Xplanet is an open source graphical software written in C++ and designed to act as a solar system simulation game inspired by the Xearth game for Windows operating systems.
Xplanet renders an image of the Earth into the X11 root window of your Linux operating system, and it is capable of drawing all of the major planets and satellites. It also features eclipse shadows, multiple bodies, as well as and customizable markers and labels.
The gameplay is very similar to the Solar System Simulator application from NASA. A number of different map projections are also supported, including azimuthal, Lambert, Mercator, orthographic, Mollweide, and rectangular.
Xplanet is a platform-independent application that supports the Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.
What is new in this release:
- Add shadows from satellites on Saturn's rings, let brightness of rings go to zero as Saturn approaches equinox.
- Add trail_output option to satellite files to print out satellite positions.
- Calculate eclipse shadows a little past the terminator so they don't get cut off sharply.
- Reload satellite files in case TLE files are updated between renderings. Suggested by Lutz Mandle.
- Added Lambert Equal Area projection
- Check that -origin above or below is not specified for the Sun.
- Add patch from Doug Hawkins to support marker_* keywords in config file.
- Added the -label_body option. This is useful in conjunction with -separation to specify which body the label should apply to.
- Added the -separation option. This places the observer at a point in space where two bodies have the specified separation.
- Allow -glare 0 to remove sun glare.
- Fixed a bug where arcs were sometimes not drawn if they were vertical or horizontal lines.
- A thickness value may now be specified for arcs.
- Added max_radius and min_radius keywords to marker files. This disables drawing of the marker if the planet radius is larger than or smaller than the specified value, respectively.
- Fixed a bug where the arc color was not reset to the default color for subsequent arcs in the file.
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