This is probably old hat to the regulars, but perhaps some other newcomers (like myself) will enjoy it or be amused ,,,
I made a venus2.ssc and placed it in the extras folder.
It contained a copy of the regular Venus file copied from solarsys.ssc but with a few changes :-
I reduced the radius to 2000 (small I know, explained below)
a new surface texture vmap.jpg ( and put it in the medres folder, I suppose a copy in the lores folder would be a good idea as well)
removed the haze
#ed out the atmosphere
but I left in the exact same orbit, rotation etc. (see below for the full file)
The result was that when I selected 'venus2' from the list of planets (right click on Sol) and pressed Goto: I could goto very close to the top of the cloud layer of the original Venus and then fly in to, and below, the clouds. And then orbit the new venus2 lurking inside !! Real nice it is
The radius needed to be considerably reduced from the original 6502, otherwise when entering the clouds then too suddenly you would be too close to the new surface inside and it didnt look good.
The new vmap.jpg I constructed from a venus surface map at a site given, errr, somewhere on the forum by, errrr, someone else ! I'll post again when I re-find it ! The map had a few blank (black) areas which needed to be filled in with a clone tool.
The 'realism' breaks down a little when orbiting to the dark side, the clouds become transparent and the sun can be seen to be eclipsed, and the stars can be seen as well
Is this a transparency (alpha) issue on the cloud texture that one of our GIMP experts could adjust ? Or is it part of the structure of Celestia I wonder ?
It does not work the other way though, I mean you can't go to Venus and then fly into venus2.
Hope that all makes sense,
Malcolm
PS,
here is my venus2.ssc :--
-----
"Venus2" "Sol"
{
Texture "vmap.jpg"
Radius 2000
Atmosphere {
#Height 60
#Lower [ 0.8 0.8 0.5 ]
#Upper [ 0.6 0.6 0.6 ]
#Sky [ 0.8 0.8 0.5 ]
}
CustomOrbit "venus"
EllipticalOrbit {
Period 0.6152
SemiMajorAxis 0.7233
Eccentricity 0.0068
Inclination 3.3947
AscendingNode 76.681
LongOfPericenter 131.533
MeanLongitude 181.979
}
RotationPeriod 5832.444
Obliquity 177.4
LongOfRotationAxis 302.07
Albedo 0.77
}
---------