Celestia Forums

Saturn's rings do not cast shadows on the surface. The "Ring Shadows" option is checked, and Saturn casts a shadow on the rings, but not vice versa. Is there something I'm missing, or is it something with my card? I'm running a GeForce 2 Ultra... nothing too fancy, but this is really the only unusual thing I've noticed.

Hi Ryan,

Have you tried different Render Paths (ctrl+v)? If these don't work, please tell us what version of Celestia you have, and what OS you use.

I have also a GeForce 2 and that effect is the only one I cannot see... so maybe is the same with you...

Ryan,

Sorry: your card doesn't support some of the necessary OpenGL functionality. My understanding is that the missing routine, which isn't supported by Nvida's MX or by their older chipsets, is ARB_texture_border_clamp

A list of the OpenGL routines supported by your graphics card is provided by Celestia's Help menu.

selden wrote:Ryan, Sorry: your card doesn't support some of the necessary OpenGL functionality. My understanding is that the missing routine, which isn't supported by Nvida's MX or by their older chipsets, is ARB_texture_border_clamp
A list of the OpenGL routines supported by your graphics card is provided by Celestia's Help menu.

Hello Selden, I've installed the 1.4.0pre6 release, and have same Ryan's problem, i.e. planet shadows on the rings, but NO rings shadows on the planet.
here the info you'll probably need:
WINXP Pro- Athlon 2700+, 1 Gb RAM, graphic card as follows:

Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer: GeForce4 Ti 4600/AGP/SSE/3DNOW!
Version: 1.5.4
Max simultaneous textures: 4
Max texture size: 4096

Supported Extensions:
GL_ARB_depth_texture
GL_ARB_imaging
GL_ARB_multisample
GL_ARB_multitexture
GL_ARB_occlusion_query
GL_ARB_point_parameters
GL_ARB_point_sprite
GL_ARB_shadow
GL_ARB_shader_objects
GL_ARB_shading_language_100
GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp
GL_ARB_texture_compression
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
GL_ARB_texture_env_add
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle
GL_ARB_transpose_matrix
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
GL_ARB_vertex_program
GL_ARB_vertex_shader
GL_ARB_window_pos
GL_S3_s3tc
GL_EXT_texture_env_add
GL_EXT_abgr
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_blend_color
GL_EXT_blend_minmax
GL_EXT_blend_subtract
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
GL_EXT_Cg_shader
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements
GL_EXT_fog_coord
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays
GL_EXT_packed_pixels
GL_EXT_paletted_texture
GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object
GL_EXT_point_parameters
GL_EXT_rescale_normal
GL_EXT_secondary_color
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color
GL_EXT_shadow_funcs
GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette
GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
GL_EXT_texture3D
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
GL_EXT_texture_lod
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
GL_EXT_texture_object
GL_EXT_vertex_array
GL_HP_occlusion_test
GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip
GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat
GL_KTX_buffer_region
GL_NV_blend_square
GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color
GL_NV_depth_clamp
GL_NV_fence
GL_NV_fog_distance
GL_NV_light_max_exponent
GL_NV_multisample_filter_hint
GL_NV_occlusion_query
GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil
GL_NV_pixel_data_range
GL_NV_point_sprite
GL_NV_register_combiners
GL_NV_register_combiners2
GL_NV_texgen_reflection
GL_NV_texture_compression_vtc
GL_NV_texture_env_combine4
GL_NV_texture_rectangle
GL_NV_texture_shader
GL_NV_texture_shader2
GL_NV_texture_shader3
GL_NV_vertex_array_range
GL_NV_vertex_array_range2
GL_NV_vertex_program
GL_NV_vertex_program1_1
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap
GL_SGIS_multitexture
GL_SGIS_texture_lod
GL_SGIX_depth_texture
GL_SGIX_shadow
GL_SUN_slice_accum
GL_WIN_swap_hint
WGL_EXT_swap_control

I tried different Render Paths, no results.
With previous 1.3.2pre8 release I had no problems.
Can you help me, please?
Thanks a lot.
Bye

Andrea

Andrea,

Ring shadows should work fine on a Ti4600.

They're drawn by a vertex shader routine.
Can you select the Render Path "OpenGL vertex program" ?

You might try installing the most recent graphics drivers from Nvidia (they show OpenGL version 2.0), but I don't think that's the problem.

How did you install the new version of Celestia?
1. Did you delete your old Celestia folder,

2. did you rename the old Celestia folder to something else (the best thing to do) or

3. did you install the new version of Celestia into the same folder named Celestia, on top of the old one (that always causes problems)?

I just reinstalled Celestia v1.4.0pre6 on my system and verified that all the shader routines are in the folder \shaders\. (Some were missing in one of the earlier pre-releases.) Both sets of shadows are drawn fine on my GF 6600GT.

In case it might help (I suspect not) here's the list of shader routines that are on my system in the folder Celestia\shaders\

selden wrote:Andrea, Ring shadows should work fine on a Ti4600. They're drawn by a vertex shader routine.
Can you select the Render Path "OpenGL vertex program" ? You might try installing the most recent graphics drivers from Nvidia (they show OpenGL version 2.0), but I don't think that's the problem.
How did you install the new version of Celestia?
1. Did you delete your old Celestia folder,
2. did you rename the old Celestia folder to something else (the best thing to do) or
3. did you install the new version of Celestia into the same folder named Celestia, on top of the old one (that always causes problems)?
I just reinstalled Celestia v1.4.0pre6 on my system and verified that all the shader routines are in the folder \shaders\. (Some were missing in one of the earlier pre-releases.) Both sets of shadows are drawn fine on my GF 6600GT.
In case it might help (I suspect not) here's the list of shader routines that are on my system in the folder Celestia\shaders\

Code: Select all

Directory of C:\Program Files\Celestia\shaders
              38 File(s)         54,984 bytes


regarding your info:
1- no, I installed celestia in new and different directories (Celestia-Saturn- Celestia Jupiter, and so on, one installation for every Tour);
2 and 3- no, see #1;
4- My list of installed shaders is absolutely the same.
5- If I check the Render Paths, I obtain only Basic and MultiTexture, nothing else (in the past I had the other two).
8- I have Open Gl 1.54, but I have installed the Nvidia drivers 77.72, so I don't understand why Open Gl 2.0 has not been installed.
7- I played with antialiasing ans anysotropic settings, no results.
Help!
Bye and thank you. Selden, you are very kind as usual.

Andrea

ANDREA wrote:

selden wrote:Andrea, Ring shadows should work fine on a Ti4600. They're drawn by a vertex shader routine.
Can you select the Render Path "OpenGL vertex program" ? You might try installing the most recent graphics drivers from Nvidia (they show OpenGL version 2.0), but I don't think that's the problem.
How did you install the new version of Celestia?
1. Did you delete your old Celestia folder,
2[/code]

Regarding your info:
1- no, I installed celestia in new and different directories (Celestia-Saturn- Celestia Jupiter, and so on, one installation for every Tour);
Andrea

Hello Selden, beg your pardon but I had an old Celestia installation, named Celestia, probably a 1.3.2pre something, so I uninstalled it, and installed again the 1.4.0pre6 release.
The rings shadows now are OK again.
But here is the mistery: after this I changed the celestia.exe file with the one by Phoenix, giving the Keyboard Short-Cuts For Orbit Lines, as I had done before.
The rings disappeared, so as the possibility to choose Open Gl shaders etc.
I'm giving this information to the other post too, this is probably a bug in the coding.
Sorry for time lost, and thank you again for your disponibility.
Bye

Andrea

I??m ordering a 6600 GT.Is there anything I will can see or see better than my present Geforce FX 5700 can??t?

Daniel,

Not yet.

Maybe in the next major release after v1.4.0.

Andrea,

Apparently there is a bug in the version of Celestia that Pheonix provided.

I assume you used Control Panel/ Add-Remove programs to uninstall the old Nvidia drivers (and rebooted) before you installed the new ones. New drivers do not get properly installed if the old ones are still installed.

Unfortunately, the OpenGL v2.0 routines aren't in the hardware of any of the Ti 4nnn cards. You need an FX 5nnn or GF 6nnn card to have the v2.0 graphics routines. Nvidia does not provide them in software. I suspect that may be why the driver is not reporting itself to be v2.0.

selden wrote:Andrea, Apparently there is a bug in the version of Celestia that Pheonix provided. I assume you used Control Panel/ Add-Remove programs to uninstall the old Nvidia drivers (and rebooted) before you installed the new ones. New drivers do not get properly installed if the old ones are still installed. Unfortunately, the OpenGL v2.0 routines aren't in the hardware of any of the Ti 4nnn cards. You need an FX 5nnn or GF 6nnn card to have the v2.0 graphics routines. Nvidia does not provide them in software. I suspect that may be why the driver is not reporting itself to be v2.0.

Hello Selden, yes, I totally removed the nVidia drivers before installing the new ones (I've done it again yesterday, so now I have the 77.77), because this was discussed sometime in Celestria Forum.
Regarding the graphic card, I know that mine is two or three generations old, so I've already asked my family that my Xmas Gift will be a 6600 GT (my motherboard is, alas, an AGP, so I spend more and find less cards, because most are only PCI or PCI Express. But I have no money to change everything).
I have given the information to Phoenix, let's see if that is or not a bug.
Bye and thank you.

Andrea

For completeness, it's worth remembering that the rendering of ring shadows is known to be buggy.

More information is here: http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7681

This bug does not appreciably affect the rendering of Saturn's rings. For the shadows of rings like those of Uranus or some fictional planets, the rings won't appear even if the rendering path is correct.

Therefore, when checking the rendering of ring shadows, always check using Saturn's rings.