idea for next prerelease/final

[billybob884]

I know i've posted about these before, but I thought I should refresh them:

1) I think it would be nice for the little bit of info in the upper left corner to have a counted number of everything orbiting it, put into catagories (i.e. ships, comets, asteroids, moons, ect.)

2) Could something PLEASE be done about the 'hole in the sky' problem? I don't mean to be pushy, but it has been a big probablem since I learned about Celestia a year ago.

[billybob884]

A few more I just thought of:

3) How about being a little more specific for orbits? Instead of just 'Orbits' it could have a sub catagory with 'Planet Orbits' 'Comet Orbits' 'Moon Orbits' ect.

4) Maybe an option for comet labels?

[chris]

I'm wrapping up 1.3.0 now, so I'm afraid that your suggestions will have to wait for 1.3.1. They're all quite reasonable requests . . . The 'hole in the sky' bug is something that I'm especially interested in fixing (along with some other shortcomings of atmospheres.)

--Chris

[billybob884]

Thats alright. In the mean time i'll just post anything else I think of (or that has already been mentioned a while ago but was forgotten). Oh, and here is another (this one's a bit complex):

5) How about instead of an info link (when you click an object and get the little menu) there is an option to open a window similiar to that of the 'controls' window? It would be a little window containing things like name, size, mass, adverage temp., breif history, human-made satelites currently (or previously) orbiting it, trips made to it, natural satelites, misc. links to other resources (pics, charts, ect.), a breif history, and other things like this. There could just be a little line of code in the .ssc file something like:

Code: Select all

   InfoWindow "mars.txt"

Then there would be a seperate folder in the root directory called "Info" and there would be all the files for the info window. There could even be a new file extension used for it, maybe something like .cin (celestia info, c in). In that case it would be:

Code: Select all

   InfoWindow "mars.cin"

Let me know what you guys think.

[GuessWho]

6) "Online Multiplayer" option, so you can meet each other in the space and chat in Celestia...

[billybob884]

That would actually be REALLY cool, maybe as a stand alone program that isn't always active (for those of us with cable, t1 t3 and dsl). Everyone could make their own .3ds ship (or use a default one) that would have that person's celestia forum name right above the ship. Yeah, I like it a lot!

[Rassilon]

Well find someone to run the online server and thats a go mission control

[billybob884]

what do you mean? would you have to pay someone to do this? or could it be like someone with a sub-domain (which by hte way is what i have)?

[selden]

Mike,

Somebody has to pay for the network access and for the server hardware, software and maintenance. You have to plan for the problems of success, with hundreds of people accessing it all at once. There have been more than 160,000 downloads of Celestia v1.2.5 since it was made available, about 1,200/week.

Personally, I'd rather that all the effort be put into other aspects of the program. There are enough outer space SF adventure game servers already.

[billybob884]

oh well, it was a good idea while it lasted... but you gotta admit, it would still be pretty cool, and more convenient than using one of the others, if that many people are using celestia. Actually, maybe you (i mean you, as in anyone in general), maybe you could find someone else to "sponser" it, but that would probably require to have ads or something like that, which wouldn't be cool, and would be completly against what celestia stands for. whatever.

[billybob884]

Anyway, back to the suggestions:

7) How about a way to program certain keys to do specific functions (i.e. you could just make a new .ssc document titled "FunctionKeys.ssc" and put lines of code in it like:

Code: Select all

{
Command "Go to Deimos"   <- text that would be displayed when key is pressed
   KeyImput "Q"   <- key(s) that would be pressed
   Function
   {
   goto { "Sol" "Mars\Deimos" }   <- what would be done
   }

Command "Planet and Moon labels"
   KeyImput "Shift" + "Q"
   Function
   {
   setlabels {moons,planets}
   }
}

Then at the top would be something like:

Code: Select all

#keys already programmed: A,S,M,N,B,C,G,Y,U,I,O,P,ect.

[chris]

Anyway, back to the suggestions:

7) How about a way to program certain keys to do specific functions (i.e. you could just make a new .ssc document titled "FunctionKeys.ssc" and put lines of code in it like:

Assigning scripts to keys is something that I want to do . . . But first of all, I want to improve Celestia's scripting (I'll be starting a topic on that soon.)

--Chris

[Guest]

Anyway, back to the suggestions:

7) How about a way to program certain keys to do specific functions (i.e. you could just make a new .ssc document titled "FunctionKeys.ssc" and put lines of code in it like:

Assigning scripts to keys is something that I want to do . . . But first of all, I want to improve Celestia's scripting (I'll be starting a topic on that soon.)

--Chris

Incidentally, the Linux KDE version has nice and very conveniently programmable keys (and toolbar icons )since a long time. Assignment of keys and toolbar icons is done via a graphical user interface...

Roswita Mamba

[t00fri]

This is a test message

Bye Fridger

[billybob884]

Anyway, back to the suggestions:

7) How about a way to program certain keys to do specific functions (i.e. you could just make a new .ssc document titled "FunctionKeys.ssc" and put lines of code in it like:

Assigning scripts to keys is something that I want to do . . . But first of all, I want to improve Celestia's scripting (I'll be starting a topic on that soon.)

--Chris

once this is done, would all older .ssc files need to be re-written?

[selden]

Mike,

Scripts are .CEL files. (although not all .CEL files are scripts)
Scripts contain commands to change what Celestia shows you.

.SSC files are Catalogs. (although not all Catalogs are .SSC files)
Catalog files define where objects are.

Scripts contain commands like
Select object
GoTo object
SynchronousOrbit around object
etc.

A change in the scripting language would not affect SSC, STC or DSC files at all.

I hope this clarifies things a little.

[billybob884]

thast a releif! for a minute (or two) i thought all the files would need to be, shall we say, updated...

[GuessWhoAgain]

Mike,

Somebody has to pay for the network access and for the server hardware, software and maintenance. You have to plan for the problems of success, with hundreds of people accessing it all at once. There have been more than 160,000 downloads of Celestia v1.2.5 since it was made available, about 1,200/week.

I dont understand what the problem is.
I play Soldier of Fortune 2 online, and anyone can create a server.... it works fine
The centralized server only needs to list the available (private) servers... not expensive is it?
More people online, more servers, and so on...
What's wrong with my thinking?!

[ElPelado]

what is the "hole in the sky" problem?

[selden]

GuessWho,

And how many years did how many people spend writing and now maintaining the code for the SoF distributed server software? I certainly don't want Chris to spend his time doing that!

ElPelado,

If you go to the surface of a planet with atmosphere enabled, if you look to the horizon or up at an angle, you'll see the bottom skycolor (blue on Earth), not outer space. If you look straight up, though, you'll see stars in the blackness of outer space. That's not right: you should seek the bottom skycolor.