On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 13:48:29 -0000, "moogle33"
wrote:

Hello Everybody I have written a starchart application in visual c++ and I
was hoping somebody could test it and maybe give me some constructive
critism.
PS it needs an opengl 3D graphics card.

James


VERY Nice.

Very simple to get used to it.

I noticed I had to exit and restart to get my location to work/update
(Sydney Australia is closest), but that was no drama.

I love the mouse zooming and moving.

Ok, constructive crit. I don't know how far you want to go with it,
but I wonder if you want to allow different bitmaps for the stars?
I like them, but the zoom obviously turns them into squares, which is
a pity, since if you are zooming in on M42, for instance, it looks
distracting, even though it's a nice effect.
It becomes obvious if you set the magnitude slider at max, even zoomed
out to the max. The image is better if you are at about 75% on the
magnitude slider.


I know the effect you are aiming for with the "ground", but I prefer
to either have it completely block out the stars, or not be there at
all. The transparency is cute, but I wouldn't use it.

The Milky Way is *very nice*, and I'd probably have that on all the
time.

Minor niggles:

In the "view" menu, I'd have the options a tad better described.
"Charts" should be "RA and Dec Lines" or "Local Grid" or "Grid Lines",
and "Constellations" should be "Constellation outlines"

I love the program.

No problems with running it in background/minimised, and minimal
impact on CPU.

You've done awesome with a "small" amount of code :-))

BTW:

My System is a P4 2.6 Ghz, 512 MB, Windows XP, Nvidia TNT2/64MB, with
latest drivers. I'm going to try it on the Linux box if I can get the
damn OpenGL to work properly for more than 20 minutes at a time.

I'll run it for a few weeks, and give it to my kids (16 and 18) to try
out.


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