Celestia Forums

in my opinion : the galaxies in celestia don't seem so good, and slow down my computer (PIII 850 MHz Geforce II 64M). It must be an other way to rendering them. for example render a jpg to the inner side of a sphere which is the wall of celestia's universe, but i never wanna leave the milky way

I could have done it that way, and it would be both faster and better looking than the current method. However, I don't want to restrict travel to within the galaxy. As Celestia evolves, extragalactic travel will become even more important . . . Imagine the view from the surface of a planet orbiting a star that's far above the Milky Way. I'm currently researching volume rendering techniques for comets, nebulae, and galaxies. Ideally galaxies can be truly 3D without sacrificing visual quality.

--Chris

It of course is optional...but maybe add a third choice using his above idea for slower machines...

... or some smart algorithm to switch rendering modes as required.
there is no denying that detail density is by far highest around Sol. So wouldn't
it make sense to use a pre-rendered image of the milky way (or even the
fixed stars) for positions, say, of less than a few 100 AU from Sol?

of course there would be a `bump' when you leave that area, but hey, we get this
already, like when a planet seems to get darker suddenly when it turns from a
dot into a bitmap as you approach it. And I don't think that bothers anyone
too much, does it?

just my thoughts. I'm lobbying here because my computer is definitely too slow
for galaxy rendering as it is now...

dab

Well I was going to say that I can't see the galaxies, but I decided to check and turned the brightness right up. Turns out they are there, but are ridiculously dim. They look good though.... if the next version of Celestia could have them brighter (and if Chris isn't too busy, maybe a little more detailed) I would be very happy indeed. Turning up the brightness gets annoying since it makes everything else seem washed out. No doubt this is a feature intended for realism - fair enough, I like realism - but in the real world I can't turn the brightness up, so how about making them more visible ?


(Mad Boris)