The sun and other stars

[ArneB]

I'm wondering if some of the programmers might want to create a better graphical representation of the stars for the next version of celestia. This is not meant as a complaint, cause I haven't contributed with anything myself, but merely a suggestion to make a wonderful program even better. I've made a picture in 3DS MAX to illustrate the idea. What I've done is to add blur to the brightest part of the image (which is naturally the sun) and just add some rays, glow and a faint lensflare. I know this can be done with Open GL too, even the blurring of bright parts.




Here's an attempt to create a comet with a particle tail.
(I know that is not feasible in real-time)

[Darkmiss]

Hmmm the LensFlare things has been asked about many many times before, and will never happen.

Basicly a lensflare is exactly that, somthing you see through glass or a lens.
not what you would see if you was floating around in space.

If this programe ever used a space vessel to move arround then maybe
But it is simply a space simulator

The Developers are simply trying to mirror what is in our hevens, on to our computers, Virtually.

[ArneB]

Ok, of course the lensflare is a result of optics, but there is already a kind of flare assigned to the stars in celestia, but it just doesn't look too real. Is it possible to swap the current one with a much brighter one of higher resolution? Can I do it myself, maybe change some parameters in a text-file or something?
And, a litte off topic, but still related to optics; does anyone know what produces this blue glare? The picture is taken with an 8 inch reflector telescope.

[selden]

The flare around the sun and stars in Celestia is generated using the image \Celestia\textures\flare.jpg

You can replace that file by any JPEG image you want.

[Tech Sgt. Chen]

ArneB wrote:

And, a litte off topic, but still related to optics; does anyone know what produces this blue glare? The picture is taken with an 8 inch reflector telescope.

Well Arne,
I'm not really the one who should answer this (selden?, grant?), but I'll venture an uneducated guess. If this phenomenon doesn't occur with other reflectors or refractors, I would suggest any number of causative influences. My first would be to consider light bouncing around in the carbon dioxide, rich atmosphere of Mars. Additionally, you are viewing Mars through your telescope and subsequently, through our own atmosphere which contains a myriad of natural and man made particles conducive to good, unobstructed, stargazing (I'm being a little sarcastic).
An optical influence can include any type of manufacturer or after market coating(s) placed on the lens for, ahem, clearer viewing purposes.

Can somebody help me out here before this ship I'm sailing sinks to the bottom?