Rassilon revisited... 3ds cmod version compatibility

[aanker]

Recently I discovered Rassilon's wonderful solar systems that he created long ago. Wow! Thank you Rassilon. I am installing them one by one into separate directories using the recommended EXTRAS folder method for Celestia-win32-1.4.1. Most of these solar systems work great as is. Occasionally however due to the Celestia changes since Rassilon created them there are small problems like ssc files calling for 3ds models that are now cmod.

For instance, in "Muphrid" [Celestia\extras\rassilon\muphrid] the muphrid.ssc calls for the model "vesta.3ds":
"A IV" "Muphrid"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "vesta.3ds"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"

Now of course Version 1.4.1 has vesta.cmod instead.

Could I re-install an older version of Celestia and then copy the older "vesta.3ds" (and others: gaspra.3ds, ida.3ds, etc) into the 1.4.1 extras\rassilon\muphrid\models folder? Would the 3ds and cmod files conflict if some other future addon called for: Mesh "Vesta.*" ??

Or would it be better to just change the affected file extensions in the ssc's from "3ds" to "cmod" and would that work?

Art Anker

[selden]

Art,

I'd suggest contacting Rassilon and trying to persuade him to update the Addons. Or you could edit the SSC files to update the model names.

You can download the individual 3ds models directly from SourceForge. This might take less time than downloading the full installation kit, but there are quite a few of them, so maybe not.

Having both types of models won't cause problems. If the .* specification is ever implemented, I suspect it'll look for .cmod files first. (I agree that would be a useful feature.)

Changing just the name of the file(*) won't work. The internal formats of 3DS and CMOD files are quite different.

[edit]
----
* -- changing the file type extension of the model file itself, I mean. Editing the ssc file to change the Mesh entry from 3ds to cmod would work fine.
[/edit]

[aanker]

Thank you for your quick and informative reply! :)

Art Anker

[aanker]

Selden wrote:

I'd suggest contacting Rassilon and trying to persuade him to update the Addons.

That could be a lot of work but if Rassilon were interested in updating the Addons... Alrescha:

Comparing the alrescha.ssc and Celestia\extras\rassilon\alrescha\textures\medres files:
alrescha.zip is only missing: "no-clouds.png"
Unable to find "no-clouds.png" I used atmospherefix.zip that contains "no_clouds.png" and renamed it to: no-clouds.png. It makes a nice difference.

IMO these outstanding solar systems that Rassilon created are worth restoring.

Art Anker

PS: looking for: Mesh "muphrid_v-moon_ii.3ds" :)

[Rassilon]

I havent had much time lately to devote to Celestia it seems... Sadly I have no plans to update many of my old addons... I am currently updating the Traken System but when that will be released is unknown at this time...

[aanker]

With the exception of Muphrid they are all easy to install as is for anyone who has read "A (not so) Brief Introduction to Add-Ons (3rd edition)" and understands the addon file structure.

The only missing files for the others are no_clouds.png from atmospherefix.zip and no-clouds.png:
alrescha ... added no_clouds.png and renamed to "no-clouds.png"
errai ... added: no_clouds.png
etacar ... added no_clouds.png and renamed to "no-clouds.png"
mira ... added no_clouds.png and renamed to "no-clouds.png"

Good luck with updating the Traken System and thank you for your work - past and present.

Art Anker