Celestia Forums

In the Celesta manual it says "What good is a space simulation program if you cannot fly around in it? The designers of Celestia have created a seamless and easy way to fly through the Celestia universe. You are in command of your own spaceship. The video screen in front of you is its window. You can use this ship to fly through the solar system, chase planets, drift above moons, try your hand at rendezvousing with spacecraft or visit another star. Start some beautiful
music playing and your journey can become more stirring."

My question is would it be possible to add a rocket engine sound to this simulator? I was a very keen user of Microsoft Spacesim when it was released many years ago. It had a very simple engine sound feature that increased the immersion level greatly. I also use Orbiter from time to time. A sound dll file was created for Orbiter adding a rocket engine sound that greatly increased the immersion level.

If a rocket engine sound was added to Celestia it could be linked to the velocity of the spacecraft. Max engine volume at say 1C and above, with decreasing volume to all velocities below 1C.

Has it been done already?

In space there are no sounds !!!

In a space ship there mitght be sound, as there might be air to breathe
At least engine sounds are not unrealistic, although I do not need them to enjoy Celestia.

steffens

Celestia is a space simulator, not a space ship simulator...

Buzz wrote:Celestia is a space simulator, not a space ship simulator...

Celestia is everything that we like it (or make it) to be.

It's a space simulator, a visualisation tool, a education tool, a entertainment tool, a telescope simulator, ...

Why shouldn't it also be a space ship simulator?

Wizzard wrote:Max engine volume at say 1C and above, with decreasing volume to all velocities below 1C

Boy, you would always fly at max. power with that settings to get anywhere.

maxim

Buzz wrote:Celestia is a space simulator, not a space ship simulator...

My nephew and I use it as a spaceship simulator. In fact it is very similar to Microsoft Space Simulator when used in slew mode. Addition of sound would make it more immersive. You might not have an imagination to use it as a spaceship simulator but I know my young nephew does.

You did read the quote about using Celestia as a spaceship taken from the Celestia's guide didn't you? The user guide that was Written by Frank Gregorio Edited by Chris Laurel with additional contributions by the Celestia Forum Group.

Here is the joystick setup for my spaceship
Stick movement forward and back controls pitch.
Stick movement side to side controls yaw.
button 1 is assigned to kill velocity.
button 2 is assigned to increase velocity.
button 3 is assigned to decrease velocity.
button 4 is assigned to track an object as I perform a flyby.
hat switch POV up : Set velocity to 1,000 km/s (good for flybys of small moons)
hat switch POV down : Set velocity to speed of light
hat switch POV left : Set velocity to 10x the speed of light.
hat switch POV right : Set velocity to 1 AU/s

If you are not interested in sound then fine. Please don't tell me what Celestia isn't. Please don't attempt to kill the possible inclusion of what I would consider to be a simple but immersion increasing feature just because it doesn't fit into your perception of what Celestia is all about.

Wizard,

How did you manage to reassign the joystick buttons?

The joystick controls hardwired into Celestia are rather more limited.

It is not my perception or lack of imagination, but what the creators have in mind. And I agree with it, I admit.

Celestia is everything that we like it (or make it) to be.
It's a space simulator, a visualisation tool, a education tool, a entertainment tool, a telescope simulator, ...
Why shouldn't it also be a space ship simulator?

Concur. I am about to try and learn a little about scripting to customise the demo cel. For Iexample I am going to modify the demo cel text by adding my neices name to the screen text that pops up in demo.cel and amongst other things I will be removing some of the northern constellations that are not viewable from down here whilst adding those that are visible now. It is not much, but I think she would like it and it will be a nice intro to Cellestia for her. No joystick necessary in this case.

Boy, you would always fly at max. power with that settings to get anywhere.
maxim :)

To get anywhere yes. Once I am there a good choice is to leisurely cruise at F3 pace :)

Hi Selden

I have a sidewinder joystick with software that allows remapping of buttons. You just assign the appropriate keyboard key to the appropraite joystick button and it works fine.

Buzz wrote:It is not my perception or lack of imagination, but what the creators have in mind. And I agree with it, I admit.

Since when were you a mind reader? Below is a quote from the user manual edited by Chris Laurel himself!

Are you a Star Wars fan? The Celestia community has made available for download an entire Star Wars
solar system. Orbit the planet Tatooine and you will be amazed as the realism of its arid deserts. Fly via
hyperdrive over the ice world, Hoth or to Endor but be careful for tractor beams. Somewhere in that solar
system will be the giant imperial Deathstar, glinting as the light from the system’s yellow Sun actually
reflects off its evil metallic skin.

If you have the time why don't you tell all those people creating star wars addons that they have no idea what Celestia is all about :rollseyes

Wizard wrote:If a rocket engine sound was added to Celestia it could be linked to the velocity of the spacecraft. Max engine volume at say 1C and above, with decreasing volume to all velocities below 1C.

If a rocket sound was added there would be no reason to link it to your speed. In space you don't need to use rockets to maintain your velocity.

To accurately simulate the sound environment of a spacecraft, you'd need to simulate gravitational effects otherwise it would be pointless.

Mostly Harmless is a fork of Celestia which is implementing that kind of spacecraft simulation.

Wizard wrote: I will be removing some of the northern constellations that are not viewable from down here whilst adding those that are visible now.

That's odd. Celestia includes all 88 currently recognized constellations. Which ones are you adding?

Grant

Added later: Oops! I misread your post, sorry. You're adding them to demo.cel, not asterisms.dat, which makes complete sense, of course.

Wizard wrote:...
Concur. I am about to try and learn a little about scripting to customise the demo cel. For Iexample I am going to modify the demo cel text by adding my neices name to the screen text that pops up in demo.cel and amongst other things I will be removing some of the northern constellations that are not viewable from down here whilst adding those that are visible now. It is not much, but I think she would like it and it will be a nice intro to Cellestia for her. No joystick necessary in this
case.

It's always nice again to meet someone who from the onset knows what he is doing

Well, with this user name...no wonder!

Bye Fridger

After a few ESBs and maybe something you set fire to I like to listen to an ambient loop soundtrack that goes with Celestia brilliantly...maybe I'll post it for you guys when you've forgotten about this post!

Many regards...bh