Gaia Sky News: Zentrum für Astronomie

News ⋅ Downloads ⋅ Documentation ⋅ Videos ⋅ Contact info ⋅ Acknowledgements

New release candidate 4 for Gaia Sky 3.5.0

2023-05-24 08:32

Today we publish the fourth release candidate to Gaia Sky 3.5.0, Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC4. It fixes some bugs and contains a couple of new features:

Enable labels for regular particle cloud datasets.
New unsharp mask algorithm which produces much better results.
Remove non-instanced triangle rendererer for particle and star sets.
Use screen-aligned billboards in regular mode, and scene-aligned ones in any of the cubemap modes (360, planetarium, etc.).

Here are the full release notes, and here the dowlonads.

Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC3 is out

2023-05-15 09:57

We have just published the third release candidate to Gaia Sky 3.5.0, Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC3. It includes several bug fixes, a lot of library updates (and some removals), and the following notable features:

Support for textrue arrays in particle sets.
Hard max. distance limit set at 50 Gpc.
Activate v-sync in welcome and loading screens. Fix FPS lock mode to hit the defined target FPS setting with precision.
Top info interface time and date are clickable, and open the date edit dialog.

Here is the full release notes, and here are the dowlonads.

The OpenXR migration is complete

2023-05-09 15:48

We just fixed the last elusive bug in Gaia Sky VR. The controller interaction with the VR control panel had a problem where the intersection detection was a bit off randomly. With the fix, the interactions with all in-scene VR menus is pixel-perfect. This is the last big issue remaining towards Gaia Sky 3.5.0, so the release is now very close! Here is a video: https://mastodon.social/@jumpinglangur/110339029481138017.

Release candidate 2 is out!

2023-05-02 09:27

Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC2 is now available. It contains some important bug fixes (especially for VR) and a global library update to the most recent versions. As always, this is an RC, so please do not forget to report any bugs you encounter in our bug tracker.

Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC1 now available!

2023-04-27 14:47

Today we make available the first release candidate version of Gaia Sky 3.5.0. As pointed out in a previous post, Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC1 comes packed with new features and bug fixes. As this is a release candidate, please do not forget to report any bugs you encounter in our bug tracker.

New features in Gaia Sky 3.5.0

2023-16-04 11:25

The new version of Gaia Sky, 3.5.0, is just around the corner, and it comes with big improvements and exciting new features. In this post, we detail some of the new features in the upcoming Gaia Sky 3.5.0.

Migration to OpenXR: we have moved the VR version of Gaia Sky from the old and clunky OpenVR/SteamVR to new standard OpenXR API by the Khronos group, which is supported natively by all the main players in the VR space. Whatever your choice of VR headset, chances are that with this update Gaia Sky VR will work with it.
Spherical mirror projection: we add support for the spherical mirror projection for single-projector setups using a mirror. You need to supply your own mesh warp file for it to work. If you don't have your own warp file, you can try with one of the generic one provided here.
glTF support: glTF is the new standard format for 3D models and scenes. In this version, we add support for loading glTF models (and also glTF-binary and glTF-embedded) directly into Gaia Sky. This required of some shader tweaking to fully adapt to PBR (physically-based rendering). We now support ambient occlusion and occlusion-metallic-roughness textures in our shaders.
New camera key bindings: press and hold Z to speed up the camera motion, use Ctrl-C to toggle cinematic mode, and Ctrl-M to circle between the different camera modes.

Additionally to these new features, the new release comes with many smaller bug fixes, improvements in the JSON data format and new scripting API calls.

Hello world!

2023-16-04 10:55

Today we are adding this "Gaia Sky news" section to our webpage. In this section, we will publish new releases, release notes, and also Gaia Sky dev news and curiosities. Stay tuned!