AstroSynthesis™ v2.0
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"In connection with the new Dark Wing Universe book project, I've been employing a wonderful piece of software: Astrosynthesis, by NBOS Software....as a result I have so far mapped out the Inner Sphere - roughly 30 parsecs from Sol System. The program is highly recommended."
- Walter Hunt
Author of the Dark Wing series (Tor)
My name is Winchell Chung, and I am the author
of the online 3-D star mapping website
http://www.projectrho.com/
Over the years I have tried almost all of the programs for star mapping, and written a few myself. But AstroSynthesis is by far the best. Nothing else even comes close. I tell everybody that if they have any interest in 3-D star maps at all, get this program. It has my seal of approval.
- Winchell Chung
Author of the Project Rho 3D star mapping site
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New features of AstroSynthesis v2.0
New Orbit Displays
- Completely new, 3D planetary and moon orbit display!
- Rotate the view to any angle, move in and out to any distance.
- Kepler correct orbital calculations. Orbits now defined with eccentricity, inclination, ascending node, and angle of periapsis.
- Planets display with any surface maps assigned to bodies
- Animated display. Bodies orbit forward or backwards at user specified rates.
- Planets and moons rotate (sidereal rotation) at a rate defined for the body
- Export movies of the animation!
Scripting API
- Plugin style scripting interface to allow the user community to extend functionality and customize the program using VBScript.
- Create new menu items & toolbar buttons.
- Basic GUI functions that let plug-in authors create windows.
- Custom system generator hooks for plug-in authors creating new generators (to support specific games, for example)
- Inspiration Pad Pro functions accessable via scripting interface
- Movie creation functions via scripting interface.
- Orbital Calculations and other Astronomy related function libraries included.
- Custom Fields for storing arbitrary data for any body on the map.
New Body Types
- New 'Ship' type for tracking star ships on your map
- New 'Fleet' type for tracking fleets of ships.
- New 'Marker' type for use as a general purpose location identifier
- New 'Deep Space Object' type. This is a type that displays at the same brightness at any distance, suitable for bodies located very far from your sector (like neighboring galaxies)
- Ability to change body types in the System Display tree
Graphics
- New star graphics w/ lens flare effects
- Custom Preview images - assign your own image files for use as preview images when a body is selected in the System Data display.
- Display custom images instead of star graphic on 3D display.
- Extended text support to all 256 ascii characters for displays on the map.
- Optimized selection of texture sizes to video cards.
- Subsector grids. Each subsector can now have its own grids, rotatable to any direction.
New storage engine
- New file format & storage engine designed to handle much larger sectors (hundreds of thousands of stars, or more).
- 64bit file access (under Windows XP), allowing for files larger than 4 GB.
- Large sector files load & save much faster.
Attributes
- Atmospheric components can be individually listed.
- Orbital parameters (Eccentricity, Ascending Node, Angle of Periapsis, Inclination, Time Past Periapis)
- Added Ring and Asteroid Belt width.
Star System Generator
- Added an 'even' distribution option. This places systems at a fixed frequency across your map, as opposed to using the 'clustering' placement used by v1.
- Generator enhanced to support new orbital elements
Program Interface
- Customizable System Data Display for all objects at the sector or body level. Track and display any fields you want!
- Drag and Drop bodies between systems to reassign them, or move child bodies to the root level
- Interplanetary Travel Calculator updated to use new orbital elements.
Surface Maps
- Atmosphere can be generated on terrestrial planets
- User selectable colors for terrestrial planet surface maps
Import / Export
- XML data import/export capability
- 2D graphic export can now output in x/y, x/z, or y/z orientations
- Insert & merge sectors together.
- Update or replace duplicated bodies when merging sectors.
Searching
- Search within selected bodies.
- Search within a specified distance of selected bodies.
- Search only bodies that are on a route with selected bodies.
- Search within any defined custom fields.
- Search either all system contents, or just the root body.
- Limit search to specific body type.
- Scripting interface for searching, allowing for custom searches and displaying the results
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