Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

[Xavier Onassiss]

Technology marches on, two steps forward, three steps back.

 

Or something like that.

 

I've just upgraded to Windows 7 (my old machine was obsolete, not to mention pathetic) and overall, I'm satisfied. But I need a new star-mapping program. I was using chview on my old XP machine, but chview won't work in Windows 7. So, what should I replace it with?

 

I'm working on a 'realistic' setting for Star Hero, and I'd like to use accurate, real-world star maps. I like chview because it's easy to use and free to download. Is there anything comparable to chview which is compatible with Windows 7? If/when I publish this setting, I'd like to be able to recommend a resource for players that won't require any additional cash beyond the price of the sourcebook. However, if there's a modestly priced software package that will do the job, that would also be good to know about.

 

Many thanks for whatever help my fellow Herophiles can provide.

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[Kristopher]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Have you tried running the program you were using in compaitibility mode?

 

If you right-click on the exe file for the program, choose Properties, and then the Compatibility tab. Check "Run as program in compatibility mode" and select XP SP3, probably.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Thanks for the tip, Kristopher. I've still got a lot to learn about Windows 7! Unfortunately, that didn't resolve the issue. I followed up by right-clicking and choosing 'troubleshoot compatibility' but that didn't work either. If you'd like to take a look at the software and see if you can get it running on Windows 7, you can download it here:

 

http://members.nova.org/~sol/chview/chvc.htm

 

I'm not sure if it's possible; will a 16-bit program run in Windows 7, under any circumstances?

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[Nolgroth]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

To be fair, CHView was written way back in the Win98 days. Have you tried Compatibility Mode. I have not used Win 7, but I imagine it is the same place as Vista. Right-Click > Properties. Compatibility tab. Select which version of Windows you want to emulate. If that doesn't work, I don't know. Does Win 7 support Virtual Machine? That might do it.

[Ternaugh]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

It might work with this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

 

This is Windows 7 XP mode, which is designed more for productivity apps, but if your computer has virtualization technology, and it's enabled, and you have a qualifying version of Win7 (big if: you need Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate) you might be able to use this to run your old program. Follow the instructions at the site.

 

JoeG

[Kristopher]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Thanks for the tip, Kristopher. I've still got a lot to learn about Windows 7! Unfortunately, that didn't resolve the issue. I followed up by right-clicking and choosing 'troubleshoot compatibility' but that didn't work either. If you'd like to take a look at the software and see if you can get it running on Windows 7, you can download it here:

 

http://members.nova.org/~sol/chview/chvc.htm

 

I'm not sure if it's possible; will a 16-bit program run in Windows 7, under any circumstances?

 

Did you try the Win98 compatibility mode?

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Kristopher: Just to be thorough, I tried compatibility modes for every prior version of Windows, but I got the same results.

 

Ternaugh: Thanks for the link. I checked to see if my computer is enabled to run that software; it isn't. I may not have the correct version of Windows 7.

 

I've located a list of other freeware used for 3-d star mapping on Nyrath's website, so I've got a number of possible replacements for chview. I just hope at least one of them works with Windows 7!

 

Thanks again for your help with this.

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

 

ps: there will be rep!

[Tom Carman]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Kristopher: Just to be thorough, I tried compatibility modes for every prior version of Windows, but I got the same results.

 

Ternaugh: Thanks for the link. I checked to see if my computer is enabled to run that software; it isn't. I may not have the correct version of Windows 7.

 

If you don't have the correct version of Windows 7 for Virtual PC, you should still be able to download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, which works for quite a variety of 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. The difference from Win7's Virtual PC is that you would need to supply your own WinXP to install in it. Not a problem, I'm sure.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

If you don't have the correct version of Windows 7 for Virtual PC' date=' you should still be able to download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, which works for quite a variety of 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. The difference from Win7's Virtual PC is that you would need to supply your own WinXP to install in it. Not a problem, I'm sure.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the Win XP OS on disk to install, so that would be something of a problem. I've pretty much shot my budget on this project, so I'm not prepared to buy any more software right now.

 

(I couldn't really afford the new computer, but I'm job hunting, and with the old machine about to puke and die, I couldn't afford to risk losing internet access during my job search. Damned if you do, damned if you don't....)

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[Tom Carman]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the Win XP OS on disk to install, so that would be something of a problem. I've pretty much shot my budget on this project, so I'm not prepared to buy any more software right now.

 

(I couldn't really afford the new computer, but I'm job hunting, and with the old machine about to puke and die, I couldn't afford to risk losing internet access during my job search. Damned if you do, damned if you don't....)

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

 

I'm guessing that you buy your computers already built (I build my own, aside from laptops, so it didn't occur to me that you might not have a Windows CD on hand). So hopefully the old computer will have its Windows Product key taped to it somewhere; you'll need it reinstall the copy of Windows that was installed on it. If you don't have that Product key but the old system is "noot ded yit!", then there are programs circulating on the internet for extracting that (encrypted) key from the Registry. I just browsed up How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup CD/DVD on a System with Windows Pre-loaded, check it out. You can use that on your old system if it hasn't died yet; maybe you can also use it by extracting the (hopefully still functional) hard drive from your old system.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Very cool. I may have to go that route, but I have to ask myself: do I really want to go through all this just to keep using chview? So far, it's the only software I haven't been able to run with Windows 7. I think if I find another program to replace chview that I can run with W7, it'll be easier to change the star maps.

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[Nolgroth]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Have you tried any of the programs on Nyrath's site?

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Have you tried any of the programs on Nyrath's site?

 

I'm currently checking out the list on his 3-D star maps page to find a replacement for chview.

[oakfed]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

I'm not sure if it's possible; will a 16-bit program run in Windows 7' date=' under any circumstances?[/quote']

 

32-bit Windows 7 (and Vista) can run 16-bit programs. 64-bit Windows 7 (and Vista) can't. You'd have to run it in a VM of some kind - either XP Mode (which isn't included in Home Premium, the most common version of Windows 7 on consumer PCs) or another program. Virtualbox and Virtual PC are both free - though you'll need a copy of Windows to install in the VM.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

I've made more progress on my star-map, though it isn't particularly good, to scale, etc. It does kind of work as a campaign map, so far.

 

OMG XBOX HUEG

 

This was made using AutoRealm, a free mapping tool, and comparing the awesome ExoSolar.net against the Internet Stellar Database.

 

Pretty much all three of which I found out about right here

[Cancer]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

I've made more progress on my star-map, though it isn't particularly good, to scale, etc. It does kind of work as a campaign map, so far.

 

OMG XBOX HUEG

 

This was made using AutoRealm, a free mapping tool, and comparing the awesome ExoSolar.net against the Internet Stellar Database.

 

Pretty much all three of which I found out about right here

 

SIMBAD is the master data site for objects outside the Solar System that the pros use; it includes the bibliographic data which is critical for us. Now, managing the data that can produce and understanding what all of it is is a bit of work....

[John Desmarais]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Are you familiar with this project? http://www.solstation.com/

 

I'm not sure how far along they are, but what they've been doing is recreating chview in Java, so it should run just fine on your new PC.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Are you familiar with this project? http://www.solstation.com/

 

I'm not sure how far along they are, but what they've been doing is recreating chview in Java, so it should run just fine on your new PC.

 

Hmmm...good news/bad news on that front. The Java version of chview appears to work on my Win7 machine; that's the good news. The really bad news is, all the links to data sets are giving me '404' errors. So apparently I've got a really cool star-mapping application with no stars in it....

 

Drat.

 

Still, this is definitely an improvement. All I need is the correct data file.

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

SIMBAD is the master data site for objects outside the Solar System that the pros use; it includes the bibliographic data which is critical for us. Now' date=' managing the data that can produce and understanding what all of it is is a bit of work....[/quote']

 

Their basic search gives an Internal Service Error on all versions of IE and Firefox.

 

I also can't tell how to use their site to see where stars are in relation to each other, in comparison to ISDB. I'll have to look into it when / if the server errors stop / are resolved.

[Cancer]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

?? I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.1 on a Mac and it's working just fine for me. I enter "61 Cyg" into the "Basic query" textbox and click "SIMBAD search" and away it goes.

 

I'll have to look at ISDB to see what's in that. SIMBAD was originally intended to be a bibliographic search tool, with emphasis on cross-identification between catalogs of data. Function has expanded lots since it started, 15 years ago or more. Used to be you needed a userID to get into it, and that's gone away now.

 

EDIT: Shortly later, On a Windows box with IE 8.0....., I'm batting about .500 getting their page and server errors. THey are having a rough time, it seems.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

ISDB is awesome. It is very, very good at cross referencing catalogs, I've had a few it couldn't find but not many. It also lets you see a list of nearby stars, so you can place one "key" system then place "empty" systems around it or whatever.

 

Obviously, my map doesn't portray Z-Axis relative locations well, but it does let me kind of cluster stars in a visibly useful fashion.

[Cancer]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

I understand: you want it for that mapping purpose. I end up doing that (when I want it) from input files and a code, but that's not a path most folks want.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

I understand: you want it for that mapping purpose. I end up doing that (when I want it) from input files and a code' date=' but that's not a path most folks want.[/quote']

 

I'd love to be as smart as some of you, my IQ is 139 but my "motivational IQ" is more like 86

 

IE: I tried learning programming in high school. It hurt my brain. I vowed never to write a single line of code, ever. I am intellectually lazy and a visual learner.

 

Nyrath sent me to a bunch of source data for star mapping using "Yed" Graphing Software that he used for his fabulous maps. I couldn't figure it out. He tried to explain it and I replied "Durrr, me likey pikshurs" basically.

 

AutoRealm lets me "draw by hand" and between ISDB and Exo-Solar's 3D browsing I have been slowly piecing together that map of mine.

[Cancer]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Yeah, and I paid the bills doing software for a while, so I'm on the opposite side of that chasm. And I'm a stickler for Real Physics, and I Know Too Much about the limitations of the data that are used in ISDB.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

 

Have you checked AstroSynthesis? Not free, but supported by an active community.