Exprimental build of Stellarium (two new plug-ins)

[Daggerstab]

I am looking for test subjects. I mean, software testers. Or people who are tempted by the features described below.

I have uploaded an experimental package of Stellarium to the usual place:

https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download

(look for stellarium-bzr4766-experimental02-win32.exe)

It is similar to the usual test builds that are simply snapshots of the development code, but this time it includes two plug-ins that are still under development:

• Print Sky (by Pep Pujols) prints star charts and Solar System ephemerides directly from Stellarium;
  
• Comets and Asteroids (by me) allows you to import comet and asteroid data (even download it directly from the Internet), including comet 103P/Hartley. It also does some things in behind the scenes so that comet and asteroid magnitudes are calculated correctly.
  

I've uploaded to YouTube some videos demonstrating the Comets and Asteroids plug-in in action:

This is the second version of this experimental package. The main differences are two:

• I've added an on-line search feature to the Comets and Asteroids plug-in (demonstrated in the second video)
  
• I've tried to fix the Print Sky plug-in (it had some problems with the legibility of the printout) and to make its interface sleeker
  

There is also a new feature in the main code: you can install new landscapes directly from the ZIP files that you can download from the Stellarium Wiki (Landscapes).

Please don't report any bugs affecting the experimental plug-ins in Stellarium's bug tracker - they are still not an official part of Stellarium.

Please do leave comments here.

[Daggerstab]

Any feedback? I'm particularly interested in how well the Print Sky plug-in works - there was a problem in it in the first version of the experimental build.

[Ags]

Wow - I've got to try out the asteroids/comets plugin!

[xyz]

well I tried it but had the problem that the label text was unreadable. I unloaded it again before I checked if this beta version had a "No Open GL2" option.

[Daggerstab]

well I tried it but had the problem that the label text was unreadable. I unloaded it again before I checked if this beta version had a "No Open GL2" option.

It should have that shortcut - the Inno Setup script that generates the installer is the same, and the code that implements the safe mode shouldn't be any different.

Do you have the same issue with the standard 0.10.5?

[xyz]

Yes, I have to run the "no open " option on my (old) IBM ThinkPad laptop. On my newer desktop the "open" version runs fine. I think it's just a legacy hardware issue. So from this you can see that I tried the beta version on my old laptop. I'll give it a go on the desktop later today.

[xyz]

OK, I've downloaded the beta onto my desk top and it has the same label problem, the label text sort of shuffles to the right as the time runs, each letter crawls along bit by bit. But as to testing the plug-ins - bit difficult to follow the YouTube vids - it goes too fast for me to follow the instructions. Sorry about that.

Richard

[Daggerstab]

OK, I've downloaded the beta onto my desk top and it has the same label problem, the label text sort of shuffles to the right as the time runs, each letter crawls along bit by bit.

Yes, I've reported it as a bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/stellarium/+bug/666837

But as to testing the plug-ins - bit difficult to follow the YouTube vids - it goes too fast for me to follow the instructions. Sorry about that.

The videos were intended as demonstrations, not instructions. Sorry about the frame rate - running Stellarium and a screen-capturing application is a bit too much for my computer. You can pause them, though.

Using the plug-ins is supposed to be self-explanatory. If you find some aspect of them hard to understand and/or "user-unfriendly", please do describe it - this is the point of testing.