1.4.0: no splash screen, incomplete menus, VT issues (Linux,

[amoroso]

I have installed Celestia 1.4.0 from source on my Slackware Linux 10.0 box. There are some problems but, since I currently need a stable system and have limited time for a major upgrade, I'd first like to understand whether these are actual Celestia bugs, or the consequences of an incorrect setup.

I have configured Celestia like this:

Code: Select all

--prefix=/usr/local/celestia --with-kde --with-lua=/usr/local/lua

I use KDE 3.2.2 and an nVidia GeForce FX 5600 Ultra card with 256 MB of RAM (driver 1.5.3, 71.74).

Concerning the problems I mentioned, Celestia displays at startup an error about missing the splash screen, and then some menu entries are apperently missing. The problems are described in this Celestia Users thread http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8579 .

Also, I have tried to install this Earth virtual texture and normal map:

32K Earth Surface Map
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=57

8K Earth Normal Map
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=486

The files are in /usr/local/celestia/share/celestia/textures/hires. I have also created a file called 'alternates.ssc" in the extras directory containing:

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AltSurface "Hires VT" "Sol/Earth"
{
        Texture "earth-unshaded-hs-32k.ctx"
        NormalMap "earth-normal.ctx"
        Color [ 0.85 0.85 1.0 ]
        SpecularColor [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
        SpecularPower 25.0
        HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
        HazeDensity 0.3
}

But when I switch to the alternate surface 'Hires VT', the Earth turns into a white ball and the texture doesn't appear.

The file permissions seem correct and Celestia works fine with the default texture with both the Basic and the Multitexture render paths.


Paolo

[t00fri]

The normal map is somehow the most important texture for the final display. I would advise to rather take a bigger sized, high-quality normal map, in exchange of a possibly smaller sized main earth map. It is extremely important that the normal map has been done by an /expert/ in these matters, since the smoothness of that texture is crucial for a pleasing hires rendering.

Good normal maps should start from the published 16bit gray level maps, rather than 8bit, for example. We have a special tool nm16 that converts the original 16bit level maps to high-quality normal maps, such that the generated noise remains very small!


Bye Fridger

[amoroso]

The normal map is somehow the most important texture for the final display. I would advise to rather take a bigger sized, high-quality normal map, in exchange of a possibly smaller sized main earth map.

Thanks for the advice. Just for debugging purposes, the same virtual texture and normal map I mentioned in my original post worked fine on the same machine with Celestia 1.3.2 and the GTK frontend.

Thanks again,


Paolo

[amoroso]

Celestia displays at startup an error about missing the splash screen, and then some menu entries are apperently missing.

This suggestion by Pat http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic ... 5724#65724 of setting the KDEDIRS environment variable solves both problems.

Also, I have tried to install this Earth virtual texture and normal map: [...] But when I switch to the alternate surface 'Hires VT', the Earth turns into a white ball and the texture doesn't appear.

I am still investigating the virtual textures issue.


Paolo

[John Van Vliet]

a vt dose not nead to be done as an alt surface
it sounds as the entry in the solsys.ssc is a bit wrong
take anouther look at it or post it and maby we can figure out what is wrong

[amoroso]

a vt dose not nead to be done as an alt surface
it sounds as the entry in the solsys.ssc is a bit wrong
take anouther look at it or post it and maby we can figure out what is wrong

I did not change the solsys.ssc file that comes with celestia 1.4.0. I instead created one called extras/Addons/earth-hires-vt/earth-hires-vt.ssc that contains, as I mentioned in an above post:

Code: Select all

AltSurface "Hires VT" "Sol/Earth"
{
        Texture "earth-unshaded-hs-32k.ctx"
        NormalMap "earth-normal.ctx"
        Color [ 0.85 0.85 1.0 ]
        SpecularColor [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
        SpecularPower 25.0
        HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
        HazeDensity 0.3
}

Paolo Amoroso