Celestia Changelog

What's new in Celestia 1.6.0

• Bug fixes
• Fix to admit absolute directory notation in VT ImageDirectory
• Implemented encoding of special characters when saving cel URLs
• Fixed flickering of models with missing texture coordinates
• Fixed appearance non-ellipsoid star geometry in pre-OGL2 render paths
• Improved appearance of point stars when multisample antialiasing is enabled
• Fix for crash when viewing a star barycenter in an empty system
• Fixed off by one error assertion testing for number of lights used by shaders
• Windows: fixed UTF8 bugs in tour guide, star browser, and context menu
• Fixed crash bug that was triggerred by xyz and xyzv files with duplicate
• times
• Fixed bug that caused dim stars in orbits distant from the primary to not
• be drawn.
• Fixed strange appearance of cloud textures at times in the distant
• past/future.
• Fixed memory leak in multiview handling
• Fixed ambient light in the ARB shader path
• Fixed bugs in comet rendering (corrects overbright coma)
• Fixed code to compile without errors with gcc 4.3; fixed some warnings
• Fixed g++ compier errors in cmodfix tool
• Fixed search path for Lua scripts
• Fixed numerous bugs that occurred when an object's orbit center was different
• Fixed a bug in the celx function celestia:getscreendimension
• Fixed bug with returning Hubble type for galaxies
• Eliminated error-prone min/max macros; use STL functions instead
• Fixed discrepancy between apparent magnitudes shown in the 3D view and
• the star browser.
• Change "Day Length" string to the correct and more general term "Rotation
• Period"
• Show 'planetary companions' message for stellar barycenters (instead of
• just stars.)
• Improved location drawing so that location labels can be occluded by
• foreground objects.
• Data file updates
• Implemented data base globulars.dsc with all known 150 globulars around the Milky Way
• Renamed galaxy database deepsky.dsc into galaxies.dsc
• Implemented SIMBAD compatible cross-listing for globular clusters
• Updated Iapetus texture based on a new Ciclops map from Oct 2008
• Significant update of the database on binary orbits, including SIMBAD
• compatibility of barycenter nomenclature and alternative names
• Updated the near stars catalog
• Updated texture for Mercury; includes imagery from MESSENGER
• Updated textures for some Saturnian moons: Tethys, Dione, Mimas,
• Enceladus, and Rhea
• Added CHARM2 catalog of measured stellar radii
• Added model of asteroid Itokawa
• Regenerated star catalog using the new reduction of the HIPPARCOS data
• Cassini updates:
• Updated Cassini trajectory to include extended mission
• Switched to using xyz+velocity files for a more accurate trajectory
• Separated Cassini mission into cruise and orbital phases
• Improved appearance of Huygens separation from Cassini
• Added IAU rotational elements for most major solar system bodies
• Made visible the orbit and label for Pluto-Charon barycenter
• Correctly centered Galileo spacecraft
• Rebuilt cross-indices from SIMBAD data
• Added alternative names for many solar system bodies (e.g. preliminary
• designations for asteroids in addition to proper names.)
• Updated extrasolar planet catalog with discoveries made up to Apr 2009
• Changed class of Pluto, Ceres, Eris, ... to dwarf planet
• Changed class of small outer planet moons to minormoon
• Included new and updated solar system body features from the IAU
• Added provisional rotation period for Eris
• Tools
• Added Perl script globulars.pl used to extract the globular data from scientific publications and as documentation
• Added spice2xyzv tool for extracting xyzv files from a pool of SPICE kernels
• Added Perl script to build cross-indices
• Added Perl script to generate CHARM2 catalog
• Added Perl script to build star database
• Platform-specific changes
• Mac OS X: Fixed rerun script menu item
• Mac OS X: fixed issue with some checkbox settings not getting saved properly
• Mac OS X: Fixed potential crash in eclipse finder if the user specified
• an object that wasn't a planet or moon
• Mac OS X: Fixed keyboard shortcuts not working when GL window not frontmost
• Mac OS X: eliminated beep when clicking splash screen on multi-core machines
• Mac OS X: fixed compiler warnings, removed -fpermissive flag
• Mac OS X: Refactored Mac disk image build into separate target, made default
• builds more efficient.
• Mac OS X: Fixed bug where time zone was ignored when setting time zone
• Mac OS X: look for user config file in ~/.celestia.cfg
• Mac OS X: Fixed blank names for location bookmarks
• Mac OS X & Windows: Added texture resolution setting to GUI
• BSD: Fixed tm_zone handling
• Linux: Install scripts at during "make install"
• Linux: Added workaround for broken include_x11 define from acinclude.m4
• Linux: Updated admin directory to KDE 3.5.10, regenerated acinclude.m4
• Linux: Added the missing menu entries related to globulars for KDE version
• Linux: Added globular and grid selection options in GTK interface
• Internationalization
• Added Polish translation
• Added Lithuanian translation
• Added Romanian translation of constellation names
• Mac OS X: Japanese localation of eclipse finder added
• Added Chinese localization
• Localize surface names in alternate surfaces menu
• Prevented English name 'Milky Way' from being displayed when a translated
• version is present.
• Extended localization to DSO and star names
• Features
• Added light from secondary sources (i.e. "planetshine")
• Implemented depth sorting for markers so that they are correctly occluded
• by foreground objects.
• Implemented code package rendering globular clusters
• Implemented new cel URL version with observer position and orientation stored
• in frame coordinates (for forward compatibility)
• Added a long term (+-5000 centuries) precession model for Earth based on
• work by Jan Vondrak
• Improved celestial coordinate grids:
• Added new grid types: ecliptic, horizontal, and galactic
• Made grid resolution adapt to the field of view
• Positioned coordinate labels at edges of field of view
• Added animated selection indicator
• Switches to direction pointer when the selection is off screen
• Changes color when the selected object is occluded
• Implemented more flexible system for reference marks and added new
• reference marks:
• Planetographic grid
• Terminator
• VisibleRegion
• Enabled display of the phase angle for the currently selected object
• Improved eclipse rendering: correctly calculate depth and umbra radius
• for eclipses.
• Improved star handling code so that stars can be placed more than 16k light
• years from Earth.
• Switched to using sd prefix for hot subdwarfs per arXiv:0805.2567v1
• Added symbols for locations
• Add-on features:
• Added SemiAxes property for ssc objects, which allows triaxial ellipsoid
• geometry for solar system objects like Haumea and Mimas.
• Added new boolean properties for ssc/stc/dsc objects: Visible and Clickable
• Added new classes for solar system objects: dwarfplanet, minormoon,
• surfacefeature, component, and diffuse
• Implemented Modify and Replace dispositions for star catalogs
• Added SPICE rotation model, allowing the orientation of an ssc object to
• be controlled by a SPICE frame.
• SPICE orbit improvements:
• Allow multiple kernels to be specified for a SPICE orbit
• Automatically calculate start and end times when possible
• Added Timeline, which allows multiple frame, trajectory, and rotation
• models for a single ssc object.
• Implemented CustomRotation, the rotation model analogue of CustomOrbit
• Added support for InfoURL for stars (already exists for deep sky objects and
• solar system objects)
• Improved SampledTrajectory to handle files with positions and velocities
• Added LabelColor property for locations
• Implemented new Topocentric frame (a simplified two vector frame for placing
• objects on the surface of a planet.)
• Added support for premultiplied alpha blend mode in cmod files
• Extended FixedPosition to support spherical coordinates as well as
• cartesian coordinates.
• Added FixedAttitude rotation model, with more intuitive paramters for
• orientation
• Added new SurfaceObject type for ssc files--like an ordinary body except
• with different default frames that make it easy to position an object on
• the surface of a planet.
• Added CloudShadowDepth property for atmospheres
• Improved control over mesh scaling with NormalizeMesh and MeshScale
• properties for ssc objects.
• Added new locations types: eruptive center, insula (islands), and
• tholus (domical hills and mountains)
• Added support for comment headers in xyz and xyzv files
• Code optimization and reorganization
• Reimplemented observer frames in terms of Celestia 1.5.0 frames
• Improved performance of complex frames by caching last calculated orientation
• Added velocity method for all classes derived from Orbit
• Added angularVelocity method for rotation models
• Optimized solar system rendering by maintaining a bounding sphere hierarchy
• Switched to using 2 64-bit integers for storing high precision coordinates;
• simplifies code and improves performance of operations using high precision
• coordinates (dramatically on 64-bit systems)
• Optimized creation of render lists
• Scripting
• Celx scripting functions:
• object:addreferencemark, object:removereferencemark
• object:visible, object:setvisible, object:catalognumber
• object:setorbitcolor, object:orbitcoloroverridden, object:setorbitcoloroverridden
• object:orbitvisibility, object:setorbitvisibility
• object:locations (returns an iterator over all the locations associated with an object)
• new phase object type (for timeline phases)
• permit any X11 color name
• observer:makeactiveview
• showconstellations, hideconstellations, setconstellationcolor
• getlabelcolor, getlinecolor
• getsystemtime, ispaused
• gettextureresolution, settextureresolution
• windowbordersvisible, setwindowbordersvisible
• Split celx scripting support into several modules
• Cel scripting
• splitview, deleteview, singleview, setactiveview
• setgalaxylightgain
• setradius
• setlinecolor
• setlabelcolor
• settextureresolution
• Made the package library (except loadlib) available for celx scripting
• regardless of the ScriptSystemAccessPolicy setting
• Added an "AddonPath" value that is available to a ScriptedOrbit or
• ScriptedRotation when it is created.
• Pass control modifier to Lua keyboard handlingfunctions
• Miscellaneous:
• Bound P and M keys to toggle dwarf planet and minor moon labels
• Bound U and E keys to toggle globular clusters and globular cluster labels
• Group reference mark menu items in a separate submenu
• Changed star name lookup priority in stc parser: check proper names before
• cross indices.
• Eliminated R and Shift+R key bindings for changing texture resolution
• Added new leap second 31-Dec-2008 23:59:60
• Cleanup:
• Removed obsolete 'LabelledStars' section from standard celestia.cfg
• Updated README: removed obsolete sections, reorganized credits, added
• information application to 1.6.0
• Purged out of date controls documentation
• Reorganized spacecraft add-ons in standard package