Ideas for the "Audio Playing" development of Celestia

Post #1by **Lafuente_Astronomy** » 26.09.2019, 22:22

A sudden thought just came to me while explaining to people in the discord that Celestia had once considered for bg music in Celestia, through their "Audio Playing" feature.

The description of the Audio Playing feature reads: "Playing background music in CEL/CELX scripts for order to achieve greater effect. Available only for Celestia 1.7.0.". Well, what if we are to include another form of sound other than Background Music?

What if we are to consider and include vocal descriptions for certain objects in Celestia? For example, if a Celestia user right clicks on Jupiter, there'll be a button called "Vocal Description". If the user clicks that button, a script will play, in which it will focus on Jupiter and revolve around it as a voice begins to describe Juipter in basic detail, from its place in the Solar system, its etymology and some basic data of the planet. This would be a good educational venture for those users who have trouble understand what those objects are. And I believe that this would help in the long run.

So, what do you think?

Post #2by **Anthony_B_Russo10** » 26.09.2019, 22:29

Especially in the case of educational environments like early Pre-K through 4 environments.

Post #3by **selden** » 26.09.2019, 23:21

The Edu version of 1.6.1 (available on the Motherlode but only for Windows) includes audio support. It’s used in the lessons available for it.

A problem is the lack of cross-platform open-source audio I/O libraries.

Post #4by **Lafuente_Astronomy** » 27.09.2019, 03:50

selden wrote:A problem is the lack of cross-platform open-source audio I/O libraries.

What do they mean? That despite the audio support in 1.6.1, there's no way to actually include actual files for voices and videos?

Post #5by **pirogronian** » 27.09.2019, 08:27

As somebody can remember, I tried to implement general sound support using OpenAL. It nearly succeeded, but was buggy and then there was repo remaintaining, as Alexell left developement. Then I focused on AstroDB as more important and urgent.

Post #6by **Lafuente_Astronomy** » 27.09.2019, 08:38

pirogronian wrote:As somebody can remember, I tried to implement general sound support using OpenAL. It nearly succeeded, but was buggy and then there was repo remaintaining, as Alexell left developement. Then I focused on AstroDB as more important and urgent.

Ahhh. Well, you can continue on the general sound support once you're done with AstroDB. After all, AstroDB is more important.

Post #7by **selden** » 28.09.2019, 23:32

Lafuente_Astronomy wrote:
selden wrote:A problem is the lack of cross-platform open-source audio I/O libraries.

What do they mean? That despite the audio support in 1.6.1, there's no way to actually include actual files for voices and videos?

There is no audio support in the standard version of Celestia v1.6.1 available on SourceForge.

Celestia-EDU is a modified version of Celestia v1.6.1 available on the MotherLode. The modifications include Windows-only audio and video support and some other features which make it easier to write educational Addons about astronomy. For details, see its documentation on the Motherlode at http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php

Many GigaBytes of educational activities are available there, too.

Post #8by **Lafuente_Astronomy** » 28.09.2019, 23:50

selden wrote:There is no audio support in the standard version of Celestia v1.6.1 available on SourceForge.

Celestia-EDU is a modified version of Celestia v1.6.1 available on the MotherLode. The modifications include Windows-only audio and video support and some other features which make it easier to write educational Addons about astronomy. For details, see its documentation on the Motherlode at http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php

Many GigaBytes of educational activities are available there, too.

Ahhhh. Wouldit be supported by Celestia 1.7.0 though?