Addons: Correct Folders Placement, .SSC and Other Files Q

[Soniclight]

Hello,

I'm back after a hiatus. To refresh your memory on my use of Celestia, it is only for creating certain Earth shots I cannot do with Worldwind for a short film project. I use Fraps to capture. I'm also a person who tends to panic a bit when things get too "code"-ey.

The film alone is a huge amount of work and so I wish to keep things as simple as I can Celestia-wise.

Seldon and others were most helpful in getting my 64K BMNG files working in my separate Addons folder on separate drive from OS. I've looked at the suggested guides for Addons but the examples related to non-Earth/Sol situations and thus "activating" Celestia files differ.

I'm sure creating the correct .scc file and others needed is easy and short, but I'm still unsure about this. More on this in #2 below.

Included below are two screenshots:

1. "Originals" --- where I have them stored outside of Celestia as backups and "as-downloaded".

2. "Addons" -- where I have for now placed them -- correctly or incorrectly without any activating files for Celestia.

Note that there is a mixture of .png and .dds. I've marked one set with a red "DDS" since you can't tell that these are in that format. Others with no developer folder specification are .png.

The Goal

These addons that I wish to activate correctly mostly have to do with nightlights (the default "show night lights" in Celestia are low level, and thus way too low resolution for the more close-up shots I need to do.

The opening image above is an uncompressed .avi frame shot is from Celestia default version.

Cruising this board, I've seen some far better examples so I know it's possible posted by developers (even though I get lost in what they are talking about amongst themselves :)

Hence why I have downloaded a few versions as you can see in the includes screenshots from three different developers -- Don Edwards, Haralds and John Van Vilet. (The one non-nightlights addon is "RealisticEarth".)

A) Can One Make These Work Within 64K Alternative View?

The 64K alternative view is the one in which I'd like these addons to enhance and so far my only non-default view. Since none of these desired addons are 64K (at best 32K or 512x512 pixels), I dunno if this is going to work.

I need all possible viewing options available, such as clouds, ambient light, time, more or less stars, etc. So it can't be some static alternative view where I get nice night lights but lose those kinds of options.

So before we can get to the B) question...

I'd have to know what is and what is not possible -- which would then lead to knowing where to put these folders if they are not currently correctly placed. Since I have more than one "night lights" addons, there may also be conflicts that could arise.

Also, even though there are some hi res images or maps of nightlights, those with the "blue" look with no topography details or transparency won't look realistic.

Therefore suggestions on what set or sets would give the sharpest and most realistic look would be much appreciated (within what I have or any other/s I don't know about).

B) What .SSC and Other Files Should Be Created?

I've attempted to create a .scc file for the first in the folders and know that such .scc files would be a short that would include the name of the folder and the location (Earth/Sol), but beyond that, I'm stumped due to the mixture of .png and .dds files involved. I don't even know if to call them "Textures".

Designating them as "AltSurface" wouldn't work within a 64K environment as far as I understand it (it would create a third right-click alternative view option).

So once we've cleared up the where-and-what to use, please tell give me an example of an .ssc file and whatever others are needed and where to put them (I know the .ssc goes in the Addons\setname root folder) of one set, so I can then create these for all.

Alright, that's pretty much it. Thanks for your help.

~ Soniclight/a.k.a. Philip

PS: Note that I did not include van Vilet's "32K Virtual Earth Textures for Celestia_files" folder in the Addons for those are only screenshots from what I can tell. I'm not sure if this folder should or should not be included, so I left it out.

[Soniclight]

Uh, it dawned on me that we are in the pre-Christmas time which can be a bit ??ber-busy for may... hence maybe not the best time to post such a Q. But I hope someone can reply and assist at some point.

Thanks. Hasta la then.

[selden]

Philip,

Nightlights are surface textures. Any of the image file formats that Celestia recognizes can be used (ctx, png, jpg, dds).

AltSurface declarations can be used so you can select the one you want, but remember that each AltSurface definition has to list all of the surface textures that you need for that particular setup: Texture (base coloration), SpecularTexture (highlights), NormalTexture or Bumpmap (mountainside shadows), and Nightlights. If any of the four are not included, they won't be shown when you select that AltTexture.

Keeping the files appropriately organized can be a pain, of course. How you do that would depend on the design of your workflow.

I hope this helps a little.

[Soniclight]

Hi Selden,

Thanks for reply. I've got some OS problem right now and am working off backup drive so can't deal with this much right now.

But if I understand you correctly, then if I'd want these desired textures to work within my second and only AltSurface (the BMNG folder you can see at the very bottom of the second illustration)...

... then I'd have to start by putting them all under that directory?

Reply at your flow.

[selden]

Yes: placing all of the textures you'll be using in the same directory tree that contains your AltSurface SSC would be the most reliable way to handle the situation.

There are other ways that should work, but there are too many caveats and special conditions to worry about.