The Feature Requests Collecting Thread

[spacedonkey]

Selden,

Thanks for your reply. This is actually what I am doing at the moment, but it's a bit 'clonky'.

Also in my wish list would be some display controls such as a verbosity control and full screen display control.

Toggle type controls are difficult for a remote controlling programme because if you don't know the state of a parameter, you don't know whether to toggle it or not. Much better to have a command to explicitly set a parameter value rather than simply toggle states!

Example:

VERBOSITY 0
VERBOSITY 1
VERBOSITY 2

[phodd]

Hello.

I downloaded the excellent Celestia a short while ago and have subsequently enjoyed visiting the places in the cosmos someone in our era can only dream of reaching.

One of the first places I visited was Alpha Centauri - who wouldn't - but I've noticed something I assume must be missing at the moment.

Speeding up time, I notice that Rigel Kentauri A and B don't seem to orbit one-another like a binary system should, and there are no orbit-lines around the gravity centre when those lines are turned on. I notice that there are several posts in this thread talking about system barycentres or lack thereof, and I guess the solution to those requests could be the first step to providing the solution to this one.

Secondly (and cheating a bit since the opening post says one request per post), there seems to be no provision for stellar drift as yet in the program. IIRC the alpha centauri system makes a close approach to our own sometime in the next 100,000 years, but Celestia keeps everything exactly where it is right now. I'm very aware that this might prove slightly more difficult to implement, but if I don't mention it, it might never be considered.

[Sitting Duck]

Hello,

I've noticed that exactly 1 light year away from Sol, any objects orbiting fail to render, but the camera continues to follow them, (quite shakily). I encountered this problem when I decided to try and make a spacecraft leave the solar system. Could anybody explain how to get rendering furthur away, or if this can be an included option (maybe for spacecraft only)?

[selden]

SD,

Yup: that's a limitation in Celestia.

Celestia does not draw SSC objects when they're more than 1LY from the star that they're orbiting.

It does draw DSC Nebula objects anywhere, but they don't move.

It also draws Stars anywhere (reliably within 16KLY), and they can orbit other Stars in Celestia v1.4, but they glow brightly.



Phodd,

Celestia v1.4 can draw Stars moving, and includes many multiple-star systems, but you'll have to define their long-term galactic orbits yourself. Showing appropriate drift among the nearby stars would be an interesting Addon.

[yaohua2000]

1. Use OS-native font render engine at least in Windows and Mac OS X version for better internationalization support especially for those CJK users.

2. For celestial bodies in our solar system, what if planets' orbit elements with respect to Solar System Barycenter instead of Sol?

[buggs_moran]

I didn't spend much time searching for this so I do not know if the subject has been discussed before. One thing I would really like to see is cyclical/repetitious date features. You can have a date start and stop for a certain object. How about a daily, monthly, yearly, user configurable one? One thing this would be nice for is loading seasonal maps on a planet. However, I can think of numerous others. For instance, I have been working on a stellar gas transfer and it would be awesome if I could have the process recur every 400 years so my objects weren't static. This could also be juryrigged to emulate repetitive linear motion (like particles streaming from an object.)

[buggs_moran]

One more request.

Ability to create non sperical/ovoid atmospheric effects. I guess that would be called a volumetric fill. If that were possible within a mesh, oooh the possibilities...

[avpruler]

Request for colored galaxies


Request for stars filling the whole galaxie

[avpruler]

Request for colored galaxies


Request for stars filling the whole galaxie

[VBSmiles]

Probably out of the way, seeing all these requests here already.
Would be nice to have an option to use a ship with hud, and real space physics like gravity, collision, ect.

[t00fri]

Probably out of the way, seeing all these requests here already.
Would be nice to have an option to use a ship with hud, and real space physics like gravity, collision, ect.

You are not the first one here . How about some laser guns?

Bye Fridger

[Jeam Tag]

You are not the first one here . How about some laser guns?Bye Fridger

Yessss, and all Celestian may have to distroy all the silly geo-cruiser asteroids... what a funny game Another play: tracking Santa Claus... (E.T. and old green martians or Roswell puppets. are too old-style, I guess). Jeam
(AH, and the winner will win: its beer weight per day for the rest of his life. Prosit!)

[selden]

VBS,

If you haven't already, you probably should investigate Orbiter. It's a free space flight simulator. Celestia is an astronomy program.

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html
by Martin Schweiger

[VBSmiles]

VBS,

If you haven't already, you probably should investigate Orbiter. It's a free space flight simulator. Celestia is an astronomy program.

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html
by Martin Schweiger

Funny you should state that , I have ... It sucks. textures wont load for me in that and crashes often. I also understand this is an astonomical tool , not a game. You'd just think there was more realistic flight physics or ways to create Paths based on ship speed near objects...
A good example would be to demonstrate gravitational lensing of light... ect.

[selden]

Have you reported the problems with Orbiter on their forum?
If they don't know about them, they won't be fixed.

Just as for Celestia, though, you do need to make sure your computer has the very most recent graphics drivers. Many problems are caused by bugs in the graphics routines.

[VBSmiles]

Yup tried that already... been ongoing and slow..

Celestria on the other hand doesn't give me any problems.... and love the colored stars in Celestia 1.40.... ( cant seem to get this "Project 10" to work in it though.... just sends me into the middle of nowhere close enough to see earth moving in its orbit. ( or what looks like the start of the demonstration with a planet ) but uh.... I know this should be in a different thread.

[t00fri]

VBS,

If you haven't already, you probably should investigate Orbiter. It's a free space flight simulator. Celestia is an astronomy program.

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html
by Martin Schweiger

Funny you should state that , I have ... It sucks. textures wont load for me in that and crashes often. I also understand this is an astonomical tool , not a game. You'd just think there was more realistic flight physics or ways to create Paths based on ship speed near objects...
A good example would be to demonstrate gravitational lensing of light... ect.

Here I would be VERY careful as to the word "realistic"

Gravitational interactions are getting VERY complicated if the relevant masses are not very widely separated and "pointlike" relative to the observer (cf. e.g. navigating through the Jovian system with lots of moons and a NON-spherical Jupiter). Hence we have decided long ago NOT to incorporate gravitational effects on the Celestia observer "spaceship".

In Celestia we prefer to leave features out before incorporating them incorrectly...

Gravitational lensing takes place on cosmological distance scales. Hence in order to implement that we have to first fill the Celestia Universe with lots of galaxies extending out to very early times (high redshifts)....

So this proposal sounds just like "bla bla", sorry.

Bye Fridger

[VBSmiles]

Here I would be VERY careful as to the word "realistic"

Gravitational interactions are getting VERY complicated if the relevant masses are not very widely separated and "pointlike" relative to the observer (cf. e.g. navigating through the Jovian system with lots of moons and a NON-spherical Jupiter). Hence we have decided long ago NOT to incorporate gravitational effects on the Celestia observer "spaceship".

In Celestia we prefer to leave features out before incorporating them incorrectly...

Gravitational lensing takes place on cosmological distance scales. Hence in order to implement that we have to first fill the Celestia Universe with lots of galaxies extending out to very early times (high redshifts)....

So this proposal sounds just like "bla bla", sorry.

Bye Fridger

Well hey, whatever you choose. I can only make a request. But yes, see your points on lensing ( bad example ) For demonstration this is the best Prog I've found. Don't know how accurate of a model it is though ( I just got it!) could it be used reliably to find ... say ... venus in the sky 10 years from now?

[VBSmiles]

As for me being a "blah blah" - How do you propose I learn? How did you learn to walk? You fell on your butt a couple times. Don't delusion yourself and your capabilities.

[hamster]

Hi Everybody,

I thought of a nice feature - Show the name of the object under the crosshair at all times? eg. You are in space looking at the moon and the bright star seems like Jupiter. You simply move the crosshairs over the star and find out it is. No need to click or select. Is possible to add this feature? I think people would learn more if this feature was included. The current object name under the crosshairs could appear in the bottom right corner above the velocity for example.
Sorry if this was already discussed.