Celestia Forums

Hello,

I was wondering if anybody had considered, or would consider creating a downloadable version of Celestia with lots of the add-ons already included. Some of the other open source software that I like offers a normal version and a 'max' version.

This need not be done by the developer. I realised that hosting such a large file could be a problem but one large download that could be burned onto a dvd and shared with friends would seem to me a good idea.

This way people with good enough hardware can see the best of Celestia straight off.

My personal preference would be not to include the 'fictional' add-ons, but rather a very large educational program suitable for use in homes and schools.

Does anybody agree or disagree with this request? Any views are welcome.

Thanks,

Ryan

Ryan wrote:Hello,
I was wondering if anybody had considered, or would consider creating a downloadable version of Celestia with lots of the add-ons already included.My personal preference would be not to include the 'fictional' add-ons, but rather a very large educational program suitable for use in homes and schools.

Hello Ryan. You can try the magnificient 'Educational Activities' package by Frank Gregorio.
http://www.gregs-educational.info/celestia/
or
http://celestiamotherlode.net/educational.html
There are some 'fictional' in it, because it is a good way to explain lots of universe data, but I think you will enjoy these big addons. Jeam

Hello,
I made a suggestion similar to yours long ago but this won??t work for many users. Everyone has his own favorite addons.
Without fast internet-connection you are very limited and I found noone selling a dvd on ebay . Maybe emule is a solution but not for dial-up connections. For those a dvd would be perfect.
( my installation is about 6 Gigabyte now).

J?¶rg

Hi there:

The Celestia Educational Activities that I developed, include most of the best add-ons that are offered for Celestia (almost 1.5 GB). The add-ons contain over 20 spacecraft, most of the higher resolution textures for stars, planets, moons and comets, plus dozens of nebula, black holes, pulsars, and several fictional solar systems that represent what we might be able to see in other parts of the universe.

Their primary purpose is education. They include over 400 pages of written educational text, with over 300 imbedded cel:urls to take you to hundreds of destinations in Celestia space. They cover topics from the size of the universe to the complete life cycle of stars, to extensive solar system tours, to time travel into the past and future to witness the birth of our moon and the end of our solar system.

You can download them all one at a time for free, or buy the complete set from me on a self-installing CD set for a modest fee.

Go to the Motherlode educational website at: http://celestiamotherlode.net/educational.html,
download the Letter to Users and Educators, and see for yourself.

If you want to explore purchase of the CD set, email me atL fsgregs@comcast.net

Enjoy

Frank

fsgregs wrote:You can download them all one at a time for free, or buy the complete set from me on a self-installing CD set for a modest fee.
Go to the Motherlode educational website at: http://celestiamotherlode.net/educational.html,
download the Letter to Users and Educators, and see for yourself.
Frank

Hi Frank, is your proper page definitively deleted??? Jeam

Hello,

Thank you to everybody for their help and suggestions. The 'Educational Activities' package does look superb and I will probably download and try this in the short term.

Regarding the cd package, I will not purchase this at the moment but would consider doing so, or otherwise donating to the project in the future. Am I correct in thinking it is not just a cd set with all the plugins, but is essentially what I enquired about, that is, a 'max' version of Celestia that can be installed without already having the standard download on one's computer?

Is there be any chance that the cd set will be made available as an all in one download? I do not think it unreasonable to charge for a cd, but I think having a single download would encourage rather than discourage donations. And finally, are all the plugins and activities licensed under the GPL ?

Thanks again,

Ryan

Ryan:

The CD set of educational activities is actually a 2 CD set totaling almost 1.4 GB. I don't intend to make it into one big downloadable exe file. I don't have a server to handle it and the Motherlode is not set up to handle such a large file.

Since my educational activities represent over 500 man-hours of work just for the activities, I make the CD's on my own system and market them for a modest fee.

They are copyright-free. I do, however, have some reasonable "licensing" provisions when buying the CD set.

Regarding your question about fully installable max version, the answer is yes. Pop the CD in, and a special customized version of Celestia is installed on your computer, plus hundreds of add-ons that represent as close to a "MAX" version of Celestia as one can get for under 1.5 GB.

Email me if you have an interest in buying the CD set.

Regards

Frank

Hi Frank,

I didn't mean to sound like I was undermining all the hard work you clearly put in to the project, you are clearly dedicated and also the work is of huge benefit to many people. It is just that my request was not entirely a personal one, I felt that Celestia at its best does not get the amount of exposure it could do, I do not mind looking around a site and installing plugins etc, but when trying to encourage more people to use Celestia (or any other quality open source software), one often meets resistance (laziness!) if all the work is not already done for them.

I do not actually work as a teacher, I am still an undergraduate student but when I come across programs of this quality, I can't help but feel they should be installed in every educational institution.

I will have a play around with the downloadable plugins at first, and may need to upgrade my hardware for the best results. If I decide to buy a the cd set, I will contact you by email.

Thanks again for your help,

Ryan