Planet orbits not displayed when planet out of viewport

[Nicolas Martignoni]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start Stellarium
2. Open View panel (F4)
3. Check option "Show planet orbits"
4. Observe that the orbits of all planets in the viewport (screen) are displayed, including planets below the horizon
5. Accelerate simulation time or change the center of the view until a planet goes out of the viewport (screen)
6. Observe that the orbit of this planet disappears when it goes out of the viewport and returns when the planet is in the viewport

Expected behavior:

a) Orbits should always be displayed, or
b) orbits should be displayed when the planet is visible (above the horizon)

Note: Tested on OS X, Stellarium 0.15.0, freshly compiled by myself.

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

Drawing the orbit only if planet is in viewport is actually the intended behaviour.

[Nicolas Martignoni (nicolas-martignoni)]

OK, I didn't test it thoroughly before finding the other "orbits" bugs and didn't know it was the intended behavior.

It's indeed an opinion, but the current behavior seems strange, especially when a planet is under the horizon (non visible), but still in the viewport, with its orbit displayed, then the orbit suddenly disappears (because it goes unnoticed out of the viewport) and one doesn't understand why.

But I can live with it :-)

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

The new feature has been added as revision 8031: possibility to drawing of permanent orbits of the planets (disables of hiding orbits for planets, when they are out of field of view). This feature can be enabled in config.ini file - astro/flag_permanent_orbits=true

This feature has been introduced as answer to those questions:
https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/215706
https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/248713
and this bug report.

Note: the planetarium may lose performance for a large number of bodies of Solar system.

[Nicolas Martignoni (nicolas-martignoni)]

Works as advertised.

Opinion: this should be true by default, but I can live with it ;-)

Alex: many thanks for this improvement.