Gaia Sky 3.3.0

Code Refactoring

• the largest change in this version by far is the complete refactoring of the internal model. We have moved from an object-oriented inheritance hierarchy to an entity component system (ECS).
• move render lists to Java collections.
• flatten object hierarchy by removing some classes, merging their functionality upwards.
• abstract attitude loading system, remove Gaia class, use heliotropic satellite.
• add I18nFormatter to reformat i18n files.
• remove old date formatting infrastructure (desktop, html, mobile) in favor of a direct approach.
• remove useless number formatting infrastructure.

Features

• enable minimizing focus info interface.
• adjust debug interface layout.
• key bindings file versioning. If the key bindings file starts with the line #v[version], that version is compared to the default one and overwritten when necessary. That makes updating key bindings much easier.
• recompute UI scale at startup when starting with default config file.
• add back-buffer scale API call.
• add back-buffer scale controls to UI.
• add repository to -v information.
• rename fisheye post-processing effect and shader to reprojection. Update cubemap projection from fisheye to azimuthal equidistant.
• add shaders for Lambert equal-area, orthographic and stereographic projections.
• add re-projection GUI drop-down in preferences window. Add setReprojectionMode() scripting API call.
• include orthographic projection in panorama mode. Includes both hemispheres on the screen, side by side. Can be cycled through with ctrl+shift+k.
• Include "orthosphere" panorama mode -- orthospherical projection with both hemispheres overlaid to give a view of the celestial sphere from the outside.
• add new camera mode, orthosphere view, which includes the regular and the cross-eye orthosphere projections.
• add cross-eye view of the orthographic projection of the celestial sphere
• add support for KTX and ZKTX textures.
• change from thread to scheduled task to remove the mode change info pop-up.
• add mode change pop-up setting to enable or disable showing a pop-up with information when changing modes (panorama, planetarium, stereo, etc.).
• add GUI button to exit stereo mode.
• add new object type, 'cosmic locations', to mark the positions of interesting areas or regions.
• enable scene lights for shape objects when static light is off.
• new model attribute 'blendMode', which defaults to 'alpha' but can also be set to 'additive' to control the object blending.
• enable gamepad operation in welcome GUI.
• add zero-point to gamepad configuration.
• introduce gamepad support for spacecraft mode, remove 'Gaia scene' camera mode (can be mimicked with focus mode), refactor input controllers, fix default SDL gamepad mappings file.
• add several new functions to enable setting the camera state from scripts.
• add time zone to settings. Time zone can be either UTC, or the system default. Update date dialog year limits, fix time component layout.
• adapt raymarching effects work with ECS model.
• light glow effect now works with ECS model.
• expose post-processor properties as settings in configuration file.
• save configuration when closing dataset manager window.
• add popup notice when opening the keyframes window if component 'others' is not visible.
• add full screen bit depth and refresh rate to fully qualify selected full screen modes.
• improve layout and information of crash window.
• add notice when there are no datasets.

Bug Fixes

• disable tessellation on macOS by default.
• bug in latest version determination in version checker.
• remove unnecessary spacing in layout of focus info interface.
• trajectory size determination algorithm not accurate, breaks when adding points close to the origin.
• add model size attribute to compute solid angle for model objects more accurately.
• correctly query graphics device for resolution and apply scaling.
• toggling SSR and motion blur does not update depth state in some shaders.
• double definitions in shader libraries.
• render constellation boundaries as closed polygons in order to avoid artifacts.
• index errors in keybaord in controller GUI.
• back-buffer scale is now applied correctly (and only once), works with external view.
• remove angle from zenith from cubemap renderer in planetarium, use shader-based solution.
• prevent rendering titles if panorama mode is on.
• initialize position from coordinates object during initialization phase.
• land at location never returns. #674
• set foucs with FocusView object type. #671
• provide a correct index mapping for arbitrary attributes with string values.
• particle size of interactively loaded point cloud datasets.
• vertically flip UV coordinates of two-faced billboard to correct texture orientation.
• regression in billboard group rendering. #663
• update coordinates in invisible only when present. #662
• prevent runtime error due to non-invertible matrix in spacecraft entity.
• diffuse color contribution calculated incorrectly when nLights > 1 in normal shaders.
• names in star groups can now be localized, fix focus name in panel.
• translate strings of filters, shapes, datasets and minimap. #403
• moon orbits are recomputed more often.
• filters crash with instanced star renderers.
• modal windows made not collapsible by default.
• hotkey tooltip backgrounds.
• jump in Pluto's orbit due to deviation between full periods.
• highlight 'all visible' setting in quad-based star renderers.
• frame sequence number synchronized, value updated when opening preferences.
• use view angle instead of view angle apparent in go to object API call.
• increase number of vertices of minimap shape renderer, fixes crash in heliosphere minimap.
• typo in Jupiter English translation file, add meshes to data descriptor file.
• break link in dataset manager if too long.
• make sure direction and up vectors are orthogonal in camera transition call.
• increase size star point buffer when needed.
• null-check satellite attitude before getting quaternion. #402
• empty tips may crash Gaia Sky at startup.
• 'add scene graph object' event missing source object. #400
• remove phase of pi radians in default-model orbital elements.
• regression with libgdx 1.11.0 that caused vertical tooltips.
• null-check settings in crash reporter.
• workaround for libgdx backslash bug in asset manager. Fixes #398
• hide system cursor correctly with GLFW until libgdx 1.10.1 is released.
• use minimum width for debug interface to prevent dynamic resizing depending on content.

Build System

• move repository from Gitlab to Codeberg.
• update Gitlab references to Codeberg, when possible. Use Codeberg API for version checking.
• update changelog template repository to Codeberg.
• remove Gitlab CI file.
• extract documentation to own project, which is no longer a submodule.
• upgrade to libgdx 1.11.0 and LWJGL 3.3.1 --- this adds M1 Mac support.
• add aarch64 JRE to macOS bundle for M1 machines. Move to macOS single bundle archive from deprecated old single bundle.
• force safe graphics mode on M1 macOS.
• use default GC (G1) in favor of Shenandoah (only LTS).
• upgrade gradle wrapper version to 7.5.1.

Documentation

• update repository pointers to Codeberg.
• update in-app mastodon reference from cat to social, as it's in English.
• remove twitter link, add mastodon hashtag.
• improve comments on color maps GLSL code.
• add new panorama orthographic projection to API Javadocs.
• remove wrong license (leftover from old copy-paste) in fisheye fragment shader code.
• add contributor.
• typos and so.

Style

• mend variable names in about window to follow camel case.
• fix linter stylistic warnings in GUI and interfaces.