User manual

Set up

• Installation
  • System requirements
  • Download
  • Installation procedure
    • Linux
      • Flatpak
      • AppImage
      • Unix installer
      • DEB package
      • RPM package
      • AUR package
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • TAR.GZ
  • Run from source
    • Requirements
    • Getting the catalog data
    • Compiling and running
  • CLI arguments
  • Packaging the software
• Getting datasets
  • Welcome screen
  • Dataset manager
    • Data location
    • Available datasets
    • Installed datasets

Basic usage

• User interface
  • Control panes
    • Time pane
    • Camera pane
    • Visibility pane
      • Per-object visibility
      • Velocity vectors
    • Visual settings pane
    • Datasets pane
    • Location log pane
    • Bookmarks pane
  • Camera info panel
  • Quick info bar
  • Action buttons
    • Minimap
    • Load dataset
    • Preferences window
    • System log
    • About/help
    • Exit
  • System info panel
• Camera settings
  • Camera modes
    • Focus mode
      • Object tracking
    • Free mode
    • Game mode
    • Spacecraft mode
  • Camera behaviors
    • Cinematic behavior
    • Non-cinematic behavior
• Search objects
• Camera info panel
  • Focus pane
  • Mouse pointer
  • Camera
• Controls
  • Keyboard controls
    • Free/focus mode controls
    • Spacecraft mode controls
  • Mouse controls
    • Focus mode
    • Free mode
    • Game mode
  • Gamepad controls
    • Default camera mappings
    • Spacecraft camera mappings
    • Gamepad UI
  • GUI navigation
  • Keyboard mappings file
• Object visiblity
• Datasets
  • Preparing datasets
  • Loading datasets
    • Star catalogs
    • Particle datasets
    • Star cluster catalogs
    • Variable star catalogs
  • Datasets pane
    • Dataset highlighting
    • Dataset visual settings
    • Dataset filters
    • Dataset transformations
    • Dataset information
• Bookmarks
  • Bookmark types
    • Object bookmarks
    • Location bookmarks
  • Bookmarks pane
  • Creating bookmarks
  • File format
• Location log
• System information
  • System information panel
  • Object debug
  • Debug mode
• Bounding shapes
  • Adding bounding shapes
  • Removing shape objects
• Gaia Sky VR
  • System requirements
  • Set-up
    • Windows
    • Linux
  • Downloading datasets
  • Demo mode
  • Mirroring
  • Controls
  • Caveats
  • Common problems
• Frames and screenshots
  • Frame ouptut
    • Frame ouptut modes
  • Screenshots
    • Screenshot modes
• Console
• Capturing videos
  • Frame output system + ffmpeg
  • OpenGL/Screen recorders
    • Linux
    • Windows

Configuration

• Settings and configuration
  • Graphics settings
    • Graphics presets
    • Resolution and mode
    • External view settings
    • Graphics settings
    • Elevation (height)
    • Shadows
    • Image levels
    • Virtual textures
    • Experimental
  • Scene settings
    • Stars
    • Recursive grid
    • Eclipses
    • Procedural generation
  • Interface settings
    • Interface settings
    • Crosshair/markers
    • Pointer guides
  • Performance
  • Controls
  • Screenshots
  • Frame output
  • Camcorder
  • Stereoscopic mode
  • Panorama mode
  • Planetarium mode
  • Data
    • General data settings
    • Dataset manager
    • Gaia attitude
  • System
• System Directories
  • Datasets location
  • Logs and crash reports
• Camera paths
  • Camera path file format
  • Camcorder
  • Recording camera paths
    • Frame rate
  • Keyframes editor
    • Keyframes file format
    • Creating and editing keyframes
    • Adding keyframes
    • Keyframes list
    • Playback controls
    • Export keyframes to camera paths
    • Keyframes preferences
    • Export keyframes with OptFlowCam
  • Playing camera paths

Scripting

• Scripting
  • Installing the environment
  • Running a test script
  • Debugging
  • API versions
    • APIv2
      • APIv2 reference
      • Scripting with APIv2
        • Backing up and restoring settings
        • Logging to Gaia Sky and Python
        • Method and attribute access
        • Strict parameter types
        • Loading datasets from scripts
        • Camera transitions
        • Synchronizing with the main loop
        • Camera and scene runnables
        • Overriding object coordinates provider
    • APIv1
      • APIv1 reference
      • Scripting with APIv1
        • Backing up and restoring settings
        • Logging to Gaia Sky and Python
        • Method and attribute access
        • Strict parameter types
        • Loading datasets from scripts
        • Camera transitions
        • Synchronizing with the main loop
        • Camera and scene runnables
        • Overriding object coordinates provider
        • More examples

Special modes

• Stereoscopic (3D) mode
  • Basic viewing methods
  • Stereoscopic profiles
    • Profile details
    • Anaglyph profiles
  • Stereoscopic mode vs full VR
  • Troubleshooting
  • Technical implementation
    • Low-Pass filter (smoothing)
• Planetarium mode
  • Single-projector setup
    • Spherical mirror projection
      • File format
  • Multi-projector setup
    • MPCDI
    • Gaia Sky configuration file
  • Re-projection shaders
• Panorama mode
  • Configuration
  • Creating panorama images
    • Injecting panorama metadata to 360 images
  • Creating spherical (360) videos
• Orthosphere view mode
• Eclipse representation
• External view
  • Handling resolution

Procedural content

• Procedural planets
  • Using procedural generation
    • Surface tab
    • Clouds tab
    • Atmosphere tab
  • Surface generation process
    • Seamless (tilable) noise
    • Noise parametrization
  • Cloud generation process
  • Descriptor files
    • Randomize all
    • Surface description
      • Color look-up table
      • Noise parameters
    • Cloud description
    • Atmospheric parameters description
• Procedural galaxies
  • Channels and pipeline
  • Using procedural generation
    • Procedural generation window
    • Interface overview
    • Global parameters
      • Seed
      • Morphology
      • Diameter
      • Set position to camera
      • Rotation
    • Channels
      • Particle Type
      • Distribution
      • Number of Particles
      • Translation
      • Rotation
      • Scale
      • Particle Colors
      • Color Randomness
      • Warp Strength
      • Height Scale
      • Height Profile
      • Min Radius (R_min)
      • Base Radius (R_base)
      • Particle Size
      • FBM Noise
      • Size Randomness
      • Intensity
      • Number of Arms
      • Base Angle
      • Eccentricity
      • Dx and Dy
    • Controls
  • Descriptor Files
    • Procedural Mode
    • Non-procedural Mode (Explicit Data)
    • Mixed Parameters
    • Summary

Networking

• Connecting Gaia Sky instances
  • Configuration
  • Configuration: replica instance(s)
  • Configuration: primary instance
  • Caveats
• REST Server
  • Using the REST server
  • Debug
• SAMP integration
  • Implemented features
  • Unimplemented features

Additional topics

• Advanced topics
  • Contents
    • Internal reference system
      • Description
      • Internal units
    • The configuration file
      • Program settings
      • Controls settings
      • Graphics settings
      • Data settings
      • Scene settings
      • Post-processing settings
      • Proxy settings
    • Proxy configuration
      • Use system proxy
      • Direct configuration
        • HTTP
        • HTTPS
        • SOCKS
        • FTP
    • Performance
      • Maximum heap memory
        • Heap memory on Linux
        • Heap memory on Windows
        • Heap memory on macOS
        • Heap memory when running from source
      • Graphics performance
      • CPU performance
        • Multithreading
        • Limiting FPS
        • Draw distance (levels of detail)
        • Smooth transitions
      • Safe mode
    • Graphics performance
      • Graphics quality setting
      • Dynamic resolution
      • Star brightness
      • Star groups
        • Billboards
        • Labels
        • Velocity vectors
      • Model detail
      • Bloom, lens flare and light glow
      • Antialiasing
    • Data format
      • Where are the data files defined?
        • $data/[dataset-name]/dataset.json example
        • default-data/dataset.json example file
      • Data loaders
      • Catalog formats
        • Star catalogs
        • Particle catalogs
      • JSON data format
        • Data morphology
        • Objects vs Updates
        • Basic attributes
        • Proper motions
        • Magnitudes
        • Labels
        • Locations
        • Coordinates and ephemerides
        • Model objects
        • Mesh objects
        • Orbits
        • Grids and other special objects
        • Affine transformations
        • Reference system transformations
      • Creating your own catalog loaders
      • Loading data using scripts
    • STIL data loader
      • Object IDs
      • Object names
      • Positions
      • Proper motions and radial velocities
      • Magnitudes
      • Colors
      • Variability
      • Other columns
    • Star catalog formats
      • Binary format specification
        • Metadata file
        • Star particle files
      • LOD catalog processing
        • Catalogs
        • Distances
        • Magnitude/color corrections
    • Particle catalog formats
    • Archetypes
    • Components
      • Base
      • Body
      • GraphNode
      • Coordinates
      • Orientation
      • Celestial
      • Magnitude
      • ProperMotion
      • SolidAngle
      • Shape
      • Trajectory
      • TLESource
      • ModelScaffolding
      • Model
      • Volume
      • Atmosphere
      • Cloud
      • RenderFlags
      • MotorEngine
      • RefSysTransform
      • AffineTransformations
      • Fade
      • DatasetDescription
      • Label
      • Render
      • BillboardSet
      • Axis
      • LocationMark
      • Constel
      • Boundaries
      • ParticleSet
      • StarSet
      • OrbitElementsSet
      • ParticleExtra
      • Mesh
      • Focus
      • Raymarching
      • Highlight
      • ProceduralTrigger
    • Defining an extrasolar system
      • Initial set up
      • Defining the objects
        • Stars
        • Planets
    • Star rendering
      • Pseudo-size determination
      • Star shader and rendering
    • Cubemaps
    • Virtual Textures
      • Overview
      • Creating Virtual Texture Datasets
      • Preparing the tiles
      • Tools
      • Limitations
    • Mesh warping
• System logs
  • Session log
  • Crash reports
• Changelog
• Additional resources
  • Video tutorials
  • Presentations
  • Workshop notes
    • DPAC scripting 2025
      • Before starting…
      • Scripting workshop
        • 1. Installing the environment
        • 2. API
        • 3. Our first script
        • 4. Orbiting around
        • 5. Backing up and restoring settings
        • 6. Playing with time
        • Why always different?
        • 7. Creating transitions
        • 8. Component visibility
        • 9. Camera paths
        • 10. Frame output system
        • 11. Advanced: syncing with main thread
        • 12. Console
      • Conclusion
    • MWGaiaDN outreach 2024
    • DPAC scripting 2023
    • DPAC general 2021
    • DPAC video 2020
• FAQ
  • Q: What is the base-data package?
  • Q: Why do you have two different download pages?
  • Q: Why so many Gaia-DR catalogs?
  • Q: Gaia Sky crashes at start-up, what to do?
  • Q: I’m running out of memory, what to do?
  • Q: I can’t see the elevation data on Earth or other planets!
  • Q: What is the internal reference system used in Gaia Sky?
  • Q: Can I contribute?
  • Q: I like Gaia Sky so much, can I donate to contribute to the project?