Feature Requests

[billybob884]

Ok, I have a few requests for the next prerelease/final release/some time in the future release:

1) Changes made will stay (i.e. FOV setting, render path, texture resolution, ect.)

2) Orbits can be specified more. I mean more like specific boxes for planets, moons, asteroids, comets, satellites, ect.

3) Multiple cloud layers for an object/and a way to turn on/off individual layers. This will be helpful for things like Jupiter's clouds and the political map someone was talking about. It would also be better for me because I am still trying to get that grid with the tropics and circles to work (I can't get it to show up clear, even in .png format. If you have any ideas, pm me).

If I think of anything else i'll be sure to post

[jamarsa]

I was thinking in a very useful feature, but I think it won't be possible until a far future... And I was too shy to ask.

I don't know if it is already requested/foreseen/being implemented, but I want to be able to modify the ssc readed data dynamically via a script (textures/parameters). This way, we could make animations like:

-Evolution of a star (changing textures/size/temperature)
-Planet crashing (you apocalyptics would love that heheheee.. )
-Planet formation (replacing Mark I texture with Mark II,III,....MMMLX).
...
-Starwars battles?


And almost everything you can think!!

Sure this has been requested previously, but I'm too lazy to search for it.

I know this is *no small* change, and it could prove impossible with the actual scheme, but perhaps in Celestia v 9.0....

[chris]

Ok, I have a few requests for the next prerelease/final release/some time in the future release:

1) Changes made will stay (i.e. FOV setting, render path, texture resolution, ect.)

I'll make changes so that render path and texture resolution are saved, but I'm not sure that the FOV should be saved. I'd like to keep it possible for a user who gets very confused to simply restart Celestia and have it start running with reasonable settings. If you really want to change the default FOV, override it by modifying start.cel.

2) Orbits can be specified more. I mean more like specific boxes for planets, moons, asteroids, comets, satellites, ect.

This is an oft-made request, but it won't make it in to 1.3.1 I'm afraid.

3) Multiple cloud layers for an object/and a way to turn on/off individual layers. This will be helpful for things like Jupiter's clouds and the political map someone was talking about. It would also be better for me because I am still trying to get that grid with the tropics and circles to work (I can't get it to show up clear, even in .png format. If you have any ideas, pm me).

The political maps and lat/long grids are better done with overlay textures than cloud layers. Search the forum for OverlayTexture for a better description. I will eventually get around to adding multiple cloud layers, however.

--Chris

[AstroBoy]

I have a few requests too :

1) Animated texture (.gif, .mpg ,or .avi).
I think about animated cloud for jupiter or the earth, or the surface of the sun (in loop mode) and formation of the earth and the moon.

2) An "always face the camera mode" for 3ds model. Making nebula looking the same in every direction, for example or associated with my fist request displaing solar prominences (like celestia already display "flare.jpg").

Evolution of a star (changing textures/size/temperature)

Very interesting : Do you mean a "Beginning" and "Ending" entry in stc files ?

[billybob884]

I have a few requests too :

1) Animated texture (.gif, .mpg ,or .avi).
I think about animated cloud for jupiter or the earth, or the surface of the sun (in loop mode) and formation of the earth and the moon.

.mpg and .avi are movie files, I don't think they can be used as textures.

[abiogenesis]

2) Orbits can be specified more. I mean more like specific boxes for planets, moons, asteroids, comets, satellites, ect.

I saw this feature request and it sounded like a useful feature and not too difficult to implement. I was looking for something to do with the Celestia source, so I got it to work.

Both of these shots were taken from the same position near Jupiter, looking at the Sun, with Planet Labels on.

This is a shot with just Moon Orbits.


This is a shot with just Asteroid Orbits.

I had to modify the View Options dialog box to allow for selective activation of the orbits/labels for all the bodies. This is what it looks like:


I only had to modify a few source files (render.cpp/.h, winviewoptsdlg.cpp, and Celestia.rc) and I tried to emmulate the way things were done with labels. I have no experience with CVS (so this was done with the source from shatters.net), and I have no clue how to "check it in", but it sounded like Chris had some alternate plans for this feature anyway. I just thought I'd share.

- a b i o g e n e s i s -

[ElPelado]

GOOD JOB!!
sometimes i want to see just some orbits, but i have to see them all. I think that chris should implement this on the next version.

[JackHiggins]

I only had to modify a few source files (render.cpp/.h, winviewoptsdlg.cpp, and Celestia.rc) and I tried to emmulate the way things were done with labels. I have no experience with CVS (so this was done with the source from shatters.net), and I have no clue how to "check it in", but it sounded like Chris had some alternate plans for this feature anyway. I just thought I'd share.

If it was that easy for you to do, then it should be easy to get this into the next version!! (please? )

Further to this... I know i've brought this up before, but i will again...

1) When you click on an xyz orbit, the whole thing should show, not just the part in the future.
And,

2) More than 100 points for xyz orbit lines, because they can look really stupid when you have something with a very long xyz (time), that looks like it's trying to play spirograph...

[chris]

Nice work abiogenesis!

Send me the changed files and I'll integrate them. I may rework the code slightly, but it looks like you did a nice job of modifying the view options dialog.

--Chris

[abiogenesis]

Sure thing, Chris.

- a b i o g e n e s i s -

[HankR]

Just for the sake of discussion, I'd like to suggest a somewhat more general approach to the problem of selective display of orbits (and more). It is based on introducing the concept of "groups".

A group would be an arbitrary collection of objects. Certain groups would be pre-defined based on object types (e.g. "planets", "moons", asteroids"), but other groups could be defined in .ssc files using a "Groups" attribute which would list the names of groups to which an object belongs. Also, there would be a "Group" construct which would list the names of objects belonging to the group. It would also be possible for the user to create ad hoc groups at run-time by adding selected objects to a user-defined group interactively. It might also be possible to define groups as set combinations (union, intersection, etc.) of existing groups, or based on attribute values (e.g. objects larger than a specified radius), or based on arbitrary scripted conditions (using Lua). I may be getting carried away here, but you get the idea: lots of flexibility in defining groups.

Then, you allow all the display option flags (visibility, labels, markers, orbits, etc.) to be set on a per group basis. In the UI, the edit panel simply includes another control to select the group for which the flags are to be turned on or off. For any given object, if a particular flag is set for at least one group to which the object belongs, then the flag applies to the object.

Thus one could have groups for "Centaurs", "Galilean Moons", "Ten Largest Asteroids", "My Favorite Moons of Saturn", "Retrograde Moons of Jupiter", "NEOs", "KBOs", "Moon Landers", "Failed Mars Probes", or whatever you (or anybody) wants. And you could control the display option flags separately for each group.

Maybe this seems like a lot to ask.

In terms of implementation, one approach might be to use bit strings. Each group would be allocated to an index in the bit string. For each object, there would be a bit string indicating which groups the object belongs to, and for each display option flag, there would be a bit string indicating which groups have the flag enabled. So to determine if a flag applies to an object, you just do a bit-wise AND of the bit string for the flag and the bit string for the object. If the result is non-zero, the flag applies. If there aren't too many active groups (up to 64, say?), this might not be too expensive.

Just a thought.

- Hank

[chris]

I integrated the orbit changes and also fixed up rendering of spacecraft trajectories. Here's what happens when you select Cassini:



Notice that the whole trajectory is rendered, and that the extra line linking the first and last points is now gone.

Hank, I like your group proposal . . . it would be very useful to select arbitrary groups of objects to label or otherwise mark.

--Chris

[Paolo]

Looks very nice .
I've implemented some other feature requests about orbits in my website.
If you have time to spend you can take a look.

Bye - Paolo

[JackHiggins]

That looks great- thanks! 2 questions:

1. When will we be able to get the next release of celestia, with these changes?

2. How many points are in an xyz trajectory now?

[guesticle]

I think a great idea would be to have pointers that stay scaled to the view size. you know, maybe you could point to one star and to sol and zoom way out into galaxy scale to show how far apart they are. perhaps some basic way to plot the distance between two or more points?

it would be nice if you could have a directory named after an object and in it you put different images, and then you could right-click the object and select a different "skin" for it. uses: different maps (political maybe), views of the sun in different wavelengths of light (imagine one day being able to view objects in all wavelengths according to specific filters like visible light, infrared, xray, radio, etc, programmable perhaps. but i digress.).

and lastly.. hmm i almost don't wanna ask.. how about some lens flare? it'd be neat to have a bit when watching sunrises.

[Guesticle]

sorry, i browsed around a bit and found out there is a way to do multiple textures. i'm trying to get it working now!

and i read about lens flare being a camera artifact.. i still wish it was an option.. it'd be a real crowd pleaser to show fabulous sunsets and conjunctions at a party on a big screen with ambient music.

[Guesticle]

how about DDE controls for winamp, so i could write a script to do a tour and trigger certain mp3s or whatever?

i don't know what X uses for interprocess communication but i'm sure there is something similar. it would be a way to add music without the hassle of coding a bunch of stupid media buttons and crap.