[Kstars-devel] KStars, now with indexing!

[James Bowlin]

Once more with feeling!

The version of KStars with indexing is now available from:

$SCHEME://svn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/work/kdeedu_kstars_htm

Make sure you run a "make install" or "sudo make install" because
some of the data files have moved/changed.  The new versions should
peacefully coexist alongside the older versions.  When doing a clean 
install I noticed that Cities.dat, clines.dat, cnames.dat, and
milkyway.dat were missing from data/CMakeLists.txt so I added them
in order for the install to complete.

I suspect that if it compiles, it will work.  If it doesn't compile,
please let me know and I will try to fix the problem(s).

If you want to see for yourself that the index is working, change
line 175 in skycomponents/skymapcomposite.cpp from:

    m_skyMesh->aperture(focus, radius + 1.0, DRAW_BUF); 
to:
    m_skyMesh->aperture(focus, radius / 2.0, DRAW_BUF); 

(divide by 2.0 instead of add 1.0) which will make it so that indexed
objects will only be drawn if they are in or near the central 1/4 of
the screen.  Most things outside the solar system have been indexed.

You can also make some of the mesh triangles visible by uncommenting
lines 260 and 263 in that same file:

260:    //m_skyMesh->draw( ks, psky, scale, IN_CONSTELL_BUF );
263:    //m_skyMesh->draw( ks, psky, scale, OBJ_NEAREST_BUF );

Line 260 will cause green triangles to appear after you rightclick
on the skymap showing the trixels used to find the constellation you
clicked in.  Line 263 will show yellow triangles almost always under
the cursor when the index is used to find the object closest to the
cursor (which quickly becomes boring and annoying). I think you could
fill the screen with triangles by changing the last parameter in one
of these two calls to DRAW_BUF.

-- 
Peace, James