Hi All,

I've put together an experimental build of Astro. This is essentially
Astro2 with a new database storage system for its data. The purpose of
switching to a database is for better reliability (especially with larger
sectors) and more flexibility (makes searching easier, data more
accessible). What I'm looking for is for people to try this out by opening
their existing sectors and seeing how well everything gets carried over
(bodies, routes, planet previews, etc). The v3 format is completely
different from the v2 format, so when you open a v2 file it will need to
convert it first to the v3 file under a different file extension. Astro1 &
Astro2 used the .sector file extension, Astro3 uses .AstroDB. It will then
open the new file.

This build is experimental. So dont use it for anything important!!! as 1)
it may crash out or have major problems with the storage system, and 2) the
format will definitely evolve as things move toward the actual Astro3
release next year and I wont be maintaining any means of migrating to new
versions of the database schema until the first betas. Also, while the new
build wont open .sector files without converting them first, it still
wouldnt hurt to backup any sector files you try to open...just in case.

You'll need a commercial copy of Astro2 to test this out.

To install:

1) In your Astro2 directory (c:\program files\nbos\AstroSynthesis2), copy
your "astro2.lic" file to "astro3.lic". (dont rename, rather make a copy,
as you'll still need it for astro2)

2) Unzip the contents of this zip file into the Astro2 directory:

http://www.nbos.com/support/builds/Astro3_experimental.zip


To run this experimental build, run Astro3.exe.

Let me know how it goes! If you want to look directly at the data in the
database, you can use any database client that can view sqlite databases,
including the command line client available from sqlite's web site.

Ed

ps: surface map generation is also significantly faster in this build as
well as I've been optimizing some of those routines.


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