Nightshade® Simulation Software
Nightshade is simulation and visualization software for teaching and exploring astronomy, Earth science, and related topics.
Our emphasis is on usability, realism, feature stability, and performance. Nightshade is largely backward compatible with scripts for Stellarium 0.8.2 and earlier using the StratoScript™ language developed and maintained by Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc. Our project site is: http://www.NightshadeSoftware.org.
Nightshade NG
Digitalis develops Nightshade NG (next generation), which is run under an open model where any user can submit a bug report, feature request, and otherwise get involved. Digitarium systems ship with Nightshade NG. Check out some feature highlights.
- Nightshade NG was a complete rewrite from the ground up which threw out the limitations inherited from earlier projects in favor of advanced features supported by cutting-edge simulation techniques.
- Commercially licensed editions for dome use are exclusive to Digitarium hardware:
- Nightshade NG Professional
- Nightshade NG Basic
Nightshade NG Basic is a budget version with more limited features, as shown below.
| Feature | Basic | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Supports add-on terrain data sets | ★ | ★ |
| 3D model support | Built-in models only. | ★ |
| Travel within the Solar System | ★ | ★ |
| Fly to stars |
|
★ |
| Fly to volumetric nebulae models |
|
★ |
| Travel outside the Milky Way Galaxy |
|
★ |
| Scientifically acurate volumetric Milky Way Galaxy model |
|
★ |
| Scientifically accurate volumetric Local Group Galaxy models (M31, M33, SMC, LMC) |
|
★ |
| Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy 3D dataset |
|
★ |
| Data Console tab in the Universal Console with curated planetary, sky survey, and point cloud datasets. |
|
★ |
| Soundscape adaptive soundtracks |
|
★ |
| Required for digital audio support | ★ |
