Celestia Forums

Briefly, I may want to use some images generated by Celestia to illustrate a tabletop role playing game. The game material will be on line and can be downloaded freely, but users are asked to support the system by paying a registration fee. I'd like to make sure that using images for this purpose constitutes acceptable use before I carry on. Needless to say the game will include acknowledgement of source, a link to the Celestia web site, etc.

The long version of this - I publish a role playing game called Forgotten Futures, which is distributed as shareware - registered users get new material before it goes on line generally, can buy CD-ROMs containing additional source material, etc., but all of the core material for the game is put on line and can be downloaded freely and without any obligation to register, under a version of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works License. I'm currently working on a supplement based on 1930s SF by Stanley G. Weinbaum, which will hopefully go on line in PDF and HTML versions early next year. Some of the illustrations I need could be generated using Celestia; I probably don't need to use any third-party add-ons. I can probably get by using NASA imagery, 3-D models etc., but the ability to manipulate viewing angle, time etc. offered by Celestia would be useful.

Marcus,

Any image or video that you create using the distributed version of Celestia is yours to do with as you want.

If your pictures include images created by the use of Addons, you have to abide by the licensing specified by the authors of those Addons. Most of them forbid any commercial use, although I suspect that could be negotiated.

Thanks, that's what I was hoping.

Thanks for that information . . . ! I've created some images in Poser using Celestia captures as backgrounds . . . Where possible (operative phrase, there) - I try to give credit to the author of the model . . .

Gojira2006 wrote::D Thanks for that information . . . ! I've created some images in Poser using Celestia captures as backgrounds . . . Where possible (operative phrase, there) - I try to give credit to the author of the model . . .

Hallo Gojira2006! First, welcome to the forum. Second, if you are concerning with Poser or DAZ, I suspect that several sci-fi celestians needs characters for their worlds.

Fenerit wrote:

Gojira2006 wrote::D Thanks for that information . . . ! I've created some images in Poser using Celestia captures as backgrounds . . . Where possible (operative phrase, there) - I try to give credit to the author of the model . . .

Hallo Gojira2006! First, welcome to the forum. Second, if you are concerning with Poser or DAZ, I suspect that several sci-fi celestians needs characters for their worlds.

Thanks, & Hi, Fenerit . . . ! I didn't see a welcome thead anywhere, but this serves nicely . . . ! & vive-versa: Celestia is an awesome program for creating settings . . . !

Well, I like DAZ, so I know what such programs are able to do; sometime I was thinking to make some ST and SW characters for the uge collection of spaceships/starbases, just because when one do enter in it should see also the figures, but I'm more on the scientific side.

Fenerit wrote:Well, I like DAZ, so I know what such programs are able to do; sometime I was thinking to make some ST and SW characters for the uge collection of spaceships/starbases, just because when one do enter in it should see also the figures, but I'm more on the scientific side.

One of the nice things about programs like Poser is that it gave me some experience editing text lines in files to make them work better, or to create new morphs - & this gave me an idea of what to do when I had to edit files in Celestia . . . There are some fabulous Poser characters & props out there for Star Trek & Star Wars at various sites . . .

Just FYI, in the case you do not have surf through it, here:

http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15775

there is the CMODview utility, which is able to convert in CMOD format from OBJ files. Diversely from 3DS, materials must be assigned within Poser, though. CMOD format is able to handle also transparencies, useful for characters's hair. Of course you cannot set (yet? )advanced reflectances (except Mie/Rayleigh backscatterings through SSC directive, which is a very advanced feature, see the Titan's atmosphere) but the results, as you can see, are very good.
CMOD's handles (material phong)
(faces):
- color: diffuse
- color: emissive
- color: specular
- color: shineness
- color: opacity
- texture: diffuse
- texture: emissive
- texture: specular
- texture: normalmap (displacements)
- texture: opacity
- blending additive and premultiplied
- ASCII and binary compile
(vertex):
points
point sprites (ASCII)
lines
polygons

That's a cool thread - & yeah, that's why I prefer .obj files to .3Ds - as long as the texture folder is in the same folder as the .obj file, it will load automatically in Poser . . . On the otherhand, you even have to apply textures manually to a lot of .3Ds models, even in Bryce . . .

Gojira2006 wrote::) That's a cool thread - & yeah, that's why I prefer .obj files to .3Ds - as long as the texture folder is in the same folder as the .obj file, it will load automatically in Poser . . . On the otherhand, you even have to apply textures manually to a lot of .3Ds models, even in Bryce . . .

That's Poser's behavior is good even for CMOD's, since the CMOD's folder structure is (under the main Celestia's "..extras\" folder):
..
yourdirmodel\
..\models
..\textures\medres
in which "models" is the room for the CMOD model(s) and "..\textures\medres" the room for textures. When you convert into CMOD the OBJ exported with Poser, simply displace the textures assigned to the OBJ by Poser inside the "..\textures\medres\" folder. That's all; CMOD always will reckon such folder as its texture's room.

I forgot to post a link to the Weinbaum-inspired game that started this thread, which I put on line just before Christmas, a little later than planned.

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff11/index.htm

There are PDF and HTML versions, I think the PDF is prettier. There are six or seven Celestia images in there, most edited to give e.g. the effect of a painting, used as the background for spaceships, etc. Many thanks again for making these images available for use in this way. If anyone wants to use images of e.g. aliens from the game to accompany maps etc. they're welcome to do so, but some acknowledgement of source would be nice.

I've also put most of Stanley Weinbaum's SF on line with the game material - everything that's out of European copyright. US readers may want to check on the status of individual stories as they read them. While he was mostly working with a fairly conventional version of our solar system (as viewed in the 1930s) there may be some ideas there for add-ons. I'd love to see Weinbaum's versions of the moons of Jupiter, for example.