Celestia Forums

Hey guys,

I'm a fairly new user of celestia, and I think it's a really cool program.
I want to create my own systems of planets and stars and I have read the users' guide. Can anyone walk me through from the very beginning? I don't even know how to create a STC file, never mind filling one in.

Please respond guys

Hi waldo19,

did you also read the SSC and STC guides? They should explain nearly everything what you need in the beginning.
And it is also usefull to take the SSC and STC files of other addons and have a look at the values for a start.

For the creation of a STC or SSC file file you just need a text editor, anyone will do, like Notepad.

The SSC and STC Documentation can be found at the Motherlode under Resources/Documentation

Regards,

Guckytos

Thanks for the response.

I tried the tutorial HIP500000, i saved the file in the extras and addons section like i was instructed, as hip500000.stc but when i launched celestia again, it wasnt there.

Help!

You need to turn on Celestia's "console log" and tell us what error messages have been generated, if any.

Type a tilde (~) to Celestia to see that log. Use arrow keys to move up and down in it.

p.s.
If you're using a system that supports diacritical marks, you'll probably need to type <tilde> <space> instead of just a <tilde>.

Or do like I did, take the solsys.ssc file in the data folder, copy it somewhere so you have an unaltered version. Put that copy somewhere outside of the Celestia folder. Now begin altering the solsys.ssc file, changing the numbers around and what-not. After some playing around with that, you'll figure out what it all does.

For stc files, just find the nearstars.stc file in the data folder (or any file that produces stars), copy it, paste it, and play around with the values.

Easier for me than reading a guide, since I'm half-illiterate.

Thanks guys

I've finally created some planets and stars and whatnots. Does anybody know good (preferrably free) programs i can use to create virtual textures, bump maps and cloud layers?

Surface textures can be created with any paint program.

gimp is a highly sophisticated freeware paint program. It's complex but many people like it.

I often use the NetPBM and ImageMagick utilities to manipulate and combine RGB images into RGBA (red-green-blue-alpha) PNG images for use as clouds and surface+specular reflection.

Once again thanks for the top advice guys.

Just a couple more questions and I think I'll be ok....

Can I create clouds and bump maps in GIMP?
Also, when i create a moon, it seems to orbit far too close to the planet and some of it actually looks like its inside the planet. Any suggestions?