The Feature Requests Collecting Thread

[Paul]

I request the ability to specify an ellipticity for stars, to more accurately model the shapes of the faster-rotating stars which have been found using interferometric methods:

http://www.astronomy.com/default.aspx?c=a&id=2792

This should be extremely simple to implement.

EDIT: After a bit more searching, I see that this feature is coming in Celestia 1.4! Silly me

[dirkpitt]

I think it might be possible, with shaders, to implement certain image-based effects in Celestia. In particular:

- Effects such as blue/red shifting and distortion when travelling at relativistic speed
- Cinematic effects, such as specular bloom, glowing lava, motion blur, soft-edged comet trails
- Realistic illumination models, such as backscattering (i.e., full moon looks brighter than it should be, etc)

With these effects, hardware-accelerated to run with a minimal performance hit, Celestia could really look awesome. Celestia has a lot of potential for machinima (filmmaking with real-time 3D) and cinematic effects would raise the bar considerably...

[Guckytos]

Anyone who wants to know more about that idea take a look at: http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6751

But here is the idea again, just in case:
How about including a feature in a celestia skript, so that you can make it ignore certain folders in the extras directory. Okay, now that would of course mean that one would have to organise the addons in a certain way to use that feature.
But back to the idea. The feature should work in the following way. Upon start Celestia looks up if there is a file, let's call it "exclude.txt" for the moment, in the main directory. If no such file is present, all addons from the /extras/ directory are loaded.
If "exclude.txt" is there, celestia loads everything from the /extras/ directory, except the in "exclude.txt" specified directories/files.

That would work, but be a bit crude.
A finer way i think would be to include a command-line option in Celestia, so that it could work with a txt-file with an arbitrary name, like:
Celestia -x:fiction.txt
-x stands for: Everything that you find in the following txt-file is excluded from loading

With such a command-line option it would be possible to create batch-files for loading Celestia with exact the configuration (fictional/scietific) you want it to have, without multiple installations, or multiple /extras/ directories.


Regards,

Guckytos

[selden]

Guckytos,

This feature (search specific directories) already exists. The list of "extras" directories is specified in the file celestia.cfg

[Angry Space Goat]

I'm not trying to be a smartass, I'm just curious - what are the chances of these feature requests actually making it into Celestia?

[dirkpitt]

These aren't just wishful thinking I'm sure. Personally I think some features would be pretty hard to implement,
like my own request for cinematic rendering for instance, but not impossible. Once I'm done fixing bugs in
the recent Mac version I'll probably have a go at it myself, if Chris hasn't already done so.

More on topic, I have another feature request: level of detail for models (spacecraft). Like textures, an add-on
author would create hires, medres, and lowres versions of a model and Celestia would smoothly interpolate
between these according to distance. One could also imagine "virtual models" loading only what's visible,
but let's not get carried away...

[Guckytos]

Hi there,

i would like to have as a feature the possiblity to customize the spectral color of a star, since we are already able to change a lot of a stars apperance.
I know that there is now the "Texture" command in 1.4.0pre6 and it is quite nice a feature, but if you for example map a blue star texture over a red star you get a quite interesting view.
A star that has a blue core and the emtting light is red.

I came across this as i tried to create a green star and just mapped a green texture over a yellow star. Well that surprised me bit, and so i tried it with other textures as well.

So my request is, that there should be a command (like SpectralColor [RGB]) implemented into celestia to customize the color of the emitting light of a star.

So we could really make our own special suns.

Regards,

Guckytos

[Predator2354]

I do not know anything about creating the stars in celestia. I figured it was a random generation with the exception of some named stars such as Antares. I suggest filling in the rest of the galaxy with stars instead of just the area were the sun is located. It would become relisticly more clustered as you head deaper the the center. And at the outer brim, scarce. Then in the future, if your nuts or maybe its not hard to do. Create more galaxies with the same idea. Of course, in the near future, technology will improve making this possible. Till then filling the rest of the galaxy is a GRAND IDEA!!!

[ElChristou]

I do not know anything about creating the stars in celestia. I figured it was a random generation with the exception of some named stars such as Antares. I suggest filling in the rest of the galaxy with stars instead of just the area were the sun is located. It would become relisticly more clustered as you head deaper the the center. And at the outer brim, scarce. Then in the future, if your nuts or maybe its not hard to do. Create more galaxies with the same idea. Of course, in the near future, technology will improve making this possible. Till then filling the rest of the galaxy is a GRAND IDEA!!!

Hi,

Before posting anything, try to read more about Celestia (forum, dedicated website, etc...)

You will see that your request as no foundations...

Bye

[Tosv]

Request for an alertbox to help people to set dates for lost spacecrafts:

http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7195

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : Can put stars at really big distances of the Earth, millions o A.L., for example (Andromede is juste at 2 M A.L., afetr all.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : I kick a key, and all textures on planets are replaced by the base color of the planet.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : Use Galactic coordinates for put stars. Can use this coordinates for "Go to" command.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : Planets without star, with a non-orbital road.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : Use of Absolute Magnitude for stars. That is more logic and more simple.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : I want I shall define myself the speed of the spaceship, instead of pressing on keys A and Z.

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : Create user-defined groups.
And I would like very much that by saying in Celestia " Show group BlackFairies ", all the objects of the group " BlackFairies " are shown with another definition that I would create myself, for example " color RED, Magnitude 1 ".
This would be useful to see at a single glance all the objects belonging to a definite group without showing big normal symbols or other groups (useful for example to see the size of a space empire).

[Vampiloup]

N.B. : I have the Linux 1.3.2 version of Celestia

Request : non-english name include.

=> Actually, Celestia say we are on a planet nammed "Earth". I don't know this planet. Where is she ?
My idea is the name of object, in SSC or STC file, are put with the international code of the language used, separated by a star. And Celstia show the name in the language choose by the user. And if no name is find in the user language, he use a name without international code.

Example :

Code: Select all

"en*Earth:fr*Terre:Erde"

If the user choose use Celestia in English, the name of our planet is "Earth".
If he choose French, the name is "Terre".
If he choose another language, the name is "erde"

[Terminator]

How about the ability to divide up the galaxy into small cubes of say, a few parsecs wide (or a user-specified area, or even a sphere). Then eliminate all other objects except for everything within the selected area of the galaxy.

It would REALLY help when you want to see the relationships and distances between a group of nearby stars and star systems. It's currently virtually impossible to judge distances in celestia without moving the camera angle. If a flat plan or grid could be overlayed under the selected area and lines drawn to connect the stars to this grid, it would be incredibly useful.

Here's an example of what I mean, taken from a book:


You can clearly see where each star is located, dispite not actually being able to see it in true 3D.

Surely there is a way of doing this in Celestia?

Stangely, some of those stars are not found in the Celestia database...

[krezip]

requesting to show images overlayed on screen, from .cel scrips.

it could be one of the most useful feature ever added for this great program. could be useful for education, couse it could has better performance, that the alt-tab one, with the acdsee...

so, me, and a lot of teachers really need it...


thanx