Saturn E and G rings add-on

[Boux]

Release: Saturn E and G rings add-on - Revision 4 November 2009
With celx scripts allowing toggling the rings on and off.
A wide choice of textures included to fit preferences and or display capabilities.



The add-on's purpose is :
- to visualize Saturn's E and G rings which are not visible with the naked eye.
- to show Enceladus Thetys and Dione riding the E ring
- to complement future Enceladus geysers addons
- educational
The "eg-rings_visible.celx" and "eg-rings_hidden.celx" files allow toggling at will the rings between visible and hidden states (default: hidden).
Please read additional instructions and usefull information in the e-g-rings.ssc file.
Just extract the contents of the distributed zip file in your "/Celestia/extras/" directory then read the documentation.

The package can be downloaded from my ftp:
http://www.quickfixcomm.fr/Celestia/e-g-ringsV4.zip

Thanks to report bugs, etc.
Enjoy!

[BobHegwood]

Very much THANKS for this Boux...
I'm a greedy sod though, but I will add the correction happily.

Again, thanks Brain-Dead

[Boux]

Thank you, you are welcome
The possibility to switch this kind of add-on on/off via celx is a great feature.
Celestia badly needs a true add-on browser though.

[BobHegwood]

Celestia badly needs a true add-on browser though.

To this, I can only add my complete agreement...
Thanks again, Brain-Dead

[Cham]

Thank you, you are welcome
The possibility to switch this kind of add-on on/off via celx is a great feature.
Celestia badly needs a true add-on browser though.

Well, I'm an heavy addons creator/user, and I don't feel I need an addons manager at all.

To me, the scripts menu IS the addon manager. I have an hundred of CELX scripts to toggle ON/OFF each of my invisible addons, and the menu is enough to manage all the addons which are well classified by subjects (sub-menus...).

By the way, your toggle scripts aren't ideal (it's not the right way to define a toggle script) : you have one script to switch ON the ring, and another one to switch it OFF. You should make a SINGLE script to toggle it ON/OFF instead of two files. It's easy. Just check one of the scripts I'm using in the addons I published.

[Boux]

Thank you, you are welcome
The possibility to switch this kind of add-on on/off via celx is a great feature.
Celestia badly needs a true add-on browser though.

Well, I'm an heavy addons creator/user, and I don't feel I need an addons manager at all.

To me, the scripts menu IS the addon manager. I have an hundred of CELX scripts to toggle ON/OFF each of my invisible addons, and the menu is enough to manage all the addons which are well classified by subjects (sub-menus...).

By the way, your toggle scripts aren't ideal (it's not the right way to define a toggle script) : you have one script to switch ON the ring, and another one to switch it OFF. You should make a SINGLE script to toggle it ON/OFF instead of two files. It's easy. Just check one of the scripts I'm using in the addons I published.

I think that the script menu is nowhere near what an add-on manager should be.
It is just a simple way to make visible/invisible some objects or launch a sequence of events.
It does not manage anything actually. But this is another discussion.

Regarding the toggle thing, yes I know that a single file can be used, something like:

Code: Select all

-- Title: Toggle Saturn's e-g rings visible/invisible

EG_Rings = celestia:find("Sol/EG_Rings")

if not EG_Rings:visible()
        then
        EG_Rings:setvisible(true)
        celestia:print(" Displaying Saturn's E and G rings", 6)
elseif EG_Rings:visible()
        then
        EG_Rings:setvisible(false)
        celestia:print(" E and G rings are hidden", 6)
end


I put 2 separate files in the package on purpose so that users can see explicit commands in their menu.
When several scripts are running, it may become difficult to know which ones are on or off.
Explicit commands are more helpful in such situations.
Users are in a better position to know what they are doing in a given context.
Thanks for the remark anyway, when I have some time, I will add this script to the package as an alternate choice, with some instructions.