To Do list

[admin]

A list of things I'd like to add to the 3D Galaxy Map application:

1. Scene 5 - the satellite scene - showing all the known moons (only in Sol)
Also dwarf planets (5 - only in Sol)

The bad part - although this would be easy to setup - database and coding - the application size would grow considerably, only from the textures alone. An idea would be to have a set of default texture(s) for most of the moons, and a list of real textures for known moons (Luna, Europa, Io, Titan, etc). The parent planet's texture would have to have its texture changed - to a higher resolution - again increasing the application size.

Weird-shaped moons is another issue. The thing about 3D Galaxy Map - how it works - is that it loads a 3D scene from 3D Studio MAX, for example the sector scene: it is only a simple scene with 2 spheres. One for the star, the other for the corona. So each time a new sector is loaded, that sphere is cloned and scaled accordingly to the data taken from the database on that specific star.
For weird shaped moons a model will have to be made for each type.

2. An advanced search system Added in Scene 3

I haven't decided where I'm going to add this - maybe in scene 2 or 3. The application needs something to give full control to the user, so he can have an easy way to find information like:
How many stars are of X type?
How many stars are similar to our sun?
What are the sectors with systems with planets? - simply browsing randomly through the sectors leads to boredom
Which is the star with the most discovered exoplanets? 55 Cancri - and a button or something to take the user directly to that system
In which sectors can I find the stars belonging to Orion's belt? - this can be considered a highlight feature
I want to see a list with out of the ordinary star systems! - same as above, like Capella
etc.

Highlights might be added in Scene 2 in a future version

3. Pulsars + Pulsar planets

Pulsar planets have been discovered. If I can get my hands on a database of pulsars and then some info on the pulsar planets discovered (xyz coordinates, distance from sun, etc) this feature will be added.

4. Nebulae

Same as 3, when I will find a list of nebulae (with coordinates or some way to pinpoint their location relative to our Sun) I will add this most likely in Scene 2.

5.Star and Planet database Instead of the desktop version of 3D Galaxy Map, which would probably be written completely from scratch, I'm thinking of making a website similar to http://www.extrasolar.net which I like very much thus giving the normal user access to browse the entire database of stars, multiple systems and planets. I'm going to put the thought of the desktop version on hold for now.

6. Scene 4 - System - Orbital trajectories and habitable zones
Orbital Trajectories added in Scene 4

[admin]

7. An OpenGL version of the application - Anyone with a decent computer should experience no low fps in any scene (particulary Scene 1).

8. The Oort Cloud - I'm also thinking of adding the Oort Cloud in the Sol System

9. Full database statistics - how many stars, how many systems, planets, by class and type, etc

[Millennium]

your interactive 3D Galaxy is Wondrous!

I am using it to attempt to get to know the 'landscape' of
the Local Stars and Local Star clusters out to a hundred parsecs
or so, like the Ursa Moving Group which I was exploring today.

couple of questions, though they may have been answered in other
forum categories:

1) When I am in the 10 Parsec region around Sol, the Sun; or around
Alioth, Mizar, Megraz and Merak (Ursa UMa); I can make that 10 parsec
cube appear smaller or larger, but I cannot zoom into say 5 parsecs, or
zoom out to 20 parsecs, or a hundred parsecs -- which is what I need
to do to actually create a lasting image in my mind of the 3D relationship
between the (alleged) Sirius Stream, and Ursa Ma stream, and Pleiades
Stream, and Hyades Stream, and the local dozen or so streams or moving
groups around the Sun.

2) In the News section you described the advances in the Search system:

Update 20-Jun-2010

Four more search systems have been added:
-search by catalog (HIP, HD, etc)
-search for stars with specific types of planets (terrestrial, gas giant, etc)
-search for stars by Yerkes class (dwarf, giant, etc)
-search for stars by system type (single star, binary, etc)

Unfortunately, today, while getting to know your map and exploring
the Ursa Ma, I was unable to ask for the location of HD 95689 for
example (Dubhe, Alpha UMa), or HD 95418 (Merak, Beta UMa) as the
seach function would have required me to click through tens of thousands
of HD numbers before I got to the ones I was searching for. [It didn't
allow me to type in the number or name I wanted, or to "fast forward"
through the names list to select the one I wanted.]

Will keep spending time there, and getting to know your controls
and the Starscape.

A thousand thanks for what you have done.

You may wish to see what I am doing, and how I am progressing
each day, at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109669179052745


Millennium Twain
http://www.groupkos.com/mtwain/

[admin]

Hello,

1. I understand what you're trying to do. That functionality isn't available yet.
The thing is, I chose 10-parsec cubes because anything larger would have probably caused a significant decrease in fps.
Take for example sector (0,0,0) it has about 90 stars, each of them if (I remember correctly) having about 200 polygons for the star and 200 for the corona. So that means about 36000 polygons. Each adjacent sector has a similar number of stars and extending the sector scene to 30 parsecs for example would probably mean 900000 polygons, and I don't think a web application can handle it. The solution would be a desktop one.

check this http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=50

But there are workarounds like optimizing polygon count, etc. I have this on my To-Do list, but I'd really like to finish the search system first.

2. I think I'm going to put the name search as my next to do thing. I was planning on adding the search stars by no. of planets, asteroid belts, but this might be way more important.

Until then you can post stars here and I can search them in the database, providing you with the coordinates.

I'll post here when I get home.

HD 95418 - (-1,0,2)
HD 95689 - (-2,0,3)

[admin]

Also, thank you for the kind words

I don't have a facebook account, but I will check your link from time to time. I like the idea of grouping stars in streams or moving groups, I think that would look very nice in a desktop application. The bad thing is I don't know if there is any database that has this information.
And if you are looking for specific stars and can't find them post your list here or mail me at galaxy@3dgalaxymap.com and I'll do a select on the database and give you the coordinates.

In the meantime you can use a few tricks with the current search system. For example if you are looking for a star that has a proper name like Betelgeuse then:
- check M-type star in the Spectrum category
- check propername in the catalog category
- check single star in the system type category
(and yes if you also check supergiant in the class category, that would be perfect)

This should limit your results and you can easily find Betelgeuse. It's quite large so zoom out a bit to see how much it is compared to the Sun.

The catalog search works like this: by checking two catalogs, the results will show all the stars in the first catalog + all the stars in the 2nd catalog. Not all the stars that have both HIP and HD designations for example.