Celestia Forums

I've been downloading some awesome add-ons to Celestia and I've read posts from the "experts" in this forum referring to their own Celestia add-on collections, and it got me thinking... I'll bet there are some pretty awesome add-on collections of Celestia out there that many of us could benefit from.

Would it make sense to have a web site (maybe at the Motherload?) where we could post complete zipped Celestia universes -- already configured with add-on collections? There could be areas for fictional universes and purist universes, scientific research universes, specific simulations, etc. Myself, I'd like to get a copy of Cham's universe!

Just some thinking I wanted to share. I know that many people have posted that they're having trouble installing certain add-ons, so this might be a benefit to them -- they could just download a turn-key universe. Any thoughts?

Well, my little universe takes more than 5 Gig on my HD !

There could be lists of zip files for each kind of universe.

Nice idea, but i think even the Motherlode would get in trouble if i and a hundred others actually did it
A Celestia Universe movie contest would be fun, though. Says i, stuck on the Mac version (without that feature)...

-rthorvald

rthorvald wrote:Nice idea, but i think even the Motherlode would get in trouble if i and a hundred others actually did it
-rthorvald

Yeah, but rather than throw out the whole idea, maybe just you "experts" could share your universes! I'm thinking about the top 10 or something like that.

There was also the idea to create a "must-have" list of addons here, but there hasn't been much interest in this for some time

Harald

Maybe instead of posting complete zipped files, a listing of what addons they used and any tweaks they've had to make.

(The files are already out there, no sense in chewing up disk space by putting them up again. If someone is using something that's not already out in the public domain, then I can't see them posting it as part of a big collection.)

How about this? A user writes up a blurb describing what addons they've used, what modifications that were made, but also why they've chosen those add ons and such. Instead of just "Here's my collection..." or "Here are the links to my files..." it would be more along the lines of "I really enjoy the beauty of nebulas, so I've collected some of the most spectacular examples......" or "I've collected as many space probes as possible because I enjoy following the missions as they play out...." and they can go on and explain why they chose this particular nebula add on versus a different add on for the same nebula, or why they felt that this Pioneer add on is better than another one.

Just my opinion.

mmarable wrote:Maybe instead of posting complete zipped files, a listing of what addons they used and any tweaks they've had to make.
Just my opinion.

I'll settle for that! Can we do it? Maybe the best approach is a new forum here at shatters where we can post and discuss our universes.

But isn't this whole idea killing a lot of people's potential creativity!?

Rather than blindly copying such proposed "package lists", people would gain much more by
composing their own individual universes of which they might be even a little bit proud of...

The whole incentive seems to be just to avoid making people think for a quarter of an hour and experiment a bit with trial and error how to install add-ons??

Hmm...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:But isn't this whole idea killing a lot of people's potential creativity!?

No. People would still have the ability to decide whether or not to use someone else's universe configuration, and could still add to it or modify it. The freedom is still there. But there are a lot of people who want a particular type of universe, such as a purist or a Star Trek fan, but aren't knowledgeable enough to know what should or shouldn't be included in their universe.

Some guidance from the experts for those who want it would be a great thing.

Sky Pilot wrote:

t00fri wrote:But isn't this whole idea killing a lot of people's potential creativity!?

No. People would still have the ability to decide whether or not to use someone else's universe configuration, and could still add to it or modify it. The freedom is still there. But there are a lot of people who want a particular type of universe, such as a purist or a Star Trek fan, but aren't knowledgeable enough to know what should or shouldn't be included in their universe.

Some guidance from the experts for those who want it would be a great thing.

I disagree completely. Laziness always wins...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:
I disagree completely. Laziness always wins...

Bye Fridger

That may be true in Germany...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Sky Pilot wrote:

t00fri wrote:
I disagree completely. Laziness always wins...

Bye Fridger

That may be true in Germany...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

What an interesting 'joke'. You might well be the only one who is laughing here...

Bye Fridger