Running VR on Linux is notoriously “experimental,” especially when mixing NVIDIA hardware with Wayland-native compositors like Hyprland. SteamVR is making strides every release, and the hopes are high that before the release of the Steam Frame, VR on Linux will be on par with Windows. However, it is still not there. Gaia Sky VR on Linux with SteamVR works well, but it has sync problems that produce stutters at times. Nowadays, the better experience (according to our tests) is provided by the awesome open-source project Monado. In our experience, this runtime presents no sync issues or stutters, and offers an excellent experience if you can make it work. Of course, your mileage may vary. In this post, I detail how to run Gaia Sky VR on Linux with Monado.
For years, Gaia Sky’s UI themes have been completely static: each theme required its own set of pre-rendered source images. Want a different color scheme? You’d need an entirely new theme with separately generated assets.
Not anymore.
For the next release, we’ve implemented a new theming system by creating a single base theme with purple motifs and applying runtime color transformation through shaders. The new system converts purple elements to any accent color you choose, all happening in real-time on the GPU. The old “Theme” property in the preferences window has been replaced with an “Accent color” color picker, as demonstrated in the video below.
After several months of downtime, we are excited and relieved to announce that the Gaia Sky server is officially back online and accessible to the public!
A few months ago, the University computing center, the URZ, decided to implement a series of precautionary security measures aimed at protecting the university IT network from a cyberattack. One of these measures was to put most IT services behind a VPN network, which rendered our server inaccessible for most users.
In light of the current server downtime, we are creating this post describing how to get Gaia Sky up and running with the base data package.
Gaia Sky installer – first, you will need to download the installer for Gaia Sky version 3.7.0. Since our server is currently inaccessible, we have made this version available for download at the following link:
It’s been a month now, and unfortunately, our main download server is still offline. We know this is quite frustrating for users, as it is for us too.
For those just catching up: our server, which holds all the Gaia Sky installers, data packs, and docs, is hosted behind a Heidelberg University domain. About a month ago, the university’s IT center detected a widespread security incident and took major preventative action, which included taking our server (and many others) offline.
We regret to inform our users that our server, hosting Gaia Sky packages, datasets, and documentation, is currently inaccessible from external networks. This is due to precautionary measures taken by the University Computing Center (URZ) at the University of Heidelberg.
For more details on these measures, please refer to the official announcement from the URZ: Precautionary Measures by URZ.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will keep you updated as the situation evolves.
This post introduces an experimental galaxy generation system currently in development, which generates and visualizes galaxies in real time. By leveraging multiple channels, such as stars, gas, dust, H II regions, and the galactic bulge, the system generates diverse galaxy types, each with distinct structural features.
Below is a preview of this system’s capabilities, showcasing the generated galaxies through a series of images. This is an early look at the technology and a demonstration of how we’re using the power of GPU-based compute shaders to create somewhat realistic galaxies very rapidly. Keep in mind that this is still a work in progress, with many improvements and additional features planned before release.
Last Saturday, at the 16. Koblenzer Nacht der Technik, we had the opportunity to present Gaia Sky VR to a large and enthusiastic audience. With big queues forming and a constant stream of people eager to try the experience, we were presented with a perfect, real-world test lab. We learned a good amount by watching so many first-time users interact with the cosmos in VR. One lesson became crystal clear: the standard control scheme, while powerful for experienced users, can be a source of confusion during fast-paced public demos.
