COSMOSCOPE

As an astrology nerd I was quite surprised I couldn’t find a program to view charts in a charming and comfy 3D space, so I set out to make one myself. I present to you this early version of COSMOSCOPE! Or as I affectionately call it, Utzstrology ;3 

Please let me know if you encounter any issues, especially inconsistencies with expected data; I’ve a small collection of natal charts that I’ve compared to other online astrology calculators and found this program to be quite accurate so far, but at this point I’ve no doubt there are errors to be discovered. I’ll work to squash bugs ASAP. 

This is my first paid game on itch.io, I think it's well worth it, the price is kept modest of course, as I always want what I make to be accessible. If I get enough sales to cover the Steam developer fee, I may put it on Steam as well! You can also support development directly by donating here: https://ko-fi.com/milkshakebattlecat

Features

• Enter birth date, time, and location to generate a personalized natal chart and explore it in an interactive 3D space
• Add current or custom transits to see how the sky is interacting with the natal chart
• Animate the chart and watch your stars shift!
• Click on planets and aspect lines for information and interpretations, including sign, house, retrograde, dignity, dispositor, angular placement, and major chart role notes
• Turn optional body groups on or off, including lunar points, Black Moon Lilith, centaurs, asteroids, dwarf planets, TNOs, Uranian points, and other hypothetical bodies
• Save and manage a personal chart database
• Import and export Astro-Seek.com compatible chart database files. To import a database from Astro-Seek, just copy and save the AAF compatible text to a .txt file. This can be found via Account > My private astro DB >  Database backup (Export in AAF format) 
• Export a natal chart PNG via the “Print Chart” feature
• Optional heliocentric display mode
• Keys are rebindable, there are options for display mode/size and volume
• Toggle on “Historic Mode” to enable dates between the years 1-3000 (the dropdown becomes quite laggy with all these so only 1800-2100 is enabled by default. I will eventually implement the ability to type in the date of choice)

Some notes on controls that might not be clear: pressing "F" will focus on whatever planet you have selected, or upon Earth if you have no planet selected. "Shift" (labeled "Sprint" in the keybinder) will increase your camera movement and zoom. "T" toggles between top-down view and free cam. During animation, the text window features aren't available.

Astrological System Notes

• Uses the tropical zodiac with the Placidus house system
• Planetary calculations are based on Swiss Ephemeris-style positions
• Includes North Node, South Node, and Black Moon Lilith by default.
• Mean lunar nodes and Mean Black Moon Lilith are the default, with optional True node settings available.
• Fortune and Vertex points are currently not included
• Modern rulership is used:
  • Scorpio ruled by Pluto, Aquarius ruled by Uranus, Pisces ruled by Neptune
  • Outer exaltations: Uranus in Scorpio, Neptune in Leo, Pluto in Aries
  • Outer falls: Uranus in Taurus, Neptune in Aquarius, Pluto in Libra
  • Traditional tables are in place for a future modern/traditional toggle, but not yet implemented

Currently Missing/Buggy

• Entries currently CANNOT be deleted from your chart database. If you want to delete an entry you’ll have to open the JSON to remove it manually (or alternatively, delete the file altogether to remake it) The database JSON can be found at your persistent data location, usually C:\Users\[username]\AppData\LocalLow\MILKSHAKEBATTLECAT\Cosmoscope
• The “Print Chart” feature will only create a graphic for the core chart, including the major planets, lunar nodes, and Chiron 
• Planets sometimes clip into each other or might even sit entirely inside another planet. I’ve not experienced this to be all that problematic because their name/symbol is usually still visible and you can click on that to focus them. Nonetheless it’s a visual bother I want to fix.
• After motion, bodies sometimes jerk before coming to a full stop

More to Come

• Additional interpretive styles and calculation system settings to support more astrological approaches
• Custom orbital range to better capture your desired 3D feel (meaning you can make the planets sit further apart if you feel they’re too clustered)
• Improvement to visuals (at this time, most objects other than the core planets are just colored spheres, and line renderers used to draw the chart & aspects are pretty basic)
• Fun (optional) graphical additions to draw attention to intriguing planetary placements, aspects, and stelliums
• Further improvements to personalized chart synthesis and a quick horoscope summarizing important transits
• More robust “Print Chart” feature with cleaner graphics
• Glossary of terms and histories for the curious
• More tooltips to explain purposes of toggles etc, better understandability overall
• MUSIC, maybe, and other sound effects to feel a bit more responsive
• VR support

Even More Half-Baked Ideas I Have

• Custom planet sets, calculation styles, and interpretation notes - experiment with crafting your very own method of scrying the stars
• Chart comparison / synastry mode
• Moon phase info
• Background sky customization
• 3D constellations - currently the stars in the background are simply a skybox facade, but how fun would it be if we could admire the stars up close as well!

Recommended specs: Windows 10/11 64-bit, Intel i5 / AMD Ryzen or better, 8–16 GB RAM, DirectX 11 compatible GPU such as GTX 970/RX 570 minimum

CREDITS:

AI was used to help code the orbital maths, which is far beyond my little pea brain. An attempt was made to use it for personalized chart reports as well, but the narrative output was poor, so I, a supposed real human, poured over the strings for quality. Even so there's more I want to do to bring it up to snuff in this regard.

Planet texture maps are courtesy of JHT's Planetary Pixel Emporium, turned into a convenient and gorgeous Unity asset package by Evgenii Nikolskii.

Celestial symbol artwork is sourced from Wikimedia Commons, with particular thanks to contributor Kwamikagami!