Celestia Forums

I recently installed 1.4.0 and shortly afterwards had some problems with frame-rates to the point that it became unusable. The day-night shadow had a jagged edge and FPS was about 0.6. (I'd also installed a few alternative textures for earth etc...)
I wasn't sure if the problem was due to 1.4.0 install, or changes I'd made in solarsys.ssc and nearstars.ssc (defined new barycenters), so I decided to re-install 1.3.2.

Can someone give me the definitive answer on what is wiped/retained on installs/uninstalls. Obviously solarsys.ssc is replaced, which makes me wonder what else could I have wiped out?
I seem to have solved the problem I was having and would like to re-install 1.4.0, but would like to do so without overwriting current situation in Celestia root/data/extras/textures etc...

If you use windows Add/Remove to get rid of a previous version first, does this wipe everything in the Celestia folder including add-ons?

If you just install 1.4.0 over the top of 1.3.2 rather than uninstalling first, what gets replaced/deleted/retained?

I'd just like to have some certainty as to what I'm going to lose in situations where I just want to re-install the executeable, then I can backup the appropriate files beforehand.

I have a lot of customisations to solarsys.ssc, so I usually back it up before doin anything dangerous, but I don't usually backup anything else, and I'd like to know what else is affected (particularly if the extras folder could get trashed).

Is there an option on the self-installer to just install the program and leave all data, extras etc un-affected. For example, if you've made a lot of changes to solarsys.ssc over a long period of time it would be quite good to be able to upgrade the software without wiping customisations.

Also, how will 1.3.2 handle 1.4.0 features in .stc, .ssc, etc...

Can anyone recommend a straightforward procedure to follow to ensure that up-grade or downgrade of software can be done as quickly as possible while retaining customisations and add-ons?

Slaverstudent wrote:Can someone give me the definitive answer on what is wiped/retained on installs/uninstalls. Obviously solarsys.ssc is replaced, which makes me wonder what else could I have wiped out?

The install overwrites all of the files that it includes but doesn't delete any files. In other words, it will wipe out any editing that you've done of the files that are included with Celestia.

You can have multiple copies of Celestia on your system. Cel:// URLs will start the most recently installed version of Celestia if no copy of Celestia is running already.

The best strategy is to rename your current Celestia folder to something else (like maybe Celestia-140final ) and then install the new version as (for example) Celestia. Then you can move your modifications into the newly installed version at your convenience or continue to run them with the previous version to compare the results.

Also, how will 1.3.2 handle 1.4.0 features in .stc, .ssc, etc...

That depends on the features being used. Some will cause 1.3.2 to fail to load the addon. Some will just be ignored.

In my experience, a lot of things such as AltSurfaces will only work if placed in the solarsys.ssc file in the Celestia/Data folder.

As Celestia's written in an object oriented language, I was thinking...how hard could it be to make it treat it's original definition files in the Celestia and Celestia/Data folders as base definitions and then allow it to read user enhancements from for example an optional solarsys.ssc in Extras/Data folder. This would mean we could isolate our mods from the original files and would never have to alter any of the originally installed files. The original could be read-only and would never need to be altered as long as the Extras/Data version superceded or extended the original (at the users discretion) and did not conflict in any way. To revert to the original installed definitions would just be a matter of moving the extras folder elsewhere.
This could be taken to the extreme by making Celestia look for ANY definitions from the Extras folder as long as the file suffix is .stc, .ssc etc... ie. Any filename meaningful to the user will do.
If done the right way, this could also allow addons to modify/add solar-systems, orbits, surfaces, etc as nescessary, without trashing the recipients existing definitions. (assuming filenames don't conflict)

I'm sort of thinking along the lines of inheritance, if you get my drift.

Any thoughts or opinions on this?

Happy New Year,

Celestia works already like that!

It's not true to say "Alternate textures" work only if you modify "solarsys.ssc".
If you have downloaded some addons, perharps you have seen they contain files with extensions like .ssc, .ctx...
On Windows PC, addon files are usually unziped in a folder named "extras".
At start Celestia reads first the "data" folder then the "extras" folder.
So, if your addon .ssc (and others) files are present in the rigth place in the "extras" folder Celestia takes its.
More, you can use, in the extras folder, the "Modify { } instruction" to overwrite some declarations given in the "data" .ssc files (like solarsys.ssc)
Example: file "live_clouds.ssc"

Take a look at http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/documentation.html
or there......... http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/
You will find a lot of explanations

Excellent,
That should make for a happy new year!

I suspect most of my problems stem from when I first started using Celestia some addons didn't install properly, so I started unzipping into a different location and then moving things into directories manually. So I probably got it wrong sometimes. I've always been a bit of an impatient S.I. & S. type, sometimes to my detriment.

I think what I did wrong on this occasion was that i had my AltSurfaces in a separate file (earth-altmaps.ssc), but it was placed in the Celestia/data folder. From your explanation it appears I need to move it to the Celestia/Extras/Data folder (or at least a sub-folder of the Extras folder such as Celestia/Extras/Earth-Addons/Data).

I take it that in the Extras folder we have the freedom to organise and name files and sub-folders as we wish.

Thanks for the comments....I'm now going to R.T.F.M. !!