Gates Planetarium:

At the Four Year Mark and Beyond

Ka Chun Yu
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Also: Dan Neafus, Matt Brownell, Zac Zager, Nigel Jenkins,
Terry Moore, Andrew Hamilton, Jodi Schoemer
Opened June 2003:

120+ seats
11 channel SEOS system
25 deg tilt, 16.4 channel sound
 SGI Onyx 3800 (11-pipe, IR4)

Originally intended for real-time shows and pre-

rendered show playback.
Cosmic Atlas
 New video servers ...

 QuVis QuBits Players

Freeing the Onyx ... Remapper
Freeing the Onyx ...
Black Hole Flight Simulator
(Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity)
Freeing the Onyx ... IMAGE_PAN
Beyond the Onyx ...
Beyond the Onyx ... Linux clusters
Windows cluster with Uniview
Windows cluster with Uniview:
* Experimental star and Earth shows
* Musical concerts:
Gaia Journeys with Kenji Williams (ISDE5 Proceedings 2007)
Richard Pinhas Trio (Leonardo Electronic Almanac submitted)
Education Research:
* First evaluation of effectiveness of fulldome theaters for teaching
fundamental astronomy (National Science Foundation #0529522)
* Collaboration with Metropolitan State College of Denver;
introductory astronomy class students as test subjects
Gates Planetarium: Now and the Future ...
* Currently renovating to 6-channel system; re-opening
October 22, 2007
* Global Immersion projectors and Media Server
* Uniview cluster will allow for return of Colorado Skies star show,
Exploring the Earth show
...

* Other new visitor programming ??? ...

Linux cluster with Phonic-FX:
* Real-time fulldome music visualization
* Pre-recorded and live music inputs, MIDI control
* Tests beginning in two weeks (!) at the Gates Planetarium
Linux cluster with vPresent:
* Open Source follow-up to IMAGE_PAN; a “three-dimensional
PowerPoint”
* Runs on visualization clusters and single machines; easy to
develop and use
* Based on VR Juggler libraries: wide variety of VR environments
and interfaces
* Open Document file formats
* Working currently with Infiscape, Inc. to create version 1.0
* More information at:
https://realityforge.vrsource.org/trac/vpresent