Celestia Forums

Hello, I'm fairly new to Celestia and I have been seeing some screenshots of Celestia with the camera down at the Earth's surface, with the landscape in a decent resolution. Also, I saw a video on YouTube where the camera went right down to the surface of not only Earth, but Mars, also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgTMgDxbwRU

Does anybody know how to achieve this, because it would be very useful to me?

Thanks a lot!

You need to use one of the high resolution Virtual Texture Addons. Some are available on the MotherLode at http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/earth.php

It's worth emphasizing that generally Celestia is NOT conceived for displaying details on the surface! The reason is that all 3d (dynamical) shading is effected via so-called normalmaps. This technique only works satisfactorily, if the observer keeps a certain minimal distance from the (planetary) surfaces concerned.

There are some VERY localized add-on textures of very high zoom level (Motherlode). These are used in Alan Federman's video. If the whole planet was to be mapped in that resolution, many many GB of data would be needed.

The best available for whole planets are my normalmap VT tiles

http://www.celestialmatters.org/cm/host ... s/nmtools/

that you can do yourself by using my tools. They use the scientific hires elevation data files as input. The tools may be downloaded from our CelestialMatters site. You may also click some examples of what is possible with these normalmaps. My tools work for any operating system and there is a detailed tutorial on CM.

Bye Fridger

Why does the spherical tank onboard the first spacecraft shown have a Halloween pumpkin face on it? (Or am I just seeing things?)

LordFerret wrote:Why does the spherical tank onboard the first spacecraft shown have a Halloween pumpkin face on it? (Or am I just seeing things?)

Good question . That pumpkin face also looked out of the spacecraft in orbit. I suppose it was an "artistical" item.

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:

LordFerret wrote:Why does the spherical tank onboard the first spacecraft shown have a Halloween pumpkin face on it? (Or am I just seeing things?)

Good question . That pumpkin face also looked out of the spacecraft in orbit. I suppose it was an "artistical" item.

Bye Fridger

Actually, it really was on the real spacecraft. I've seen a picture once, of it, and there was a smiling pumpkin drawn on it !

the people in the "clean rooms " do have to have some fun