Tellurium ?

[cagarini]

There used to be a link into it in the Add-ons section. No longer there ?

[martin]

Ah, someone noticed. 

Hardy has removed the link at my (the author's) request.

It's a weird story.
I had to switch to a new computer (and Windows 10) some time ago, and recently discovered that Tellurium behaved very strangely:

PSX is still running perfectly normal on the new box (of course!  ), but as soon as I start Tellurium, the CPU gets hammered, and its temperature shoots up, within seconds, from the normal ca 40°C to over 80° or even 90°, which (for a non-overclocked desktop PC) is worrying and possibly dangerous. I have also had lots of crashes (uncommanded reboots), and it's not clear if that was due to overheating or to other reasons.
I have so far been unable to determine the exact cause of this issue.

So, in order not to lure newcomers (who would look at the Aerowinx "Add-ons" page) into these potential problems, I asked Hardy to remove the link.
Two days later, Steve Hose published his YouTube video, which features Tellurium, apparently still working just fine. And at least one other user (Brian C.) has also tried it since and reported no issues. So it currently looks as if only the Tellurium's author has problems with it, no doubt for his sins.

The good news: For the insiders (i.e. forum readers) who know about it already, the download from my website is still valid. (This is the newer streamlined variant by Steve Hose. The original one had a METAR field which no longer works, and should no longer be used; see the "Update" note in the documentation.)

If anyone actually still runs Tellurium, please let me know if you encounter any strange things, in particular an overloaded/overheated CPU or even crashes.

Obviously, proceed at your own discretion and risk...
You have been told.

Cheers,
Martin "Iceman 90C" E.

[cagarini]

Ah!

Thank you Martin, and indeed that video I posted, recorded by Steve, was the reason I rushed trying to get it back working on my PC.

I can confirm I had several problems in two different desktops when I last used Tellurium with Chrome in Win 10.
I tried with Mozilla too.
Main effects were very low FPS on both PSX and a stutter fest in the "Map view" - the only I use with your App.

I believe there's some option to stop Chrome from doing some "nasty" stuff in the background. Latest versions came with it, and don't co-exist pacifically with Win 10.

Will search the net for the various suggestions available on how to disable that.

And big thank you! for the links Martin ;-)

P.S.:

First reference here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/80233-enable-disable-google-chrome-background-tab-throttling-windows.html

[martin]

Be advised that there are other issues. When I recently tried Tellurium, I discovered that a lot of things have changed. (Which is why it took me so long to nail the issues down; initially I had assumed these changes were the cause.)

¤ The Cesium Javascript library has been updated, and API etc have changed
But as I now know, Tellurium still works with the old, severely pared-down, variant which comes with it.

¤ Cesium (now "Cesium.ion") seems to have been reorganized (and thus access keys changed, etc), although some kind of free access/use is apparently still possible.

¤ Bing (Microsoft) as the (formerly default) map provider no longer works for me; perhaps simply a matter of getting a new access key or something, but I haven't bothered as other sources (including Open Source ones) can be selected.

¤ The former default terrain provider apparently is no longer available either, so you may currently get only flat maps/satellite images.
(It may be simply yet another change in access, and there may be alternatives; but due to the troubles described above, I cannot test any of this.)
For the Moving Map function this does not matter anyway, but the "3D cockpit view" does not make much sense any more without 3D terrain.

Cheers,
Martin "Flatman" E.

[Will]

Hi martin,

I found and downloaded the new streamlined Tellurium about a week ago, but in reading its literature it seemed to me that the new version is the BOOST version only, i.e. capable of showing the view from a camera that can be panned and tilted.

I'm only interested in a moving map (for use in terminal areas), not a camera that can be tilted and panned.

Is the streamlined version available in a non-BOOST format? Or is the non-BOOST, older version one that gave you problems?

Thanks!

[martin]

Hello Will,

to clarify:

¤ Both the old MAIN version and the BOOST version have (fake) "3D cockpit view" and sport that "camera control" widget.
The difference was about which PSX server (MAIN or BOOST) they use.

¤ But I would forget about the MAIN version: these days, the BOOST version is more up to date and better.

¤ The original BOOST version had (mainly as a space filler gimmick ) a field where real time METARs could be fetched from the Internet.
But that does no longer work after the change with the NOAA servers (and the new ones cannot be accessed from Tellurium).

¤ The best version to use nowadays is thus the BOOST version as modified by Steve Hose.
His "streamlining" affects only the "GUI" (= web page): it's now more "minimalist", and the METAR field (now useless) has gone.
It's this version which I tried, and which is giving me grief, but nota bene, this has nothing to do with Steve's modifications, it is a more fundamental issue. (And only for me, it seems, I have now heard from yet another user who kindly re-tested, and had no problems. As Homer already said: Δ'οχ!)

¤ The functionality proper is however the same as before, thus you will still get the "3D cockpit view" and the "camera control" widget.

That said: In the context of my struggle to understand what's going on (apparently only on my box) with that CPU bashing, I am currently trying indeed to rebuild a "mini" version (I guess Marketing will call it"Tellurium lite" [sic]) which does away with the 3D view, the "camera" widget (and related Java Swing complications), and makes the whole thing "Moving Map only" (which is perhaps the proper niche anyway; for 3D scenery, everyone will use FSX/P3D or X-Plane these days).

The idea was to make that for my own private use only, but now the happily sleeping dog has been woken up; and if anything comes of it of more general usability (no promises), I'll report back.
There may still be a market (ha!) for a simple (ha ha!)  moving map for PSX, after all, and if so, why not Tellurium lite (or may be I just call it Helium? Makes one squawk, too! )

Cheers,
Martin "the Earth is flat anyway" E.

[Will]

I would happily risk my CPU to test your Helium, martin!

A simple 2D moving map is really all I need, mostly for taxiways and parking.

[martin]

Thanks, duly noted!
Then again, I have just tried, for the first time after making all the simplifying changes, to connect the web page to Helium, and the box promptly crashed again... So, don't hold your breath. (Bonus: no Helium, no squawking yet).

Cheers,
Martin "Reboot! Reboot!" E.

PS
Showing the sketch linked above on German TV has become (and perhaps still is) a New Year's Eve tradition since the sixties of the last century. Later that tradition expanded to Finland, too... One can watch it a dozen times and will still discover new nuances (esp. in Freddie Frinton's body language...)

[Steve Hose]

Oh my goodness, now I've done it 

Glad to see interest in Tellurium revived as it really is a (somewhat underappreciated) gem for PSX customers. I would say a must-have, it's that handy.

I found that the camera widget is heavy on CPU usage on low-to-mid range CPUs, however if you minimise it to the taskbar this takes some burden off the CPU. You can then leave the main moving-map page on-screen.

Hoping Martin can work his magic to produce a new version for us. Count me in to test it out & post a video should Martin approve.

Cheers, Steve.

[cagarini]

Same here Steve,

I always ended up on Tellurium after inccursions into P3D or XP for visuals...

I just want a map view with taxiways, like we had in PS1 :-)

[martin]

       (...in between the crashes...)
^click me!