Write your own Einstein@home screensaver

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Here's a linux version at

Here's a linux version at least. Try pressing some keys & see what happens ... a virtual prize awaits for those who do !? :-()

A - shows the x/y/z rendering axes in red ( for debugging ).

C - toggle ( yellow ) constellation lines on celestial sphere.

E - toggles the Earth ! 

G - toggles the right ascension & declination grid ( grey ) on the celestial sphere.

H - toggles rotation of the whole thing.

O - toggles the observatories.

P - toggles the ( purple ) pulsars on the celestial sphere.

R - toggles the ( red ) supernova remnants on the celestial sphere.

S - toggles the ( white ) stars on the celestial sphere.

U - toggles the ( green ) gamma emitters on the celestial sphere.

ESC - exits the program ( or use the window controls of course ).

{ Download it to somewhere harmless. You'll have to enable it under it's properies/permissions as allowed to execute. Then invoke it from the command line in a terminal session, say. Zoom in and out by holding the right mouse button down and dragging. The LIGO/Virgo/GEO interferometers each appear on the surface in pink, with a local zenith/east/north axes set. It just randomly rotates at present, I'm working on a way for the user to twirl it around with the mouse by dragging upon it with the left mouse button down : that's not a trivial problem. Also I'm expecting your graphics driver to be decent enough to have the right API version available ( v3.3 of OpenGL or better will do ). Plus things do look a bit fish-eye close up due to the projection algorithm .... }

Also I have dropped the mingw cross-compiler build as you can just install it from Ubuntu's repositories anyway. Oh well, it was a fun project to build it from source code. 

Any resemblance to the official Starsphere screensaver is deliberate. I haven't released it as a screensaver yet, just maximise the window & you'll get the idea. 

Any queries ? Just ask .... :-0

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Sorry, forgot to mention it's a 64bit executable.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

cecht
cecht
Joined: 7 Mar 18
Posts: 1421
Credit: 2444762318
RAC: 1502419

Yes, very cool. Looks sweet!

Yes, very cool. Looks sweet! Nice work.

Maybe make the gray grid lines thinner? I think it looks best with them toggled off, though, so I wouldn't use it much anyway with them on.

I have trouble distinguishing the magenta/purple dots from the red ones, so it's nice to allow toggling of them and the other features.  For when everything is toggled on, perhaps provide a better color contrast? Maybe a yellow or orange instead of red?

Ideas are not fixed, nor should they be; we live in model-dependent reality.

Holmis
Joined: 4 Jan 05
Posts: 1118
Credit: 1055935564
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When you get the Windows

When you get the Windows version out I'll happily test it for you! Cool

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284706835
RAC: 110483

Thank you kind sir ! :-) I'd

Thank you kind sir ! :-)

I'd just be wrestling with that particular slippery hog as we speak .....

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284706835
RAC: 110483

Here's a Windoze 32 bit

Here's a Windoze 32 bit version at last ! :-)

That hogs' last gasp on the build was an issue with libstdc++-6.dll compatibility but I've statically built that sucker into the executable. 

I am a Cross-Compile God !! Woo .... wooo ....  wooo :-)

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Holmis
Joined: 4 Jan 05
Posts: 1118
Credit: 1055935564
RAC: 0

Nice work Mike! I took the

Nice work Mike!

I took the win version for a spin and it seems to work as it should, all of the controls listed in your previous post works and the Earth do look cool in the center!

Keep it up!

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284706835
RAC: 110483

You may notice that the mouse

You may notice that the mouse wheel scroll will change the magnification of the image. Don't scroll too far either way with that as it can really muck up the viewing transform with weird results. I think I'll put in code to limit that. Supernovae remnants are now orange. I've darkened the gridlines for the celestial sphere and have them off by default.

Cheers, Mike. 

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

cecht
cecht
Joined: 7 Mar 18
Posts: 1421
Credit: 2444762318
RAC: 1502419

Sounds good Mike, but your

Sounds good Mike, but your prior link to graphics_TEST02_linux-gnu, while to a more recent file, seems to not include the updated features you mention. Is there a graphics_TEST03_linux-gnu version somewhere that I'm missing?

Ideas are not fixed, nor should they be; we live in model-dependent reality.

Holmis
Joined: 4 Jan 05
Posts: 1118
Credit: 1055935564
RAC: 0

Mike Hewson wrote:You may

Mike Hewson wrote:
You may notice that the mouse wheel scroll will change the magnification of the image. Don't scroll too far either way with that as it can really muck up the viewing transform with weird results. I think I'll put in code to limit that.

I did figure the scroll wheel out Cool
Zooming to far either in or out turns the Earth up side down!
Is this some sneaky way for you Aussies to get to be on top for once!? Tongue Out

Nothing I've done has had any lasting negative effects and most importantly no crashes!

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284706835
RAC: 110483

Sorry Cecht, I'd forgotten

Sorry Cecht, I'd forgotten myself in haste. Here's the latest ( TEST05 we'll call it ) executables for Windows  and linux. They have those mentioned features and in the bottom left corner is a test example of a new class "TexturedHUDParallelogram" which applies a texture, with some transparency, to a parallelogram on the near face of the orthographic transform plane. If you zoom in you'll see the transparency. It's not perfect as I've inadvertently begun in the wrong place of a BMP file but I'll fix that. It's meant to be one of the E@H logos. .... now to generalise the case ! 

As for right side up etc, it all depends on the viewpoint eh Holmis ? One good thing about the Earth globe is the ever changing perspective with all manner of orientations that teach geography in 3D. For instance the shortest distance from the USA to Russia is over the North Pole, which explains its Cold War importance.

Now back to some coding. Thanks gentlemen for taking an interest. :-)

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

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