Celestia Forums

Next week will be my last at NVIDIA--it's been a great company to work for, but there are other projects that I want to pursue. One of the big reasons I'm leaving is to spend more time working on Celestia. I'm really looking forward to having the opportunity to spend full days improving Celestia. At this point, I'm not sure how long it will be possible to work on it full-time, but at the very least it will be several months.

--Chris

Mitaka will have the shakes ! Hehehe !

Cool news!! 2.0 in 2 months?

Great news Chris.

Bye, Anders

chris wrote:Next week will be my last at NVIDIA--it's been a great company to work for, but there are other projects that I want to pursue. One of the big reasons I'm leaving is to spend more time working on Celestia. I'm really looking forward to having the opportunity to spend full days improving Celestia. At this point, I'm not sure how long it will be possible to work on it full-time, but at the very least it will be several months.

--Chris

Well having this "fine sensor in my ear" I had already pursued my own speculations after reading that sentence of yours:

Chris wrote:I was too busy with other things in my life

and after remembering that you started with NVIDIA almost /exactly/ 5 years ago...

As Christophe (aka ElChristou) can confirm, I was 100% on the right track. . There was a second possible interpretation, though

Certainly, that sentence of yours did not quite sound like your usual "busyness" related to climbing, snowboarding etc

Now, what I am not sure about is whether this is an occasion for congratulation? It is certainly great as concerns the big jump forward we can expect for Celestia in the near future!

So I think, I will congratulate anyway!

Bye Fridger

Good luck Chris... give yourself some free time now and then won't you.

Wow! The turnaround has come!
Does this also mean we'll see some more of you in The Netherlands pretty soon?

Anyhow. This sounds like an incredible impulse for Celestia!

julesstoop wrote:Does this also mean we'll see some more of you in The Netherlands pretty soon?
...

Good question, indeed

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:

chris wrote:Next week will be my last at NVIDIA--it's been a great company to work for, but there are other projects that I want to pursue. One of the big reasons I'm leaving is to spend more time working on Celestia. I'm really looking forward to having the opportunity to spend full days improving Celestia. At this point, I'm not sure how long it will be possible to work on it full-time, but at the very least it will be several months.

--Chris

Well having this "fine sensor in my ear" I had already pursued my own speculations after reading that sentence of yours:

Chris wrote:I was too busy with other things in my life

and after remembering that you started with NVIDIA almost /exactly/ 5 years ago...

As Christophe (aka ElChristou) can confirm, I was 100% on the right track. . There was a second possible interpretation, though

Certainly, that sentence of yours did not quite sound like your usual "busyness" related to climbing, snowboarding etc

Now, what I am not sure about is whether this is an occasion for congratulation? It is certainly great as concerns the big jump forward we can expect for Celestia in the near future!

So I think, I will congratulate anyway!

Thank you! Right now, I am just 'retired' But there may be further developments soon. I'll keep you posted.

--Chris

julesstoop wrote:Wow! The turnaround has come!
Does this also mean we'll see some more of you in The Netherlands pretty soon?

I should be there for a workshop in November.

Anyhow. This sounds like an incredible impulse for Celestia!

Yes, I'm excited to get back into serious development mode once again, wrap up 1.5.0, and start on the next version.

--Chris

You know where to find me if it turns out you have some time to spare :)

julesstoop wrote:You know where to find me if it turns out you have some time to spare

Definitely . . . We'll see how things go, but I think I'll try and stay in Leiden rather than Noordwijk this time.

--Chris

Good to hear you're getting some time to yourself. I hope you get a chance to climb some mountains.

Chris,
Regards from Robert, whom I've just told you quit your job @NVIDIA, he is somewhat drunk at the moment but he murmled something like "honours on the chest". He is very happy now, still drunk though.


Quite right, he said.

Wow, what's next: "Celestia founder forms new company, goes IPO"?

That sounds fine! (...with fulltime on Celestia)

Greetings from a great, silent fan.

That's great news, I sure wish I could say the same. I have less and less time to work on Celestia...

I do admire the likes of Trolltech who manage to both put out a great piece of open source software and be a profitable company, thus guarantying the continued development and support of their product.

It would be great if such a model was applicable to Celestia, but the userbase being what it is, I don't see a way to achieve that outside of public founding.

Congratulations Chris on your retirement! I'm sure they'll miss your contributions... and 5 successful years with them makes for one hell of a resume. Again, congratulations!

Chris:

I am currently emailing from an Astrobiology workshop/conference in California hosted by the SETI Institute and CalTech. Last night, I showcased Celestia to an audience of about 30 people and they were ... WOWED!. Some of the scientists in attendence had heard of Celestia, and a few had it on their computers, but none of them were using it in their work. The reason was primarily lack of add-ons. They had the default version with its simple textures. Once I demonstrated the level of sophistication that the program has achieved, and some of the spectacular add-ons that have been created, they were blown away. I had many say they would definitely have to download 1.4.1 - 1.5.0 and get some of them add-ons for use in their work.

Your semi-retirement and intent to work more on Celestia will make this program something that is even farther "OUT OF THIS WORLD". I suspect it could become a truly worldwide resource for much of the Astronomy community.

Congratulations! If you are ever in the Washington DC area, I would be delighted to offer you dinner and a place to stay. Let me know.

Frank

Great news, Chris, I hope Celestia fans will see the difference soon and I hope you will have a lot of fun - and not only fun - while making Celestia better.

I dont want to turn this thread into the next "what to do first" song, but your words, fsgregs, are imo very important. Celestia is a great core but it needs a lot of effort to configure and to shine. Thousands of textures, many extensions... The real power and the real beauty of Celestia is hidden, many people just use the default configuration. IMO the most important thing is not a new method of visualization of galaxies etc, but a simple, coherent system of extensions and two easy-to-download extension packs.

Developers should choose the best textures and the best extensions and should make them available as two separate packs, both easy to download and install. This is relatively easy to do and will make Celestia much more interesting for many people. Sure, we all want to see many improvements in the core, but first we should make the real power of Celestia more visible to the others.