The configuration file

There is a configuration file which stores most of the configration settings of Gaia Sky. This section is devoted to these seetings that are not represented in the GUI but are still configurable. The configuration file is located in $HOME/.gaiasky/global.properties. The file is annotated with comments specifying the function of most properties. However, here is an explanation of some of the properties found in this file that are not represented in the GUI.

Graphics properties

graphics.render.time - This property gets a boolean (true|false) and indicates whether a timestamp is to be added to screenshots and frames.
graphics.screen.resizable - Whether the window (if in windowed mode) is resiable or not. Defaults to true.

Data properties

data.json.catalog - This property points to the json file where the catalog(s) to load are defined. Unless you want to load your own catalogs, this should either be data/catalog-tgas-hyg.json for the GPU-bound non-LOD version, or data/catalog-tgas-hyg-lod.json, for the LOD version of TGAS.
data.json.objects - Contains the json file where the definition of all the rest of the data is specified.
data.limit.mag - This contains the limiting magnitude above which stars shall not be loaded. Not all data loaders implement this. It is now deprecated.

Scene properties

scene.labelfactor - A real number in [0..n] that controls the number of star labels to display. The larger the number, the more stars will have a label.
scene.star.threshold.quad - This property contains the view angle (in degrees) boundary above which the stars are rendered as quads. Quads are basically 4-vertex quadrilaterals, and they can be rendered as textures (images) or using shaders. They display more detail but are costlier in terms of GPU processing. Do not touch unless you know what you are doing.
scene.star.threshold.point - This property contains the view angle (in degrees) boundary above which the stars are rendered as points. Points are single pixels, so they are not very resource demanding. Do not touch unless you know what you are doing.
scene.star.threshold.none - This property contains the view angle (in degrees) below which the stars are not rendered at all. Usually this is 0 unless you want to cull very distant stars. Do not touch unless you know what you are doing.
scene.point.alpha.min - Contains the minimum alpha value (opacity) in [0..1] for the stars rendered as points. This should in any case be lower than scene.point.alpha.max.
scene.point.alpha.max - Contains the maximum alpha value (opacity) in [0..1] for the stars rendered as points. This should in any case be greater than scene.point.alpha.min.
scene.galaxy.3d - Contains a boolean. If set to true, the Milky Way will be rendered using a blending of a 2D image with a 3D distribution of stars and nebulae. Otherwise, only the 2D image is used.

Program wide properties

program.tutorial - This gets a boolean (true|false) indicating whether the tutorial script should be automatically run at start up.
program.tutorial.script - This points to the tutorial script file.
program.debuginfo - If this property is set to true, some debug information will be shown at the top right of the window. This contains information such as the number of stars rendered as a quad, the number of stars rendered as a point or the frames per second. This can be activated in real time by pressing CTRL + D.