Stellarium for iDevices now available

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Hi all

A while back I mentioned that I'd like to see Stellarium ported to iPad one day as it would make a nice addition to our "iAstronomy" app collections. It looks as though a fellow called Leonid Froenchenko has come though with it - I gather that it is a port that is managed separately from the main Stellarium.org group. He's kept it under the radar for a while, as it looks as though it's been out for some weeks and has even been through an upgrade in October. There is also an iPhone version for the 3GS and newer.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/382624365/id382624365

I'd say that it's very early days, as it's a little clunky yet - with many of the standard desktop versions features missing and graphics that are a little "rushed". I suspect that the iPad version uses horizon scenery created for the smaller iPhone, hence the lack of resolution there for instance - maybe it's the same for the object image catalogue. No matter, with the amount of development attention the full version has been getting from the developers, I'm sure that it will mature very quickly. It does incorporate telescope control from the iPad via a WiFi-enabled computer running Stellarium, but I haven't been able to test it. It'd be nice if it eventually talked directly to a SkyFi or via RS232 via SkyWire.

Anyway - keen to monitor progress.

iPhone version: AU$free
iPad version: AU$1.19

Barry - where were you for the announcement?

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Updated: it it actually available for the iPhone as well, contrary to my previous entry - which I have corrected.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Chris

I know very little about the iphone version because it is not yet under our wing. Leonid is a regular contributor and is up to date on the development of Stellairum and it is his own project. From what I can gather however it is a very good adaptation of Stellarium and we will hear more of it. Has it got a Russian version or Right to left script? I think he is working in this area at the moment.

I am thinking of buying an iphone just to play with it.

Barry

[Chillie (Henry)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Updated: it it actually available for the iPhone as well, contrary to my previous entry - which I have corrected.

It doesn't work on a 2nd Generation iPod Touch.

When I tried to download it, it gave me the following message:

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Henry - your iPod is based on the older hardware, and the developer has chosen to use the more modern APIs to run his app than the 2nd Gen iPod can support. You'll probably find this happening more and more as time goes on. Sadly, hardware doesn't stay fresh for long these days - Moore's Law. Here's an explanation from Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/i...-supports-1-1/

When we were breaking down the meaty differences between the old-school 3G and the 3G S yesterday, we made an assumption about support for OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics APIs in the original iPhone 3G based on the fact that it had been available in the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK for several betas. Turns out, though, that the graphics processor in the 3G S -- the PowerVR SGX -- supports hardware acceleration of both OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 while the more pedestrian PowerVR MBX found in the iPhone 3G supports 1.1 alone.

What does this mean to you? OpenGL ES is the lightweight version of OpenGL, a powerful library of real-time 3D rendering APIs; many modern phones and other handheld devices support the older 1.1 specification, but 2.0 is less common -- it kicks things up a notch by supporting more complex textures and shading operations, which basically means games written to support it look more badass. Here's the problem, though: because OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 are completely incompatible with each other, apps need to be written to support both if they're going to be maximally compatible. A 2.0-only app can't simply run on a 1.1-only device and not look as good -- it won't work at all.

Here's where it gets interesting. The App Store has already splintered a bit with certain applications being unavailable to iPod Touch users (dialers, for example), but language in Apple's iPhone SDK documentation leads us to believe that the company eventually intends to begin allowing it to splinter even among iPhone models, maybe as soon as the 3G S is released. That is, they'll allow apps that are only compatible with the 3G S because they're written to take advantage of OpenGL ES 2.0 and don't offer a 1.1 fallback:
"When designing your OpenGL ES application, the first question you must answer is whether your application will support OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenGL ES 2.0, or both... Your application should target OpenGL ES 1.1 if you want to support all iPhones and iPod touches."
Realistically, it was bound to happen; platform aside, hardware is always improving, and it's paralyzingly difficult to require that all apps be compatible with all of a platform's devices regardless of age -- particularly when it comes to gaming. We imagine this'll be an issue with apps taking advantage of the 3G S' other specific features like the magnetic compass and video recording support, too. Question is, what'll be that must-have game (or compass, we suppose) that spurs stubborn 3G owners into shelling out a few hundred bucks they didn't intend to?

[Chillie (Henry)]

Not to worry. I have Stellarium set up on my laptop and netbook, and have it installed on my Leeder Pad 10 but haven't st up my location on that yet.