The DOGULEAN Planetarium 3.5.0
Requirements and Recommendations
Basic Requirements
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You will need a browser that supports HTML5 and WebGL. That
means that your underlying system must support OpenGL. A
reasonably recent middle-of-the-line graphics processor should
be good enough. I use a vintage 2014 Dell laptop (Inspiron 17
7000) with no problems.
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On Linux the Wayland compositor protocol (XWayland)
works a bit better than X.org (xOrg), though X.org works well
enough. If your system supports Wayland, it is probably the
default, anyway.
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On Windows or Linux, the browsers Chrome, and Firefox
are ok. MS Edge is ok except that, by default, it gives the
wrong location after Set From GPS. The
Planetarium does not support Internet Explorer or
Opera. (Opera caches a lot of stuff without needing to and
becomes slow to load.)
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On Mac OS X or iOS, versions 12.5.2 or later of
Safari perform well. Some earlier versions (10.x.x and
11.x.x) do not work. Chrome and Firefox should be ok if your
device performs adequately. The last time I checked, all
browsers on iOS were really Safari under different skins.
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A reasonably high-definition monitor should suffice –
higher definition is better.
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You need a reasonable amount of memory. Allow at least 1GB
for the Planetarium to use.
Touchscreens, Tablets, and Smartphones
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The Planetarium gestures, sliders, and buttons to adjust
numerical settings. Those will be more convenient than number
inputs unless you really nead precise values.
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I have had good results with reasonably recent tablets.
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The planetarium will actually work on the recent smartphones I
have tried, but it is not designed for such a small format.
If you just want an app on your smartphone to help identify
the stars and planets that you see in the night sky, there
are many apps that you can use for that.
Troubleshooting
If the Planetarium Runs Slowly
The Planetarium does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of 3-D
graphics – around 9,000 stars, 9 planets (counting the Sun),
30 moons, 6 sets of rings. If you are using a high zoom or an
increased time rate, that will increase the load, because the
Planetarium has to redraw the screen more often to keep the motion of
stars and planets looking smooth.
Therefore, if the Planetarium seems to be running slowly, try the
following.
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If you have changed the zoom or the time rate, set them back to
1. You can do that by reloading the Planetarium page and
clicking the “Reset to Default Settings” button on
the dialog that appears.
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If your browser has open web pages that consume a lot of
cycles — pages with ads that keep changing, especially video ads,
are likely culprits — close them.
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If what you have done so far doesn't help, close other apps that
may use a lot of cycles and restart your browser
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As a last resort, restart your computer and try loading only the
Planetarium in one browser or another.
If any of that works, play cautiously with zoom, time rate and other
web pages and apps until you get a feel for what your computer can
do. And whether it is a good idea to run the Planetarium on that
machine.
If the Planetarium Goes Blank
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The simplest possibility is that you are looking at the dark
side of a planet or moon. Try increasing altitude, by
using the Control Panel or by pressing the “up”
button by the home planet name on the onscreen controls.
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If that doesn't work, probably the Planetarium has been pushed
too far and has suffered a numerical overflow. (Some numbers on
the Control Panel may read “NaN” – for
“Not a Number”.) Usually, reloading the
Planetarium will fix this.
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If reloading does not fix it, reload again and press
“Reset to Default Settings”.
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If that doesn't fix things, you can either clear the
browser data or, if you are that kind of person, open the
DevTools on the Planetarium page and clear the local
storage. Then reload.
In either case, do send me an email saying what you did just
before the problem occurred.
ΔΟΓΟΥΛΗΣ