Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Sat, 08/15/2020 - 14:54
Hi all
VStar 2.21.2 has been released. VStar now resides in GitHub.
See https://www.aavso.org/vstar-overview for more.
Key Changes by GitHub issue number:
- #8: Architectural plug-in fix: dialogs called from different thread; prevents "observations for the specified period" error when user cancels dialog
- #9: Prevent dialog memory leaks
- #11: Number Format Exception when re-ordering by column in observation list; a problem that occurred in non-English locales
- #12: Common VeLa filter does not work in some plug-ins (e.g. Kepler/TESS, ASAS-SN)
- #23: Extend VeLa identifiers to allow Unicode and other special symbols
- #30: New VSX Query plug-in
- #33: Attempt to fix plugin deletion error under Windows
- #34: VStar windows installer
- #38: Out of memory after loading 20 or 30 files; maximum memory available to Java via downloaded VStar archives (zip, dmg, Windows installer) increased
- #39: Add plot function to scripting API #39
Maksym Pyatnytskyy (Max), Cliff Kotnik and David Benn worked on these issues. Of particular note: #30, #33, and #34 were driven by Max along with internal improvements to plugin manager.
Thanks to Max and Cliff, and as always, to Sara for their support and work.
David
There was an error that prevented the Fourier Model plugin from working when VStar was WebStarted.
This has been fixed in WebStart deployment.
The problem does not occur with VStar downloaded from GitHub.
David
Got a "could not create Java virtual machine" error. Running Win10 of recent vintage. New Java updates.
When starting VSTAR in Debug mode, it said invalid maximum heap size: -xmx8120m
the specified size exceeds the maximum representable size. Decreasing to 4120 did not help.
parameters=-Xms800m -Xms8120m was changed to: JAVA_OPTS=" -Xms800m -Xmx8120m"
I needed to change my version of the VSTAR.ini file to:
[Settings]
Description=VStar.exe configuration file created at 2020-08-28T20:43:43
;Additional JVM parameters
JAVA_OPTS=" -Xms800m -Xmx8120m"
;Set ShowParameters=1 to view parameters to be passed to Java VM
ShowParameters=1
;VSTAR_HOME parameter overrides environment variable VSTAR_HOME
VSTAR_HOME=
;JavaPath
JavaPath=
Now VSTAR will start and it run on a large dataset. No idea what I did, but it works. The ShowParameters=1 turned on another useful diagnostic.
Hi Ray,
VStar.exe Windows launcher does not recognise JAVA_OPTS parameter, so Java simply starts with default memory allocation behaviour.
Could you please check what Java version do you use (java -version or java -version -d64)? It looks like you run Java 32-bit under Windows 64. This could happen if Java was downloaded via 32-bit browser.
32-bit JVM cannot allocate more than ~1.5 G memory. You may simply remove VStar.ini at all or remove JAVA_OPTS=" -Xms800m -Xmx8120m" line from it (anyway it has no effect)
The best way would be to update Java to 64-bit.
Best regards,
Max
Well that explains it Max, If it doesn't recognize the JAVA_OPTS, I could have just left it out.
About Java here says: Version 8 Update 261 (build 1.8.0_261-b12) Copywrite 2020 . I don't find 32 bit vs 64 bit information in the Java "about" or "control panel" boxes. Browser is Edge on Win10 Pro v.1903 build 18362.1016 on a 64 bit i&-8700. Control panel says 64 bit OS.
Edge is always 64 bit, the hardware is 64 bit, Jav 8 is >build 20. I should have 64 bit Java. But:
the cmd line java -Xshowsettings:all shows (in part)
java.library.path = C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\WINDOWS\Sun\Java\bin
C:\WINDOWS\system32
C:\WINDOWS
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\WINDOWS\system32
C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
So I'm doing the Windows 64bit offline install . . . . we will see what that breaks.
Edit here: Doing the 64 bit offline install fixed the problem. The origional VStar.ini file now works. I think both 32 bit and 64 bit Javas are installed:
>java -version
java version "1.8.0_261"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_261-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.261-b12, mixed mode)
Ray
Thank you for the information!
I have the same problem. When I installed with the Win installer (tried from the AAVSO forum link and from Github), at the end of the install it gives the Java memory allocation message mentioned above and then when trying to start VStar, it gives the Java error that it couldn't create the Java Runtime Machine under the VStar splashscreen star.
I have the latest 64-bit Java on my computer,8.0.2610.12
2.21.1 installed without an issue.
btw, 21.1 still starts right up, no problem.
Well, I seem to have solved my own problem. I renamed the ini file to .tmp and it seems to work fine now. I could load a star and the curve looks fine.
Why the ini file, if it doesn't do anything?