Celestia Forums

OK.
Celestia has no USS Excelsior (Star Trek) add on
and I would like one.
I wanted to know if it was possible to render these
meshes here http://wolf359a.anet-stl.com/trekmesh.html
or here
http://www.startrekaustralia.com/newindex.htm
into formats Celestia can understand.

I really want to do it myself, but I know NOTHING about 3d
model rendering.
Can anyone help in the least please?

I found this mesh in an add ons readme file... http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catal ... don_id=147

First time I see a .prj for a mesh... cannot help here...

Bye

OK dudes, new problem.
I did some research and found a 3ds mesh but it looks like this...

Front


Side


Basic look on how it should look (se also, Star Trek III)


How do I fix it?
(I also remember a thread on Obi won Kenobis AOTC ship but I cant find that)
Edit: http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... hlight=obi

Hi Torque,a lot of meshes available to download are made for rendering space scenes in modelling software and are usually made up of many sub-objects (each with their respective textures).Celestia however requires that each object can have only one texture,so the answer is you must split all of the sub-objects off as individual-objects and reassign the textures.Other times the textures applied might use different masks,bump maps,opacity,illumination maps which work great in the modelling software but not unfortunately in Celestia.I will take a look at it over the next few days,Jestr

jestr wrote:Hi Torque,a lot of meshes available to download are made for rendering space scenes in modelling software and are usually made up of many sub-objects (each with their respective textures).Celestia however requires that each object can have only one texture,so the answer is you must split all of the sub-objects off as individual-objects and reassign the textures.Other times the textures applied might use different masks,bump maps,opacity,illumination maps which work great in the modelling software but not unfortunately in Celestia.I will take a look at it over the next few days,Jestr

Does that envolve opening Wings 3D or a program like it?
If it does, I know nothing about it....

Need help on 3D modeling?
The easiest tutorial for newbies:
http://www.eharm.net/shop/freeware/orbi ... /mesh.html

Download the software here:
http://www.anim8or.com/download/

ar81 wrote:Need help on 3D modeling?
The easiest tutorial for newbies:
http://www.eharm.net/shop/freeware/orbi ... /mesh.html

Download the software here:
http://www.anim8or.com/download/

That helped alot!
One problem though...I achived nothing.
That looks like the best thing to do, but
when I loaded the mesh, it took at least
40 seconds for my PC to drag a peice of
ass er...ship.

I may download alllll the files in STA.com
and the anim8or then store them on a disk
and wait 10 years, but thats kinda dumb.

What can I do?

Upload my PC I guess.
How can I upload any of these for free?

Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer: GDI Generic
Version: 1.1.0
Max simultaneous textures: 1
Max texture size: 1024


Supported Extensions:
GL_WIN_swap_hint
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_paletted_texture

Like Celestia, Anim8or uses Open3D graphics routines. Modern graphics cards accelerate those routines using specialized hardware. Your system is using Microsoft's 3D software (GDI 1.1.0) with no hardware acceleration.

Open the Display Properties menu (Right-Click anywhere on the backdrop of your screen, away from any icons). In the popup menu, select Properties entry / Settings tab / Advanced button / Troubleshoot tab. If there's a Hardware Acceleration slider, move it all the way to the right. Then select the Apply button.

If the slider doesn't work (missing, greyed out or already all the way to the right) then you're stuck and need to do a display hardware upgrade to get better performance.

Added slightly later: considering how slowly your system manipulates models, I suspect the real problem is that it doesn't have enough memory (RAM): at least 256MB and preferably more. That'll probably cost you some money. You'll also need to find out exactly what kind of memory your system uses. There are many different kinds.

selden wrote: I suspect the real problem is that it doesn't have enough memory (RAM): at least 256MB and preferably more. That'll probably cost you some money.

I have 192MB

selden wrote:You'll also need to find out exactly what kind of memory your system uses. There are many different kinds.

How?
Or is each PC different?



Also, about the meshes, I have another PC that my school is loaning me
and its specs are...

Vendor: Intel
Renderer: Intel Brookdale-G
Version: 1.3.0 - Build 4.14.10.3722
Max simultaneous textures: 4
Max texture size: 2048
Supported Extensions:GL_ARB_

multitextureGL_ARB_
texture_border_clampGL_ARB_
texture_compressionGL_ARB_
texture_cube_mapGL_ARB_
texture_env_addGL_ARB_
texture_env_combineGL_ARB_
texture_env_dot3GL_ARB_
texture_env_crossbarGL_ARB_

transpose_matrix
GL_EXT_abgr
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_blend_color
GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
GL_EXT_blend_minmax
GL_EXT_blend_subtract
GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
GL_EXT_cull_vertex
GL_EXT_fog_coord
GL_EXT_packed_pixels
GL_EXT_packed_pixels_12
GL_EXT_rescale_normal
GL_EXT_secondary_color
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color
GL_EXT_stencil_wrap
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc
GL_EXT_texture_env_add
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
GL_3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1
GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat
GL_NV_texgen_reflection
GL_WIN_swap_hint

...and the ship looks the same as it does
on the "lower end PC" AKA: Mine.
I find that all meshes I download from that site
if they have textures, they are messed up
and if they dont, they work excellently!
On both computers!

I think its a texture problem--that Jestr
explained above and I dont get but still...


Jestrs going to upload a USS Excelsior into the
motherlode ( YES!YES!YES! ) by my request
(thats how I got it) and I want to 'debug' these
meshes on my own so that I dont sound like
Im asking too much--maybe even upload
some ST meshes myself if they will let me.
What do I do?

TourqeGlare wrote:

selden wrote: I suspect the real problem is that it doesn't have enough memory (RAM): at least 256MB and preferably more. That'll probably cost you some money.

I have 192MB

That's just barely enough if you're running XP. Check the Task Manager's Performance page's Commit Charge to see how much virtual memory you're using.

[added slightly later:]
The Processes tab shows what each program is using. Anim8or, for example, starts at about 22MB. It grows to about 40MB when you load a model containing about 100K points. The largest models are about 10x that: 400MB. Then add undo buffers. It gets large fast.

selden wrote:You'll also need to find out exactly what kind of memory your system uses. There are many different kinds.

How?
Or is each PC different?

Each model is different. It depends on the type of memory management chip designed into the motherboard. If you don't have a manual describing how to upgrade your specific system, there might be one on the Web. Check the Web site of the manufacturer of your system.

Also, about the meshes, I have another PC that my school is loaning me
and its specs are...

Vendor: Intel
Renderer: Intel Brookdale-G
Version: 1.3.0 - Build 4.14.10.3722
Max simultaneous textures: 4
Max texture size: 2048

[...]

...and the ship looks the same as it does
on the "lower end PC" AKA: Mine.
I find that all meshes I download from that site
if they have textures, they are messed up
and if they dont, they work excellently!
On both computers!

I think its a texture problem--that Jestr
explained above and I dont get but still...

Most 3D software packages can draw several different types of textures on each facet of a model. Celestia can't. This doesn't explain why pieces of a model are scattered all over, though.

Many modellers make their designs for use with a software-based non-realtime rendering package. Those renderors have a lot more functions than Celestia has. They can draw prettier pictures but you can't use them to expore a model by mousing around.

Jestrs going to upload a USS Excelsior into the
motherlode ( YES!YES!YES! ) by my request
(thats how I got it) and I want to 'debug' these
meshes on my own so that I dont sound like
Im asking too much--maybe even upload
some ST meshes myself if they will let me.
What do I do?

You need to learn how to use one of the 3D design packages. Anim8or is simple but limited. In some ways it's well matched to Celestia's capabilities. (I've been using its Object editor for the models I've been working on recently.) Blender is a very sophisticated freeware 3D package that can do a lot more but is harder to learn.

TourqeGlare wrote:

ar81 wrote:Need help on 3D modeling?
The easiest tutorial for newbies:
http://www.eharm.net/shop/freeware/orbi ... /mesh.html

Download the software here:
http://www.anim8or.com/download/

That helped alot!

I am working on some add ons for Orbiter. I learned that helping a newbie is the best way to get an add-on when he is not a newbie anymore. So it's my pleasure.

As a newbie in Orbiter, I have already uploaded about 4 add-ons. With such projects I learned about sharing, and since I've seen people helping me, and people no helping me in the net, that's why I help. When you get help, you feel happy to share what you have done to the community.

So happy flying with your Star Trek ships...