Introduction - Speed
One concern about programs such as WinOrbit is how fast they run - how
frequently can the screen be updated, and what effect the program has on other
programs running at the same time. Since speed is highly machine-dependent, I
can only report what I have found on my personal system.
486DX33, 8 Meg physical RAM, WD 90C31 (Paradise) SVGA adaptor, 1024 x
768 x 256-color screen resolution.
Basic orbital model, elliptical Geodetic model, tiled tracking maps,
standard map colors, ground track and footprint display on.
1) Maps can be updated at about 5 per second (i.e. 5 maps take 1 second, 10
maps take 2 seconds).
2) Ephemeris calculations proceed at about 250-300 intervals/second (for
example, 10 days of predictions at 2 minute intervals in 25 seconds). Time to
actually print was not measured (depends on brand of printer!).
Choose a reasonable update interval (5-10 seconds is nice for LEO
satellites).
Omit the ground track, solar illumination, footprint, and secondary satellite
when not needed.
Use the Basic orbital model whenever possible.
Keep the number of maps and their size as small as possible. The latter (size)
is especially important in systems without much memory, since every pixel is
stored in memory and may have to be swapped frequently.
Use the standard map colors (for land and water). Changing these colors (but
not the symbol colors) will slow the loading of the maps (but not the
calculation or display).
The Globe display is VERY slow. I'm working on this. It will go a bit faster
if you are not updating the maps frequently in real time (e.g. choose a 30
second interval, or change to Step mode). Also, the larger the Globe window,
the longer it takes to draw.
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