Celestia 1.7.0 - code changes

[Alexell]

• Updated asteroid catalog
• Updated comet catalog
• Updated Solar System catalog
• Updaded texures & binary cmod models for some asteroids & comets
• Added Visible Open Clusters and Candidates Catalog
• Added new textures & binary cmod models for some asteroids & comets
• Added Dwarf Planets with satellites

[Alexell]

Source code updates in the last few months:

• Lua 5.2 fixes
• Added OK button to preference dialog
• Fixed eigen library to remove warnings
• Added QT forms translation support
• Automake fixes
• Fixed panning bug on QT
• Added sorting by "Name" to DSO and Star Browsers
• Added Lua compatibility with 5.2 & 5.3 on Linux
• Introdiced CelestiaCoreApplication class, subclass of CelestiaCore
• Fix many glew related undefined references
• Rewritten simple audio playback support in .cel/.celx scripts using QT. Now it works correctly on Windows and Linux.
• Updated language template & files
• Added new Celestia binary for tests: https://celestia.alexell.ru/1.7.0/

[Alexell]

• Fixed playback pause and cel script playback.
• Fix the most serious fixes found by coverity (resource leaks, null pointers dereference and other).

[Alexell]

• Fixed crash when loading of celx script failed
• Added German QT dialogs translation
• Added new leap seconds Jul 2015 and Jan 2016
• Added .cel command setwindowbordersvisible
• Show git commit in "About" window (for the convenience of testing different builds)
• Added check for system installed eigen & glew
• Other small fixes and changes

[onetwothree]

Short update on the current development state.

Difference between Alexell's version and our:
* Catalogs and data files are like they were in 2013 (reasons: 1. Controversal directory layout change, 2. A lot of models and textures are missing)
* No audio support (reason: it was implemented for Qt frontend only)

I will mention only user-visible changes.

General changes:
* Dropped support for pre OpenGL 2.1 hardware
* Fixed rendering bug with ring shadows enabled (red planets, 1.7.0 only issue)
* New location types, now we have all 57 standard locations plus 7 custom
* Update temperature and bolometric correction for T class stars
* Add a new star class: Brown Dwarf Y
* Planetary rings can be disabled
* Display option for dwarf planets, (minor) moons, asteroids, comets and spacecrafts are separated from planets
* Update cel:// URL version to 4 to handle new display options, old URLs are supported still
* Fix leap seconds for 2016
* Make maximal distance of solar system bodies visibility (was 1ly, now can be up to 10ly)

Backend changes:
* Enable splash screen for Qt version with display of start progress
* Allow to enable VSync (Qt, Unix only)
* Update Infopanel if a user changes selection in a Solar system/Celestial/DSO browser (Qt)
* Add possibility to limit display FPS (15, 30, 45, 60, 120 and Auto, Qt)
* Fix "Mark object" button in a Solar system browser, now it works (Qt)
* Fix search for both solar and lunar eclipses in Qt frontend
* Add "Goto Object" option for Qt frontend (already existing in Gtk+, OSX and maybe Win)

New Cel methods:
* setringstexture {object ... texture ... [path ...]} - set a new texture file for planetary rings
* loadfragment { type ... fragment ...}

New Celx methods:
* celestia:pause([true/false]) - pause or resume simulation, w/o a parameter - toggle
* object:setringstexture(texture[, path]) - like for Cel
* celestia:loadfragment(type, fragment)

Loadfragment is a Swiss Army Knife for object modification. Everything you did previously using ssc, stc or dsc files now can be done using this function. It accepts two arguments: type and fragment, type defines fragment type and can be one of ssc, stc or dsc, fragment is a string with actual definition.

Examples:
https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia/blob/ ... cripts/tests/loadfragment.celx
https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia/blob/ ... scripts/tests/loadfragment.cel

[selden]

Dropped support for pre OpenGL 2.1 hardware

It would be greatly appreciated if support for Open GL v1.1.0 could be restored.

When using an iPad running iOS v12 and Microsoft's Remote Display app to display a Windows computer screen where Celestia is running, only OpenGL v 1.1.0 is available.

See the attached screengrab.

[onetwothree]

I want to have OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible renderer (~ OpenGL 2.1 without fixed pipeline), keeping OpenGL 1.1 means having 2 different renderers. We don't have enough human power to support 2 renderers.

I can suggest to play with Mesa builds for windows, mesa has better software GL than default one from Windows.