gaiasky 3.6.6

Gaia Sky is a real-time 3D Universe application that runs on Linux, Windows and macOS. It is developed within the framework of ESA's Gaia mission to chart more than 1 billion stars. A part of Gaia Sky is described in the paper Gaia Sky: Navigating the Gaia Catalog.

Tags astronomy vr
License MPL
State initial

Homepage Download

Recent Releases

3.6.625 Jan 2025 03:15 minor feature: Full changelog : Attitude indicator not scaling with units-per-pixel value in spacecraft UI. Incorrect initialization of label threshold in volumes in VR mode. Entering panorama mode resets back-buffer scale. The was that the dynamic resolution reset routine was always applied, and not only when the dynamic resolution setting was on. Build System: Update install4j template to version 11. Documentation: Improve javadoc comments in settings class. Features: Move volumes earlier in the rendering pipeline, because they now write to the depth buffer. Check for dataset incompatibilities and ask user to confirm action when selecting incompatible datasets. Add window size and resolution of external view in settings, when the external view is active. Performance Improvements: Replace arbitrary precision `add()` call with double one to compute spherical coordinates of objects. .
3.6.518 Jan 2025 03:15 minor feature: Full changelog : Add bluesky link to about page. Add 'volumes and effects' catalog type. Increase default quality of FXAA filter, provide a simpler implementation, and enable hot shader reloading for FXAA effect. Enable `"flip"` attribute for `box`es/`cube`s in mesh builders. Apply noise function to aurora cylinder vertices over time. Separate simulation time from scene time in shaders, improve aurora effect. Add `"cameraCollision"` attribute to bodies. Add support for auroras. Shader include statement now supports targets in datasets. Add bluesky link. Add on-demand re-compilation of post-processing shaders from their source files, in runtime. Add new attribute 'renderLabel' to label component. This enables/disables the actual rendering of the label. Update Gaia Sky icon. Build System: Update configuration file version number. This implies that your old configuration file gets overriden with the new version during the first startup of the new Gaia Sky version. Update to Libgdx 1.13.1. Features: Add support for volume rendering. The infrastructure is in place with an new archetype `Volume`. This is necessary for the new volumetric aurora dataset and volume nebulae in NGC2000. Add 'volumes and effects' catalog type. Enable `"flip"` attribute for `box`es/`cube`s in mesh builders. Add `"cameraCollision"` attribute to bodies. Shader include statement now supports targets in datasets. Add on-demand re-compilation of post-processing shaders from their source files, in runtime. Add new attribute 'renderLabel' to label component. This enables/disables the actual rendering of the label. Increase default quality of FXAA filter, provide a simpler implementation, and enable hot shader reloading for FXAA effect. Update Gaia Sky icon. Add bluesky link to readme file and about page. .
3.6.4-227 Nov 2024 14:25 minor bugfix: Full changelog : External view feature not working. Build System: Remove lib directory, does not contain anything anymore. .
3.6.426 Nov 2024 17:25 minor feature: Full changelog : Locations of some particle sets in VR. Make entities honor 'renderQuad' property in render flags component. UV grid projected coordinates now scale correctly with screen size. Prevent virtual objects (hooks, invisibles, catalogs, etc.) from appearing in the individual visibility window. Hide meta-components (atmospheres, keyframes, etc.) from buttons list. layout. Always load HIP numbers if present in the STIL data loader. Update Jetty, JSON and XMLRPC libraries to secure versions (the old versions contain known vulnerabilities). Inform user of unsupported cubemap textured objects with procedural generation. Build System: Update versions of JCommander, STIL and ApFloat, remove Joise. Update OSHI library version. Documentation: Add architectures to download table. Typos and spelling errors in changelog file. Move VR info into `README.md` from `VR.md`. Features: Improve on-screen keyboard in controller UI. Add custom marker textures and custom colors for locations. Add markers to locations; they pinpoint the exact position of the location labe. Add new attribute to location marks, 'ignoreSolidAngleLimit', which disregards the limits when computing visibility. Cap angular sizes for all locations. Add session type to system information (Linux only). Remove 'cosmic locations' content type, move it to regular locations (requires default data pack update.). Add location type attribute to location objects. This attribute is used to categorize locations by groups in the individual visibility window. Separate scene from other elements (labels, lines, etc.) to be able to apply different post-processing effects to each. Move console business logic to console manager entity. Add an implementation of console/terminal, which accepts commands to interact directly with the Gaia Sky API. Add a generic map in the base component to store 'unrecognized' attributes; these get displayed in the object info window. .
3.6.3-225 Jul 2024 19:45 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Bad truncation leads to some SVTs not working properly. Features: Use noise library for star surface shader. .
3.6.313 Jul 2024 16:05 minor feature: Full changelog : Relativistic shaders define their own helper functions. Broken anchor in readme file. Error computing next focus and t body positions. Restore elevation-aware planet traversal. Artifacts in atmosphere shader when SSR is active. Adjust maximum reach of point lights. Improve single star selection code, especially when to stars. Regression where orientation lock stopped working altogether. Adjust frequency and lacunarity randomizers so that more strucutre is always present. Crash during initialization when model is set to randomize. Tooltip background width incorrectly computed. Remove call to pack() in constructor. Build System: Upgrade bundled JRE to 21, minimum language version to 17. Features: Add graphical presets to settings dialog. Change antialiasing settings from only type to type and quality. Rename 'graphics quality' to 'texture quality'. Change antialiasing settings from only type to type and quality. Add tooltip with hotkeys to cinematic camera checkbox. Automatic DPI scaling to support multi-DPI configurations. Add initial amplitude to noise parametrization in procedural generation. Improve camera velocity display units in camera info pane. Divide procedural generation in 4 consecutive frames. Add emission generation as an extra (optional) channel. Use normal map when elevation type is 'None' in procedural generation. Move 'save textures' of procedural generation to a parallel thread. New splash image based on NASA exoplanets. Improve layout of procedural generation window. Add procedural generation button to camera info interface. Surface generation presets (Earth-like, gas giant, rocky planet, etc.), and hide noise parameters in collapsible pane. Add procedurally generated texture resolution to configuration and preferences window. Replace CPU-based procedural generation with shader-based, which is orders of magnitude faster. Improve cloud color and atmospheric fog density randomizers. Enable multi
3.6.2-207 Jun 2024 13:05 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Shadow map GLSL library crash due to use of old, unsupported call. .
3.6.130 May 2024 11:25 minor feature: Full changelog : Prevent activation of stereoscopic mode in VR. Position bookmarks do not work in VR. Check type of current model in gamepad GUI. Unescape HTML4.0 strings in wikipedia snippet title and body. Only load spacecraft GUI when the default data pack is there. Otherwise, the system crashes. Crash when the server response is not in JSON format, due to the server being down. REST server parameters matching does not check that the number of parameters is correct during matching. Warn about trying to bind reserved ports (
3.6.0-317 Mar 2024 03:25 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Back-buffer scale initialization when config file is resetted. .
3.6.013 Mar 2024 06:05 major feature: Full changelog : Check leap years in date dialog. Prevent NaNs in some camera operations. Clean up test scripts a bit. `startRecordingCameraPath(String filename)` does not use the filename correctly. Build System: Update dependency library versions. Features: Add 'textureAttribute' to particle sets, so that textures are selected with respect to the value of an attribute. Use local dataset descriptors to construct catalog infos, when they are not explicitly set. Enable local data information in the '+ info' window. This displays the local data on an object. In particle and star groups, the extra attributes are also offered. Enable extra arguments of type string for star and particle sets. Rename 'star systems' group to 'exoplanets extrasolar systems'. Add icons to group title in dataset manager. Add time transition API call and test script. Add support for multiple key sets bound to actions in hotkey tooltip. Keyframes and camera path file saving no longer overwrites existing files. Instead, it generates a new unique file name based on the given one. Support comma- as well as whitespace-separated values for camera and keyframes files. Default to comma-separated values for writing. Add support for OptFlowCam (Piotrowski 2024) method to convert keyframes into camera path files. Gaia Sky calls the local python3 interpreter to process the keyframe files, so a local python3 installation (with numpy) needs to be in place for it to work. Reorganize keyframes window layout for better use of space. Add support for B-splines, additionally to Catmull-Rom splines, as a method for interpolating positions between keyframes. Add API call to get the window coordinates of an object, in pixels. Add API calls to do camera transitions only in position and orientation. Add different durations for the transitions in position and orientation in the API call. Add smooth interpolation methods to `cameraTransition()` calls. The new methods can use either a logis
3.5.9-223 Feb 2024 09:45 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Individual object visibility API calls, and generic model alpha interpolation. Build System: Only add natives for the specific target platform in built packages. .
3.5.920 Feb 2024 03:15 minor feature: Full changelog : Remove support for cloud SVT shadows, as this necessitates the cloud SVT and the diffuse SVT to be exactly the same (same depth, same available tiles, etc.), and this is not *usually the case. Concurrency error in procedural generation progress bar update actions. Present filter results in dataset manager in expanded panes. Prevent the creation of multiple dataset preferences window for the same dataset. Prevent NPE crash during the creation of the error dialog. Part of. Prevent null pointer when updating star sets. Typo in French translation. Appimage actually includes unpacked JRE distribution correctly. Build System: Add pgp signature to build process instead of checksums. Features: do not force safe mode on Macs powered by apple silicon anymore. Add support for arbitrary affine transformations to datasets, and add controls to create and edit them in the datasets pane. Improve layout of the filters window by moving the 'add' button to the top and adding a scroll pane in the content. Improve default window skin by adding some padding and a better sprite. Rename dataset preferences to dataset visual settings. It now contains some sliders to modify the point size and the min/max solid angles. It does not contain filters or dataset information anymore, as those were extracted to their own dialogs. Separate filters from dataset preferences into their own button/window in datasets pane. Add affine transformations to all datasets (particle group, star group, variable star group, billboard group, orbit elements group). These transformations are applied in the shaders so that they can be updated on the fly. The billboard group object has been moved inside the generic catalog archetype; the Milky Way appears as a dataset now. Add min/max particle solid angle size and number of labels to particle dataset load dialog. Add support for additional texture(s) in raymarching shaders. .
3.5.8-330 Jan 2024 05:45 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Make sure a focus' star ancestor exists before trying to get its parenthood in the octree. .
3.5.827 Jan 2024 03:15 minor feature: Full changelog : Particle sizing and size limits in the loader. Run actual octant update code in the main thread. Apply graphics quality after restart. Remove graphics quality update events. Use actual tree map for currently pressed keys in keyboard input controller, so that actions can be retrieved reliably. do not activate surface mode (where the view follows the mouse location) with gamepad input. Layout and information in about/help dialog. Dataset detection to use dataset key by default instead of name. Graphics quality update is now a 'needs restart' operation, otherwise the system crashes trying to load in new parameters, textures and so on. This is part of. Increase constellation and boundaries line width to prevent rastering artifacts. This is part of. Add orientation to shape dialog (camera, equatorial, ecliptic, galactic). Tooltips in number validators using the `MAX_VALUE` or `MIN_VALUE` should use infinity instead. Part of. Remove all shapes around object actually removes all shapes and not only the first in the list. This is part of. Default to scientific notation only when abs(num) 9999. Possible null pointer exceptions in OpenXR driver. Star flickering due to quad sizes mended by setting a minimum quad solid angle roughly equal to the pixel size of the back-buffer. Enable breaking string sequences at forward and backward slashes, as well as whitespaces. This prevents overflown content in the error dialog in certain cases. Build System: Upgrade to gradle 8.5. Code Refactoring: Group all line settings into a single object (width, width bias, mode). Rename attributes of UCD and UCDParser to comport with the global style. Features: Add new `backupSettings()` and `restoreSettings()` API calls to back up and restore the entire settings in Gaia Sky from a script. Adjust constants so that the Sun size is accurate. Move 'star glow over objects' check box to Scene settings Stars section. Add used, free, allocated and to
3.5.7-329 Dec 2023 14:53 minor feature: ### Bug Fixes - columns corresponding to the same UCD maintain the order of appearance in the source table when used. - use concurrent hash set in 'selecting' list in the OpenXR input listener to prevent concurrent modification errors. - resizing log window does not resize contents. Fixes #749 (https://codeberg.org/gaiasky/gaiasky/issues/749). - prevent getting name from second closest if it is invalid. Fixes #750 (https://codeberg.org/gaiasky/gaiasky/issues/750). - use logical keys instead of key codes by converting GDX's codes to GLFW, which uses the logical keyboard layout. Fixes #748 (https://codeberg.org/gaiasky/gaiasky/issues/748). - rename makefile, update build script to detect `/opt/gaiasky` installation. - use default mappings file if the configured one does not exist.
3.5.6-208 Nov 2023 11:25 minor feature: Full changelog Features: Add film grain filter. Set a maximum age for.part download files of 6 hours. Improve recursive grid with travelling pulses and a noise mask. Add 'animate' setting to recursive grid preferences to toggle animation on and off. Add checkbox to control recursive grid animation. Add initial notice about Gaia Sky contacting the server to get the dataset updates list. Improve shader compilation error handling. Enable elevation (height) representation without tessellation in a new 'regular' mode. This is the new default mode, as tessellation is a bit to taxing on old and integrated GPUs. Discontinue parallax mapping elevation type; the new vertex displacement type supersedes it. Add full support for point lights, and use them for stars. True depth-tested -by stars, also working with light glow enabled. : Prevent creation of background blur object, as camera motion blur was disabled a few versions ago. Use predicted position for tracking objects. 'reload defaults' button in visual settings component actually sets the default value to the elevation multiplier slider. New star shader in Intel GPUs. Mouse coordinates collision with objects when back buffer scale != 1. Build System: Set `-source` to 16 in gradle build script to enable pattern matching in `instanceof`. Code Refactoring: Move GLSL snippet shader chunks to own directory `assets/shader/snippet`. Rename shaders from 'normal' to 'pbr'. Style: Code style now formats Javadoc comments. . ## 3.5.5-2 (2023-10-04). Full changelog : Crash fetching entity elevation due to the focus not being set yet. Build System: Add check for revision = 2 in release script. Automate creation of HTML downloads table and properly use 'pkgver' and 'pkgrel' fields in AUR package. . ## 3.5.5-1 (2023-10-03). Full changelog Features: Update umbra and penumbra highlight colors. Improve default pane background, touch up mini-map layout. Add collapsible groups and per-gr
3.5.5-221 Oct 2023 21:25 minor feature: Full changelog Features: Add new user interface which replaces the old controls window. The old controls window is still available (activate it in preferences window). Add new 'play camera path' action, bound to `alt`+`c` by default. Update default control pane key bindings (time, camera, visibility, etc.) to not use the Alt key. Add better star -up shader, and a new 'scene settings' section in preferences window with an option to render stars as spheres. Prepare PBR shader to accept iridescence, transmission and thickness values. Revamp shader include directive to accept different extensions and file references in angle brackets. All shader libraries moved to `shader/lib`. Retire Gaia FOV camera modes. Adjust default atmosphere exposure value. Disable fading scrollbars everywhere. Tune normal strength in tessellation shaders to map to elevation multiplier. : Enable full shader file names in raymarching shaders. Typo, 'user interface resetted' - 'user interface reset'. Restore height sampling functionality to prevent clipping through tessellated terrain. Remove cinematic camera slow-down when to the surface of a planet. Scale tessellation quality using the body size to prevent severe slow-downs in smaller bodies. . ## 3.5.4-1 (2023-09-21). Full changelog : Move action stuttering on some systems due to no input changes since last sync. Application title in loading screen squashes the logo. Build System: Set bundled JRE version to 17 instead of 20; seemingly, there are non-negligible performance with the JRE 20 on some configurations. .
3.5.4-130 Sep 2023 07:45 major feature: Full changelog Features: Add square recursive grid style, additionally to the existing circular concentric rings. Add diagonal lines at 30 and 60 degrees to the circular recursive grid. Redesign time pane layout and widgets (warp slider, play/pause, information boxes, etc.) in controls window. Upgrade internal version numbering to include a sequence number within the revision (major.minor.revision-sequence). It should be backwards compatible, but starting with this version, internal version numbers have at least 7 digits instead of 5. Bump source version number. Refactor separator UI elements. Redesign loading screen to follow welcome screen style. .
3.5.321 Sep 2023 03:25 minor feature: Full changelog : Atmosphere object distance falloff. Exit JVM process with a proper status code depending on application state. Mismatch in bundled JRE versions in install4j script. Glitches and artifacts in atmosphere ground tessellation shader. Base opacity applied to model bodies when rendered as billboards. Update minimum required JRE in install4j script to 15. version tag. Use camrecorder target frame rate instead of frame output system one in keyframes. Check keyboard focus state when polling cursors in main mouse/kdb listener. Raymarching event description. Small improvements in UCD parser for IDs and magnitudes. do not preemptively check display resolution in macOS, as it usually runs a headless JVM. Clean editing keyframe on deletion. do not render keyframe lines/points when camcorder is playing. index in path linear interpolator. Features: New welcome screen title design and splash. Add check for keyframe timings (t_kf fps 1 == 0) and respective notice. Add new visibility type 'Keyframes', which controls the keyframe points and lines. Add new keyboard mapping SHIFT+K to toggle it. Add tooltips to keyframe playback buttons. Move `onlyBody` trajectory attribute to `bodyRepresentation`, which is an enum that enables the representation of only body, only orbit or both. The `onlyBody` attribute is still kept as a proxy. Rename `pointColor` to `bodyColor` in trajectories. `pointColor` is kept as an alias. Skip back/fwd, step back/fwd, play/pause and timeline slider all work. Move keyframes logic and model to keyframe manager. Add direct playback capability to keyframes. Still WIP. Keyframe system to use new camera path object in export operation. Move from buffered file-backed recording and playback to model-backed solutions for the camrecorder. This means that, during recording, the data is captured and stored in memory and persisted to disk when the recording finishes. During playback, the data is loaded to memory at once at the b
3.5.215 Sep 2023 14:05 minor bugfix: Full changelog : Exporting keyframes to camera path is missing the very last frame. Restore line rendering in keyframes, lost in a regression during the line refactoring campaign. Only deactivate main mouse/kbd listener if the current dialog is modal. Full-screen log item in translation files. Visual layout and information structure in about window, system tab. Apply patch provided by luzpaz ing many typos in comments and strings. Features: Improve keyframes window layout, with more space for keyframes and better sizing of keyframes table. Default to full screen for small displays, and refactor display resolution fetching process. Check AMD APU code name to detect Steam Deck. Steam deck programmatic detection to default to full screen at startup. .
3.5.023 Jul 2023 03:15 major feature: Full changelog Features: Add control for maximum number of velocity vectors per star set in preferences dialog, performance section. Add CLI flag to force HiDPI mode either to 'Logical' or 'Pixels'. Enable holding comma or period to slow down or speed up time. Map time speed up and slow down to d-pad up and down in game controllers. Add `trailMinOpacity` to trajectories. This raises the opacity of a trail to the given minimum value. Speeding up and slowing down time can be done by pressing and holding '.' and ',' respectively. No more frantically clicking a key. Also, the time warp change is smooth now. Add camera position/orientation named bookmarks, additionally to the already existing object bookmarks. Add bookmarks for many eclipses in the default bookmarks.txt. Use coordinates provider from objects to sample periodic orbits instead of hardcoded algorithms. Dim atmosphere w.r.t. camera, star and eclipsing body positions during eclipses. Initial support for ephemeris based on Chebyshev polynomials. Add support for VSOP2000. Add eclipses by projecting the shadow umbra and penumbra from moons to planets and vice-versa. The option to outline the umbra and penumbra is given as a checkbox in the preferences. Eclipses can be deactivated, also from the preferences window, graphics tab. Celestial sphere showcase script. Add a few showcase scripts. Scripts showing an object on a horseshoe orbit around Jupiter. Update wording on point and line styles in preferences dialog to make it more concise and clear. Use GPU lines as the default line renderer for trajectories. This results in a big performance improvement, especially when many lines are on display. GPU lines now also can use the geometry shader to render as polyline quad-strips. Use a geometry shader to generate the triangles in the polyline quadstrip renderer instead of the CPU. Performance is much improved. Add geometry shader stage (optional) to shader program provider and to extended shader pr
3.5.119 Jul 2023 17:13 minor feature: paths in Windows do not accept certain characters and are unsuitable to represent our bookmarks. Add specific BookmarkPath implementation that fixes this. VR flag from --openvr to --openxr.