Hi Alex,
I was waiting for one of the 'experts' to tell us how, but ,,, ! ,,,
Well I was(still am) a newbie a few days ago and this is how
I have done it,
( a quick type so excuse any errors, hope it is clear for you and I hope it works ok, Ill check it all in the cold light of day tomorrow !! ) :-
,,,,,,,
Choose a star ( best to choose one that does not already have
planets assigned to it ( less confusing that way ! ) )
For example Tau Ceti.
make a file in notepad ( or other simple text ed.)
and call it ' taucet.ssc' (the name ****.ssc does not matter, the detail
is inside the file) put it in the 'extras' sub-directory(folder) of celestia.
Place in that file the following text (watch out for the CapitalIsation, I've not sussed that out, sometimes it matters, sometimes not):
----------------------
"b" "Tau Ceti"
{
#Texture""
EllipticalOrbit {
Period 1
SemiMajorAxis 1
}
}
--------------
without the --------------- of course !
The #Texture"" is not needed yet, I'll come to that later !
That is (perhaps) the simplest extraplanet file,,,
Then start up Celestia, navigate to 'Tau Cet'
(Navigation > SelectObject > (enter) Tau Cet >OK , press G, for goto)
Mouse over the 'sun' and right-click > in the drop-down should be planet ' b'
point and click it and then press G to goto
you should now see your brand new planet !
You may need to right-click to orbit it to see it in case you arrive at the
nightside, I've not yet sussed out under what condx this happens !
(Normally I would look for things like 'argument of periapsis',' longitude of
assending node', etc&etc keplerians, but ,,,,
It isn't going to be a very exciting planet ! just white on the daylight side and
black on the nightside "
OK so,,,,you guessed,,,, that is where this texture thing comes into play !
Make a small .bmp or .jpg or .png image file of anything
(my daughter, who has a brownie badge in astronomy, was tickled pink to see her fav. rabbit here !! )
but ensure that it is a power of 2 in each dimension (for example 512 x 256
or 1024 x 512 ) (( That gotcha caused me endless sleepless hours! ))
Call it p1.jpg (or something more imaginative !)
put a copy of it in textures/lores and also a copy in textures/medres
( that gotcha also caused me grief ! ) then it does not matter if you have R or r pressed
Edit the 'taucet.ssc' to remove the # (# pronounced "hash" is a fav geekcoder expression for "ignore this" ! a REM if youve done any Basic proging )
and insert your filename
Texture "p1.jpg"
with a bit of luck, and assuming that I've not made any blunders in this quick
note ! you should see a pretty rotating planet of your favourite picture !
hth a bit,
more later if you need and when I sort it !!
Malcolm
Ok, everyone is talking about how they made their own planets. How in the *$#! do I do that?