New Celestia-1.4.0pre-FT1.2 Version for Download

[BlindedByTheLight]

Anyone noticing the galaxy labels seem to disappear prematurely?

For example:

1) Start Celestia
2) Let Sun-to-Earth auto-fly run
3) Make sure Galaxy Labeling is on
4) Go to M 106 (by hitting return and typing M 105)
5) Pull back by tapping END (don't hold, just tap)

First notice as you go back that NGC 4144 just disappears. It seems premature to me... I kinda feel like the label should last longer before disappearing... at least until it's closer to the center.

But keep tapping... the galactic distances are so great as you pull back, the distances that the labels still in view is too small - so the galaxy labels "pop" on and then "pop off" and one can't really get a sense of how many galaxies there are out there...

In other words... are the labels lasting long enough? Or is this just a Mac issue?

[Malenfant]

It's much safer to compare the /tabulated/ events in Jean Meeus' article above. This guy has been a real perfectionist throughout his life! So I trust him very much.

Bye Fridger

Well I can do that with the numbers you gave me that were from a few years ago, but I'd also like to compare with events going on now too.

Does this guy just write for S&T? I find it odd that you'd prefer his numbers to those from an 'office' that calculates such things.

I'm in town tomorrow - while I'm there I might as well pop into the university to photocopy the relevant pages from the Astronomical Almanac they have there.

[Toti]

Anyone noticing the galaxy labels seem to disappear prematurely?

For example:

1) Start Celestia
2) Let Sun-to-Earth auto-fly run
3) Make sure Galaxy Labeling is on
4) Go to M 106 (by hitting return and typing M 105)
5) Pull back by tapping END (don't hold, just tap)

First notice as you go back that NGC 4144 just disappears. It seems premature to me... I kinda feel like the label should last longer before disappearing... at least until it's closer to the center.

But keep tapping... the galactic distances are so great as you pull back, the distances that the labels still in view is too small - so the galaxy labels "pop" on and then "pop off" and one can't really get a sense of how many galaxies there are out there...

In other words... are the labels lasting long enough? Or is this just a Mac issue?

The label cutoff is pretty crude for now: it's just based in distance while taking FOV into account. But for example it doesn't consider the local label density.
This gives umpleasant effects like the ones you describe, but it's certainly better than an overcrowded screen.
We'll probably add proper importance weighting and alpha fading to enhance the results.

[BlindedByTheLight]

Thanks Toti... so it's a problem that you guys are aware of with a solution on the way. Cool, thanks.

Personally, however, I enjoyed the crowding at the center (but maybe I'm just saying I enjoyed the crowding at the center better than what it is now... but maybe I'll like the final implementation better).

However, I really liked being able to see PAST whatever particular galaxy I'm looking at - so I can rotate the frame around and get a sense of the larger structure.

Perhaps it could be a slider adjustment? Something where the user can control the distance of the cut-off?

[Toti]

Perhaps it could be a slider adjustment? Something where the user can control the distance of the cut-off?

Yes, there are several things that would benefit from user adjustable settings (via GUI).

Since you know how to compile, for now try increasing this constant (line 58 in render.cpp) to -let's say- 1.0e7:

Code: Select all

static const double LABELLED_DSO_DISTANCE_LIMIT   = 5.0e6;


[Smacklug]

Sorry if this has been posted, but for some reason, planet and almost everything else orbit lines won't show. I don't know why, but it does this in all my Celestia versions recently, it used to work fine.

Windows XP
2 GB RAM
GeForce FX5200

[t00fri]

Does this guy just write for S&T? I find it odd that you'd prefer his numbers to those from an 'office' that calculates such things.

See e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Meeus

Bye Fridger

[Malenfant]

See e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Meeus

Bye Fridger

Good enough for me .

The only problem is that I can't really check on his current (2005) predictions since all I have are the numbers you provided which are for old events. If you can provide me with a few predictions for events happening around now (make it December since apparently Jupiter's behind or close to the sun right now) then I can check those and also compare them with what I've got in the Observers Handbooks.

[selden]

Sorry if this has been posted, but for some reason, planet and almost everything else orbit lines won't show. I don't know why, but it does this in all my Celestia versions recently, it used to work fine.

Windows XP
2 GB RAM
GeForce FX5200

Strange.

They're working fine for me.

Did you verify that the "Show Orbits" box and appropriate individual Orbit boxes are checked in the "Render/View Options" menu?

[edit]
Don't forget that if you use a Cel:// URL, it'll change the orbit display settings to whatever they were set to when the URL was recorded.
[/edit]

[jestr]

Hi Fridger,Toti,thanks to you both for your excellent work on this version of Celestia-it is a great improvement,however I have just tried out some level12 VT's of Earth,but it only seems to work up to level10.They work up to level12 in 1.4.0 pre6 though.Just thought I'd let you know,Jestr

[t00fri]

Hi Fridger,Toti,thanks to you both for your excellent work on this version of Celestia-it is a great improvement,however I have just tried out some level12 VT's of Earth,but it only seems to work up to level10.They work up to level12 in 1.4.0 pre6 though.Just thought I'd let you know,Jestr

Many thanks. We'll look into that.

Cheers,
Fridger

[medusa]

Maybe a silly question, I don't peek that often into the forum...
On which 1.4.0pre version FT is based? I would like to know *before* I slurp 15 M or so through a 56k modem line.
I have a special interest in the binary star orbit stuff.

@toti, Fridger:
Good work, keep it alive. Celestia MUST NOT die!!!!

~Diane.

[t00fri]

Maybe a silly question, I don't peek that often into the forum...
On which 1.4.0pre version FT is based? I would like to know *before* I slurp 15 M or so through a 56k modem line.
I have a special interest in the binary star orbit stuff.

@toti, Fridger:
Good work, keep it alive. Celestia MUST NOT die!!!!

~Diane.

It's based on the latest CVS code (being more recent than 1.4.0pre7). The actual changes you find at the beginning of this thread.

Celestia-FT1.2 has now been almost completely integrated into the official CVS codebase by Chris and will soon be part of 1.4.0.
+++++++++++++++++++++
(Please don't download from CVS before the weekend, there are still some residual bugs and outdated galaxy and binary star files)
++++++++++++++++++++
We have agreed with Chris about various modalities in case he might become again "unresponsive" . But here is a comforting quote:

it's unlikely that I'll be disappearing again any time soon.

So don't worry, Celestia will NOT die ...

Bye Fridger

[BlindedByTheLight]

That's all great news! I've been noticing a lot of contributions from Chris et all to the CVS codebase as of late! Looking forward to 1.4!!!

[BlindedByTheLight]

Celestia-FT1.2 has now been almost completely integrated into the official CVS codebase by Chris and will soon be part of 1.4.0.

One thing I'm just curious about... is doctorjoe's GOTO space-craft start-time patch included in the recent updates? I ask because he made it at my prompting and has expressed... shall we say, eagerness, for the work to be incorporated. Thus, since he's disappeared, I have taken it upon myself to take up his cause... It's a great patch. Simple, too, I think. I still have a copy if anyone is interested.

Thanks,
Steven aka BlindedByTheLight

[ElChristou]

it's unlikely that I'll be disappearing again any time soon.

[t00fri]

Hi,

Chris (ElChristou) just sent me a new SBa galaxy template that he made after Dirkpitt eliminated further bugs out of bmp2pts. It looks quite good, I think...

Here is a cute example of the close pair NGC 78-1 (SBa) and NGC-2 (S0). You nicely see the markedly different morphology of the 2 galaxies.



Oh yes, and these would be both invisible if we had used a "castrated", smaller version of deepsky.ssc (~1000 instead 0f 10000+ entries)

Cheers,
Fridger

[Cham]

This looks VERY nice, Fridger !

Now you talk !

[t00fri]

Here is a close-up view of ElChristou's new SBa:



Bye Fridger

[Cham]

This looks perfect, Fridger.

However, I just hate the rings effect in the glow (not related to the galaxy template). Should be smoother.