The Feature Requests Collecting Thread

General discussion about Celestia that doesn't fit into other forums.
bdm
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Post #141by bdm » 22.07.2006, 10:48

Hungry4info wrote:Request for better atmospheric graphics...

1)When viewing a planet/moon with a visible atmosphere, can we have the horizon not be so distinct? perhaps get hazy near the edges. It makes the atmosphere look really fake (no offense, of course, to the makers of Celestia).

2)We all love Titan, right? Why not have atmospheric haze? It would be more realistic than a cloud map. Perhaps the atmosphere could get more transparent as you get closer. Perhaps set it up as the transparancy being like 100% at the surface and 0% at a setable hight.

Here's kind of what I mean: (I made this up, lol)

"Titan" "Sol/Saturn"
{
Texture "titan1.*"
Color [ 0.8 0.2 0.45 ]
HazeColor [ 0.781 0.629 0.975 ]
HazeDensity 0.6
Radius 2575

Atmosphere {
Height 550
100%transparancyHeight: 5
0% transpararancyHeight: 200
Lower [ 0.477 0.367 0.211 ]
Upper [ 0.3 0.2 0.9 ]
Sky [ 0.3 0 0 ]
CloudHeight 3
CloudSpeed 65
CloudMap "titan-clouds.*"
}

CustomOrbit "titan"
EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 15.945421
SemiMajorAxis 1221850
Eccentricity 0.0292
Inclination 0.33
MeanAnomaly 120
}

Obliquity 0.6
EquatorAscendingNode 186.6
RotationOffset 318.9

Albedo 0.21
}

This, combined with the earlier atmospheric effect, and the already pre-existing atmospheric effects would be very nice indeed.


I think this would be a good idea worth exploring. One thing that's missing from Celestia is the ability to specify the opacity of the atmosphere. With a transparent atmosphere (or none at all), the stars shine brightly even when the local sun is shining in the sky. With an intermediate atmosphere like Earth's, the stars can be seen if no bright source washes out the sky, but bright sources of light like the moon and sun obscure the stars. With an opaque atmosphere, stars cannot be seen, and the local sun may only be indistinct or not visible at all.

lubelski
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Post #142by lubelski » 11.08.2006, 23:23

I'd like to see some sort of minimalist GUI (disable-able) that would implement some of the functions that currently only available by memorizing the keyboard shortcuts.

P.S. tooltips w/ keyboard shortcuts in them help users learn said shortcuts faster.

P.P.S. the minimalism that pervades this program is a SO refreshing, keep up the good work.

lubelski
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Post #143by lubelski » 17.08.2006, 06:08

on the subject of time. powers of 10x are pretty arbitrary besides fingers and toes. units of relevant time per unit time would make much more sense to me.

example

starts at realtime: 1 sec / sec (1x)

go faster: 10 sec / sec (10x)

go faster still: 1 min / sec (60x)

keep going: 10 min / sec (600x)

you get the idea: 1 hour / sec (3600x)

and so on: 1 day / sec (86400x)

I'm skipping a few stages now: 1 year / sec (31 536 000x )

(even if the powers were still 10^n, it might be nice to have it written out as 10 000x: 2.7 hours / second )


also, if reducing the multiplier kicked time into reverse, then you would save a button on the old keyboard. (while removing the ability for jupiter to breakdance by pressing the toggle forward/backward button as fast as you can)

some sort of slider might be nice too, so one could drag time back and forth, for lining up an eclpise, close approach of a comet / spacecraft, etc.

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Dracontes
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Post #144by Dracontes » 19.09.2006, 15:28

While constructing my own stellar system I noticed the lack of a few things that would make my work easier, and every one else's for that matter, in terms of visualization:

- Toggle on/of display of orbital parameters: semi-major axis (as a straight line), ascending and descending nodes (small circumferences or x's on the orbit's line), and barycenters (as plus signs [yes, I know I can do that with markers, but I do have to select them one by one to do so :wink: ])

- Optional display of orbits for stars and barycenters (in multiple star systems), perhaps in a purple or mauve shade.

- The hability to define in *.ssc files, lines, surfaces, and volumes (the latter two translucent) with identification tags around bodies. It would make for clear visualization of Roche limits, stable orbit zones around binaries, and habitable zones around main sequence stars. Besides the obvious educational purposes it would be easier to determine visually if an orbit is too eccentric for its own good.

- I second the requests for eclipse browsers (and the concordant eclipse shadows), or even better, transit detectors, for extrasolar systems, and for collision detection between objects in a system.

That is if any of these haven't been implemented yet. If not so, just direct me to it and I'll be much obliged :D
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hank
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Post #145by hank » 20.09.2006, 06:02

lubelski wrote:some sort of slider might be nice too, so one could drag time back and forth, for lining up an eclpise, close approach of a comet / spacecraft, etc.

I've been experimenting (using Lua) with a slider control for the time rate. It works nicely. As you move the slider to the right, the time rate increases. As you move it left, the time rate decreases and then reverses and increases in reverse. Unlike step keys, you have reasonably precise control on the time rate and can change from one rate to another very quickly.

- Hank

Malenfant
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Post #146by Malenfant » 20.09.2006, 06:16

Dracontes wrote:- The hability to define in *.ssc files, lines, surfaces, and volumes (the latter two translucent) with identification tags around bodies. It would make for clear visualization of Roche limits, stable orbit zones around binaries, and habitable zones around main sequence stars. Besides the obvious educational purposes it would be easier to determine visually if an orbit is too eccentric for its own good.


I wonder if this sort of thing can be done in a similar way to Cham's magnetic field lines... they would be rather interesting addons... problem is, roche lobes and stable orbit zones depend on mass, and Celestia doesn't include mass as a parameter in sscs etc
My Celestia page: Spica system, planetary magnitudes script, updated demo.cel, Quad system

blueberry
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Feature Request: Rendering two-sided, elliptical cloud layer

Post #147by blueberry » 28.09.2006, 16:29

hello

i have been working on a very complex mesh model, that tells the story of a utopic transformation of the earth:

Image

one would live on the inside, therefore clouds would be visible from the inside. i have encountered the problem, that a cloud layer always shows it's colored face towards the outside, and does not follow it's master body's oblatedness.

would it be possible, to connect the could layer in that way? would it also be possible to make the cloud layer two-sided, soi that the texture is seen from both sides?

would that be possible for any type of mesh?

anyways, thanks alot guys for the great work, it is alot of fun to work with celestia!!

-blueberry

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parduz
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Post #148by parduz » 03.10.2006, 23:19

Request for an "infinite" and "revers" menu tree for objects in SSC. Something like:

Code: Select all

Earth (right click)
 |-Satellites
 |-Spacecraft
       |-Old
       |-Newest
       |-SciFi
            |-MyShips

etc...
all defined in the usual "Parent/Body/..." way in the ssc.

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parduz
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Post #149by parduz » 03.10.2006, 23:27

Some menu related to objects with a begin/ending date:
"goto beginning" (i mean : set time and position)
"goto Ending"
"Keep visible after ending"
Somewhat like this

Grain
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Post #150by Grain » 07.10.2006, 19:50

What Celestia really needs is a planetarium mode. Where you can select your Lat/Long and when you rotate it keeps the earth beneath you.

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selden
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Post #151by selden » 07.10.2006, 20:31

Celestia has a planetarium mode.

Please read the "preliminary user's faq" which is a sticky near the top of the Users Forum, especially Q/A # 19.
Selden

MrZeta
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Post #152by MrZeta » 27.10.2006, 03:26

mpiva



Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 1
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 5:47 am Post subject: Distance Limits


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Request for setting a distance limit to visible stars, sort of like the "Filter Stars"

setting under "View Options" but based upon the selected object, NOT the camera position.

I want to be able to say "Show all stars within 25ly's of Rigel" and then zoom out and

look at that group of stars from afar. Likewise, I want to be able to do this with the

galaxies so I can view, for example, the distribution of galaxies in JUST the Local

Group.


I like this idea and wished to recopy it.

In fact I like this program very much. I was going to write a smiliar programming but just didnt have the time. Let me say that the main uses of Celestia as I see it have been incorporated extremely well; I probly will still write a similar program, altho very much more basic and streamlined for my own purposes.

One idea, of which I am working on as well in my program, is that of what I call 'variable-magnitude' processing; and I dont mean this to happen while zooming; it would make the program not run !!!

Most of us understand light, time and magnitude here; but here is what I am looking for.

We see the stars at a certain magnitude from our planet. I would like to see those same stars' magnitudes in relation to the locations of other objects/stars. Meaning say my home star is Alpha Lyr, and I want to see all the stars 'Apparent Magnitudes' in relation to my location; I dont just want to see the magnitude data (need only be new apparent magnitude), but show up visually correct as well.

It is possible this already works; but in checking apparent magnitudes they dont seem to agree with the info; maybe I am missing it or have not studied it yet. There is some things I need to relearn like apparent magnitude, luminosity...

Ex zeta cas V-mag is 3.66 (I guess I need to read how magnitude is handled in the program; I cant read the manuala yet).

(I just about jumped out of my skin when I clicked INFO on a star - That Is Very Kool to get online info from SIMBAD - Another Great Addition I was looking for!).

It just seems as tho the visual representation of the stars is as shown from earth, and the relative magnitude changes as shown probly correctly; I havnt checked it.

Any info on this would be greatly apreciated. I need to update my DOC reader !

Anyway I still think the visual star representation is as seen from Earth; I would like to see a prcedure call in-menu for resetting apparent magnitudes from new locations; this could be in line with mpiva's request on limiting distances to speed up calculation times.

Thanks!

MrZeta

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selden
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Post #153by selden » 27.10.2006, 08:43

The apparent magnitudes are shown as seen from the viewpoint. e.g. if you GoTo Alphard with the "heads up display" enabled, you'll see Alphard's apparent magnitude increase and the Sun's apparent magnitude decrease. The visual representation of the star dots is being improved in the next release of Celestia so that extremely bright objects will appear to be extremely bright on the screen, although, of course, your CRT can't actually blind you ;)
Selden

revent
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Post #154by revent » 10.12.2006, 06:04

One feature that should be very simple to implement, and would be very nice, would be to allow objects defined in ssc files to have multiple names, like ones from stc and dsc files.

ElChristou
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Post #155by ElChristou » 10.12.2006, 10:58

revent wrote:One feature that should be very simple to implement, and would be very nice, would be to allow objects defined in ssc files to have multiple names, like ones from stc and dsc files.


Agree, it can be useful in certain case.
Image

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Dracontes
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Post #156by Dracontes » 11.01.2007, 10:52

Perhaps a long shot: pen tablet support (in Pen mode). I can use my Wacom in Mouse mode with Celestia but it's an ungainly affair.
Celestia: v1.4.1

OS: Win XP Home Ed. 2002 v5.1.2600 SP 2

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Guckytos
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Post #157by Guckytos » 24.02.2007, 18:28

How about color coding the objects in the "Star System Browser"?

Using the same colors for the names as for the orbital lines. So it would be very easy, in an oddon for an exo-system or with a clogged solar system, to spot which object belongs to which class.

Just my 2 cents,

Guckytos

cyber_space_doc
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Post #158by cyber_space_doc » 10.04.2007, 20:55

emissive material support?
I noticed that some objects, such as spacecraft, should be self lit.
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cyber_space_doc
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Post #159by cyber_space_doc » 10.04.2007, 20:58

calculation and info about properties of local space sector ...
eg temperature, particle content, light flux, cosmic ray flux, EM field strength, Gravitational field strength and direction etc
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selden
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Post #160by selden » 10.04.2007, 22:52

Emissive materials are supported in Celestia v1.5.0.
Prereleases are available for Windows and MacOS, or you could compile the code yourself from Celestia's CVS archive on SourceForge.

The characteristics you mention are not things Celestia knows anything about. However, one could define those characteristics in an external database and have Lua scripts display that information.
Selden


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