New features

[Guest]

All the other suggestions are very good

Here you are my

1) Possibility to select some objects, have a view with visual line
between objects and have a distance calculation.

2) have the possibility to modify or complete the database of stars.
OR add our favourite catalogue OR have the possibility to customized
information about existing stars

3) have a best search engine

Regards
DRodriguez

[Aya Reiko]

1. Binary Star Systems

2. Comet Tails

3. Fix whatever is causing the planet orbits go screwy much beyond 7000 AD

[Fleegle]

I'd love to see all of the features mentioned here incorporated into Celestia at some point, but in my personal opinion the best features to add would have to be:

1) Gravity

2) Control of spacecraft objects (maybe an option to "attach" to an object so that when the observer moves it would bring the object along with it)

3) Black holes (plus the ability to position black hole objects as stars, rather than creating them like planets within a system). I'd like to be able to place large black holes at the centers of the galaxies.

'fraid I don't have any terribly original feature requests. Seems that most people want the same things from Celestia. I too would like to see binaries but the genie only allowed me 3 wishes.

Fleegle

[ogg]

My requests are all to do with adding greater detail and scientific/presentation utility to celestia

1) More astronomical catalogs implimented, such as the ones that Sky3D uses - pulsar catalogs, the H-radio map of milky way spiral arms, nebulae of *some* kind (ie need not be flashy graphics, just there. Even if they were just 2D graphics. Or semi-transparent spherical 'bubbles' with the standard photos stretched across them so as to make them look more-or-less accurate from Sol), globular clusters etc. All these can be gleaned from publically available catalogs, as far as I'm aware.
2a) A 'schematic overlay' or 'highlight astronomical types' option to, say, draw little crosses over the positions of selected types of objects that would normally be too dim or swamped by other stars etc - like pulsars, stars with a certain spectral class (ie 'GV' or 'AIa', etc), stars with planets, double-star systems, variable stars, Black holes, or whatever else is added.
2b) A filtering/display system for both the nice graphics like for the schematic overlays - eg render only specified objects, or only objects a specified distance/radius from the selected one, etc.
3) A way to 'map' lines between stars/objects and attach custom labels to them (etc), perhaps using a new kind of script file or option inside ssc files for this purpose. (note: it would be nice to be able to load/unload optional ssc files and other scripts from within Celestia, instead of dumping them in the startup folders and restarting it all from scratch)


Suggestion for incremental development of greater detail - start with the positions of these objects plotted using minimal (or schematic) graphics and add in the nice 3D effects as they become available.

The sci-fi stuff and strange planets & alternate universes are all very well, but shouldn't get in the way of the wonderful scientific utility of this program.

thanks for a great program and the ability to make suggestions!

Carl Jos Brusse

[Al]

< This is a repost from a post of mine in Development. Makes sense to repeat it here i think>


I used to have Microsoft Space Simulator. Though old graphics and incomplete, it was really great! Celestia completely replaces it for me and it's free and I love it.

I would gladly PAY for Celestia with the following:

** Camera Panning that doesnt' affect your velocity. Perhaps use joystick while holding a key down so that it doesn't change your traveling direction.
** (or) "side" and "rear view" windows so you can watch things recede in the distance or just breeze by them.
** Real Landing on surfaces. I'd like to have a picnic on Mimas and watch Saturn.
** Solid planets. No going through them.
** Orbits. Not just circular. In Space Sim I'd get myself in eccentric orbrits and enjoy a nice wild ride. Thousands of miles high on one end (with slow velocity) and FAST mountaintop flybys on the other end.
** Orbit calculation computer. To do what I just mentioned in Space Sim, I had to whip out formulas and tables and determine exactly how much thrust to apply in exactly what direction and for exactly how long, to get the orbit I desired. That was cool, it worked, but a little tedious. I LIKE having to apply thrust in a specific manner, but felt Space Sim should have given you that information-- then let you go do it.
** Likewise, travel between planets could be done like in real life--you jump (or fall) from one orbit of the sun to another, and you time it right as well.
** A "realistic" mode with reasonable limits in speed and uses thrust and gravity to support those things listed above.
** A Save Feature. (A corresponding Load would be nice too )

For all my talk of wanting to do things the "real" way, I must admit I really really love being able to accerlerate to lightspeed and beyond.

Also, I must am new to this site and if this has been posted before or if there are any mods to handle such things, i am currently ignorant of them and will accept brutal chastisement if warranted.

[Ortolan]

So many good ideas already that I agree with. Let's see if I can think up some more..
1. specular channel stored in its own file (so the planet texture can use DXT1 compression)
2. animated cloud textures
3. better light scaling (calculate total luminosity in FOV and dim objects accordingly) ie. look at the sun and see only the sun; look at a reflecting body and see only the brightest stars as well; look out into deep space and see all the stars become visible out to a magnitude of 8 or so.

[Thomas]

Some kind of Console that would allow you to give commands as:
go sol;
follow earth;
track moon;
orvit Milky Way;
etc.
perhaps with a kind of batch feature, giving you the possibillity to give all commands at once and then running all together.

Thomas

[Pixel]

It can be considered as joke . To eliminate all catalog-confusions, caused by the fact that camera moves faster that light, Celestia should simulate relativisic effects during travel.

[DBrant]

- The (superluminal) gas jet from M87.
- Gravitational effects, at least in the solar system closest to the observer.
- Nebulae as transparent meshes. Example:


- Latitude and Longitude lines drawn on planets, as well as axes of rotation.
- Ability to position observer at specified lat/long, but facing away from planet.
- Fractal landscape generation. (complexity will be a function of observer proximity).
- Collision detection.
- Improved joystick control (more maneuverability, support for throttle?)
- Multiple cloud layers (cumulus/cirrus,etc)
- The Nexus from star trek generations (possibly animated?):


That's all for now.

[Rassilon]

lol to see those in Celestia would be SWEET!

[psybrain]

Here's a discussion starter: what are the top three features that you'd like to see added to Celestia?

--Chris

i'd like celestia to calculate gravity, further it would be nice if the camera would be affected by those forces.

[diegorodriguez]

Choose 3:

1 - Nebulae and comet tails
2 - Automated orbital elements update
3 - Multiple cloud layers
4 - Digital elevation models
5 - Stereoglyph rendering
6 - enhanced navigation controls (including a undo/back option)