Problems

[Spacetime]

I just downloaded the latest version of Celestia. The problem
is with the Eclipse shadows and night side lights. They won't
work and are turned on. I've even tried different resolutions.

Can anyone help?

[selden]

Maybe.

But you'll have to tell us what kind of system you have, especially the model of graphics card, version of graphic drivers and version of OpenGL.
Celestia's Help menu can show the 1st and 3rd of these.

NightLights turn on when the "Multitexture" rendering path is enabled.
Type a Control-V several times. It should step through the rendering paths that Celestia is willing to use for your card and display a "flash message" for each one. Which ones does it show?

For example, on a high-end Nvidia card with current drivers, there are five (5) rendering paths available:
Basic,
Multitexture,
Nvidia Combiners,
OpenGL vertex programs and
OpenGL vertex programs/Nvidia combiners.

[Guest]

I am not sure waht you mean about Celestia. I am a very new user. If you meant type where it says Open GL info I tried
but nothing happens. Below is the info that Celestia shows

Vendor: Intel
Renderer:intel81X
Version 1.1.0 Build 4.11.01.1361
Max: simultaneous texture 1
Max: texture size: 1024

Supported Extensions
GL_EXT_abgr
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_packed_pixels
GL_EXT_paletted_texture\
GL_SGI_compiled_vertex_array
GL_SCI_cull_vertex
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
GL_EXT_cull_vertex
GL_WIN_swap_hint

Hope that helps if I am supposed to do something else
walk me through it.
Thanks

[selden]

Version 1.1.0 Build 4.11.01.1361

That is part of your problem. You are using very old OpenGL routines.
I believe the current version for Intel's 81x chips is 4.13.01.2843 or even newer if possible. (This version was released in January 2002 for Asus computers, for example.)

You need to download current Intel 81x graphics drivers from the Web site of the company that makes your computer. Do not get them from anywhere else. Different companies use different "glue logic" and need different drivers.

Even with the updated drivers, Intel's graphics chips may not provide the features you want. You may need to upgrade your system's graphics hardware.

Sorry.

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply. I have used Celestia more and have a few more questions that the user's guide does not cover.

1. When on a surface of a planet with an atmosphere I can't turn it off. From a distance the atmosphere will go on and off.

2. When going back in time the keys work good so I can go back
thousands of years. but if I type
a date hunfreds of years ago it goes back to present day.

Also the time does not show B.C

3. When on a surface of a planet and looking at the stars
somethimes the screen starts jumping.

Please tell me that these problem will be fixed in the next version

Thanks