0.19.0

  • Release Date: 2023-06-27

  • Commit: f6e2cd88

  • Full changelog: link

Download v0.19.0 on the OpenSpace website installation page. Below are notes that highlight new content, features, and bug fixes that will be of most interest to OpenSpace users.

New content

  • Profile on ESA’s Juice mission

  • Profile on NASA’s Artemis-1 mission

  • An offline profile that can be used without internet access

  • An empty profile that can be used as a starting point for custom profiles

  • Layer files that utilize the new AMNH-based WMS server (These layers will load faster for users located closer to New York, NY than other server locations)

  • Objects that can be used to show the scale of other objects, for example the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc

  • Other new content includes: top dwarf planets, assets for the Shepherd moon group of Saturn system, new moons to outer planets, Itokawa model and a v3 WAC layer for the Moon

  • New map layers include: a 99.5% coverage CTX layer for Mars, a layer for the moon of Triton using Voyager2 information, a Mosaic layer from the Lunar Orbiter Mosaic, a combined clouds-magellan layer for Venus and a combo layer that shows the NOAA20 VIIRS layer and transitions to the ESRI ground layer

Improvements to existing content

  • Data Updates

    • Existing outer planets SPICE Kernels

    • Data from the exoplanets archive

    • Digital Universe catalogue

    • Small solar system body assets to use updated Horizons data

  • Update all assets to a new consistent coding style

  • Set default settings for blue marble height to make it look similar to the ESRI terrain layer

  • Profiles

    • Disable most objects in the Asteroids profile at startup

    • Add more explanation about the static magnetosphere and Resetting the CME loop also sets the delta time to 1 in the Bastille Day profile

    • Update kernals in Juno proile

  • Add trail that co-revolves with L2 around the Sun and change terra layer to VIIRS20 in the JWST profile

New features

  • Ability to customize the complexity of the user interface by choosing how many of the properties are visible

  • Toggling objects in the scene menu will now fade them in and out over a given time, rather than toggling them instantaneously

  • Ability to add videos to globes, spheres, and planes. The videos can be played back at their native speed or stretched to cover arbitrary time ranges. The data/asset/examples/video asset files include examples of how to use this feature

  • A complete redesign of the documentation generated by OpenSpace. The new documentation now includes more information, is easier to navigate, and includes links to other important sources of information. It can be found in the same location as before under documentation/index.html

  • Include a new technique to display GeoJSON files on globes. This feature can be used to render line strips and polygons onto the surface of any planet

  • The Mission GUI provides information about mission duration and milstones. This is a first step towards making mission profiles more accessible to users without prior knowledge. The Mission GUI can be opened using the rocket ship icon in the bottom menu bar of mission profiles

  • A “Getting Started Tour” can be toggled through the … menu in the bottom right corner. The tour instructs new OpenSpace users how to navigate and operate the different settings in the menus

  • Replace the previous caching method for GlobeBrowsing layers with an MRF-based cache. This allows the caching of any remote layers locally on the computer

  • Fade out stars and other objects in atmosphere during daylight

  • The ability for the image inset to have both sharp or rounded corners in Skybrowser

  • The ability to drag and drop images to change their order in the viewer in Skybrowser

  • The ability to select individual constellation

Bug fixes

  • Prevent crash when moving to an early date in the JWST profile

  • Make the local bookmarks file print their error message if they fail and continue evaluating the file

  • Fix issue that would cause actions in the Action panel to not be sorted based on their name or identifier

  • Provide error message when running OpenSpace from a folder containing a ‘, “, [, or ] rather than providing obscure error messages

  • Fix issue with the sky browser spacecraft pointing where it would not point correctly under some circumstances