cursor, simply press the right mouse button, or press the left mouse button at an empty place.

Sometimes, different names can appear together at the same location. If this happens, you can use the camera magnification or zoom by rolling the mouse wheel (magnification must be done before showing the mouse cursor) until the names are separated. The magnification will gradually return to the normal value due to automatic zoom. If you want to turn off automatic zoom, press the 'Z' key.

The asteroids, background galaxies, galaxy volume stars, and the single stars from star clusters cannot be selected individually. To select large objects like galaxies, clusters, or nebulae, place the mouse cursor at the center of the object.

 

3.2.- USING THE OBJECT SELECTOR

The object selector is a tool to differentiate which objects will be visited with sequential navigation.

Stars, nebulae, clusters, and galaxies can be selected by name or code, or by establishing certain conditions.

To set the selection conditions, proceed to the main menu using the 'space bar' and click the first option, 'Object selectors'. This screen will appear:

Next, choose which type of object are you going to filter: star, nebula, cluster, or galaxy.

 

The star selector

When clicking at the 'Star selector' this screen is shown:

 

If you want to search for a particular star, insert its name or its Henry Draper code in the "Search name" field and click the search button. With this method, a single star is selected, and the other options are not available to set the filter.

On the other side, if you want to select a group of stars based on the existing options, uncheck the "All" box in the name field. All other options will be then accessible to filter the selected stars.

To filter the stars using the options, turn off the values that you do NOT want to select (as initially "All" are selected).

For example, if you want to select spectral type "B" stars, you should deactivate the buttons for the star types O, A, F, G, K, M, and "Others". At the same time, more criteria can be applied such as specifying the variability of a star, or the number of planets.

Stars that fulfill ALL the filter conditions will be selected.

 

When clicking the bottom-right arrow button, the second condition selections screen is shown:

Stars can be filtered by constellation; the search field works in the same way as the previous screen. If you select a constellation, only stars that belong to that constellation will be selected.

Also, you can filter by distance from the Sun, size, variable factor, variable period, constellation alpha (usually the brightest star of each constellation), and binary star type.

When getting back to the simulation, a message will appear reporting the number of stars that fulfill the selection. Take into account that certain combinations can result in no star fulfilling the selected conditions.

 

Activating or deactivating the selection

The selection conditions can be activated or deactivated at any moment by pressing the 'M' key.

Once the selection is activated, sequential navigation, whether it is automatic or manual, will take us only to the set of stars or selected objects. Take into account that if you are inside a system with planets or binary companions, sequential navigation will go through all of these celestial bodies before travelling to the next star.

At any time, the initial advance order can be recovered by pressing the 'M' key again. Sequential navigation will revert back to the default advance order (Bayer/Flamsteed/Constellation) and will travel through all of the existing stars and existing object types.

Also, the selection conditions can be changed at anytime, select a visible object, etc.

 

Nebulae, clusters and galaxies selectors

The other selectors function in the same way as the star selectors. Obviously, these celestial bodies must be activated in order to travel to the selection set. To activate them, go to the "Configuration" menu.

To get access to the different selectors, open the "Object selectors" screen.

When there is any active filter set, that is to say that advance by selected objects is turned on ('M' key), sequential navigation will not advance to the next type of object (star, singularity, nebula, cluster or galaxy) unless the 'Left Control' key is pressed (next type of object). A different type of object can also be selected by selecting a visible object in free camera mode.

4.- FREE NAVIGATION

At any time you can decide to enter free camera mode ('wheel mouse button' or 'F' key). In free camera mode, the mouse movements orientate the camera. To move around, the 'arrow keys' are used. The camera can also be displaced upwards or downwards with the 'I' and 'K' keys, respectively.

With the free camera it can be travelled to other stars and, in fact, to anywhere. Space distances are of a great magnitude, that is the reason why the free camera accelerates its travelling speed. The longer you keep pressed the displacement keys, the faster the camera will travel.

If you want to travel even faster, hold down the 'Shift' key, while pressing the displacement keys. The longer you keep pressed shift key, the faster the camera will travel. This is specially useful when observing large objects, or to travel long distances.

To slow down the camera, or to make smooth camera movements, hold down the 'Right Control' key. This is specially useful when visiting small bodies or when high magnification is being used.

If you want to get back to orbital camera mode, press the 'wheel mouse button' or the 'Enter' key at any moment. You will be taken back to the last orbited body. At anytime, a visible object can be selected to orbit as well, see "Selecting a visible object".

5.- RANDOM NAVIGATION

By pressing the 'R' key, random navigation becomes activated. In this navigation mode you will be taken to any location within the simulation in a random scheme. Each celestial body that is reached will be orbited for 20 seconds before passing to the next object. To turn off random navigation, press 'R' again. Random navigation also becomes deactivated if switching to free camera mode ('wheel mouse button' or 'F' key).

During random navigation, the controls for camera, data, time, and special functions are still available. This way, important aspects of the simulation are still controlled, such as the orbiting distance or the data output. However, any current selection, activated or deactivated, will be ignored by random navigation.

The time speed factor is automatically increased by a factor of 3 when activating the random navigation. If you want another time speed, press the '+' (plus) or '-' (minus) keys.

Maybe you want to discover new locations or stars, or perhaps you want to take a break from the simulation handling or you simply do not know where to go. In all these cases, random navigation will provide a way to relax and contemplate the simulation without any more action needed by the user.

6.- RETURNING HOME

If you are lost or disoriented, or you simply want to return to the Solar System, press the 'F1' key to orbit the Sun. Enter the Solar System by getting close enough to see the orbits or the planet names, and press 'F4' to select the Earth.

IMPORTANT WARNING

A very small percentage of individuals may experience epileptic seizures or blackouts when exposed to certain light patterns or flashing lights. Exposure to certain patterns or backgrounds on a screen or when playing video games may trigger epileptic seizures or blackouts in these individuals. These conditions may trigger previously undetected epileptic symptoms or seizures in persons who have no history of prior seizures or epilepsy. If you, or anyone in your family, has an epileptic condition or has had seizures of any kind, consult your physician before playing.

Immediately discontinue use and consult your physician before resuming gameplay if you or your child experience any of the following health problems or symptoms: Dizziness, altered vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, seizures, or any involuntary movement or convulsion. Resume gameplay only on approval of your physician.

How to use and handle videogames

Use in a well-lit area and keep the screen a safe distance from your face.

Avoid prolonged use. Take a 15-minute break during each hour of play.

Avoid playing when you are tired or need sleep.

APPENDIX I: Description of scientific codes

When showing scientific data, one or more of these codes may appear in the star type description:

APPENDIX III: MPL3D Solar System v1.2 -  Menu Options & Features