Celestia-1.6.0-ED activities doesn't work

[Baics]

Hi! I'm new on the forum, but using Celestia for a long time.
I'm running Celestia-1.6.0-ED on an Acer laptop with GeForce 9500M card. Operating system is Windows XP SP3.
I have downloaded the program (522Mb) + Educational Base Package (92Mb) + Activity 5.
I have also read the Introductory Guide.
The base program and the ED version without activity runs correctly.
The first problem was that I couldn't run the Lua Edu Tools, it said a language problem. I solved this by downloading the newest version of the Lua Edu Tools, and overwriting the included one.
The second problem is still unsolved:
When I try to run the activity from the Word document or simply run the activity.ink it says Unknown error.
I have installed the program to my friends laptop, it had the same problem, but it told a bit different, something with can't read cfg.
I have also asked another friend studying I.T. (He is using Windows 7). He copied the *.ink to the Celestia root folder, and edited the path, with success.
We copied the whole program folder to my laptop, but I had the same problem.
I hope that someone could have a good idea.

Baics

[Baics]

New results: I arrived home and tried the program on my PC with XP SP2, and it works. So there must be an issue with SP3.

[Marco Klunder]

Baics,

The first problem was that I couldn't run the Lua Edu Tools, it said a language problem. I solved this by downloading the newest version of the Lua Edu Tools, and overwriting the included one.Baics

This may look like a solution, but it isn't.
1) If you mean downloading the newest version of the Lua Edu Tools Beta8 or Beta9, these are meant for Celestia version 161, where Celestia-ED is build on version 1.6.0. You might soner or later find problems here.
2) The Lua-Edu_Tools incorporated with Celestia-ED comes with additional add-ons and some customizations that are not implemented in the default Lua_Edu_Tools, so during the exploration of the activities, you will miss certain add-ons (e.g. the Cockpit overlay).

The not correct starting of the Lua_Edu_Tools (in some cases), is also handled in thread http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15873.
This thread contains a fix from Vincent that can also be used on the Lau_Edu_Tools in the default Celestia160-ED version. Download it and install the fix on the Lua_Edu_Tools in the default Celestia160-ED installation and try if it works as it should be working.

When I try to run the activity from the Word document or simply run the activity.ink it says Unknown error.
...
He copied the *.ink to the Celestia root folder, and edited the path, with success.
We copied the whole program folder to my laptop, but I had the same problem.
I hope that someone could have a good idea.

First of all, did you install Celestia160-ED in the default c:\program files\celestia160-ED\ directory?
The startup of celestia160-ED through the shortcut of the word document and within the word document contain links that refer "hard coded" to this default directory. Installing the program in another directory causes problems at the moment. I know Frank is working on it yet.

Meanwhile you can trace the startup as follows:
1) De word document contains a link to (re)start celestia160-ED. You can edit this link and change it if needed.
2) The link refers to "../Activity_cels/Activity5.lnk". This means that from the position where your word document is stored (default the c:\programfiles\celestia160-ED\Educational-Activities\ directory) it refers to the parent directory (../), where there must be the Activity_cels directory that contains the Activity5.lnk link.
3) When you right click on the Activity5.lnk link and choose properties, the window that opens should say:
Target "c:\Program Files\Celestia160-ED\celestia160-ED.exe" --conf Activity5-160.cfg
Start in "c:\Program Files\Celestia160-ED"
If needed, you can change both paths here.
4) Step 3 refers to the directory where Celestia160-ED must reside. During startup, it reads the Activity5-160.cfg configuration file, which must reside in the same directory as Celestia160-ED.exe.
5) You can open and edit this Activity5-160.cfg configuration file (e.g. with Notepad or Wordpad). It contains the following lines:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Included CEL script files.
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
InitScript "scripts/Activity5-160.celx"
6) The mentioned Activity5-160.celx script must be in the C:\programfiles\celestia160-ED\scripts\ directory and actually starts the startup script for celestia160-Ed, using Activity 5. From this point on, Celestia must be started correctly and the files belonging to the Activity are allocated.

Hopefully with this information you can really trace and correct the startup issues you experience.

Marco

[Baics]

Hello Marco!

Thanks for Your detailed answer. I have great news: Celestia 1.6.0-ED finally works for me, but the problem was Total Commander. For one reason I couldn't open *.Ink files from it. I have never really thought that it was so simple. So everyone who wants to open these ink files, don't use Total Commander for it.

Concerning the Lua Edu Tools, I have downloaded the 1.1 version, it says it is for Celestia 1.5, but it works for me.
I will try later the fixes for it.

So thanks again.

Csaba

[Marco Klunder]

Hello again, Baics

Good to hear you found the problem.

Concerning the Lua Edu Tools, I have downloaded the 1.1 version, it says it is for Celestia 1.5, but it works for me.
I will try later the fixes for it.

This also is NOT the solution, because you miss integrated Add-ons (as mentioned above in my reply) that are added to the Lua Edu Tools especially for the Celestia-ED version. They are NO part of the default Lua Edu Tools v1.1, nor v1.2.
As far as the Lua Edu Tools work fine for you now, that will be OK, but during running different Activities, there will be refered to these extra add-ons and you'll miss those parts then.

The fix I mentioned in my reply is applied to Lua Edu Tools v1.2 (NOT v1.1)

I suggest you reinstall the original ED download, work around your Total Commander problem again and apply the mentioned fix.
That really should be all I guess.

Marco