Celestia Forums

The function COPY URL still doesn't work in the new pre-release 4 of Celestia, when you use Win98. I use both shortcuts (CTRL+INS and CTRL+C) and I wasn't able to copy the URL in the Clipboard.

I tried in WIN XP (installed in VMWARE Linux) and both of them work fine in the same machine.

Does anyone have the same problem?

Yes, I have the same problem.

Dan

Me Too...

Ditto for me. None of the cel:urls that I copied from 1.3.1 work when I paste them into a link and try them. Note that I am running Win XP. Major bug! Celestia 1.3.0 final works fine.

OK, I ran some tests. I always keep a copy of the older version of the celestia.exe file when I install a new version. After I installed celestia 1.3.1 pre3 and clicked on the exe file, it launched fine. It created a cel:url when I tried Ctrl+ins, but when I pasted it into a link and used it, all that happened is that my web browser launched with a blank page. Nothing changed in Celestia.

I then closed Celestia 1.3.1pre 3 and relaunched Celestia using my older 1.3.0 exe application file. I tried the saved cel:url from 1.3.1 and again, it just launched my web browser with a blank page. Thus, it appears it is the cel:url, not the exe file.

With 1.3.0 running, I created a new cel:url and pasted it into a link. To my surprise, it too now did not work.

I reinstalled 1.3.0, overwriting the install of 1.3.1. Now, ... both celestia 1-3-0.exe and my copy of celestia 1-3-1.exe created cel:urls that work fine.

It appears it is a problem with associating the cel:urls with the program when it first is installed. Whatever 1.3.1pre 3 is doing behind the scenes to associate the cel:url with Celestia during installation, is not working. When I reinstalled 1.3.0 and let it associate the cel:urls with the program, both executable applications worked fine.

Hope this helps.

Frank

I suspect that this is going to be hard for Chris to debug.

Cel:// URLs work perfectly for me, for example.
I usually use
Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 plus the most recent "cumulative security patch kit" from Microsoft's Update page. ("About" shows 6 Q numbers in addition to SP1)

Cel:// URLs work equally well for me when I use
Mozilla 1.4 RC1 (build ID: 2003052908)

They do not work with Lynx (it complains "unsupported URL scheme!")
I don't use Netscape (v4 or v7) or Opera, so I don't know what problems they might have.

Cel:// URLs work fine pasted directly into the URL field of IE and Mozilla or when selected on the Celestia Web forum. I usually create a minimal HTML document to contain the URLs that I'm using for whatever project I'm working on, which works fine with both of them, too.

System:
256MB 500MHz P3, WinXP Pro, SP1 (plus security patch kits)
128MB Nvidia GF4 Ti4200, Detonator 43.45, OpenGL 1.4.0
Celestia v1.3.1pre4

I just realized:

One of the things that will cause the symptoms that Frank reports (opens new browser window but doesn't start Celestia) is if you've moved Celestia to a different directory after it was installed.

The installation program sets the registry entries for Cel:// URLs and for .CEL and .CELX scripts so they include the name of the directory where Celestia was installed. If you move Celestia, you have to change the registry entries, too.

Selden:

In prior versions of Celestia, when I click on a cel:url from the forum or paste a cel:url into a text document and click on it, Celestia opens directly and goes to the view specified in the cel. I have never seen my web browser opening before now.

Try creating a cel:url with 1.3.1pre4 and pasting it as a hyperlink into MS Word. Then see if clicking on the link within Word opens Celestia and goes to that view. That is what I'm having trouble with.

Frank

Sorry Selden. Wish it was that easy. I did not move the directory. I just overwrote the one that was there.

FLASH ... FLASH. STAY TUNED FOR BREAKING NEWS. I just downloaded 1.3.1pre4. Before I did, I removed my Data, Textures, Extras and Models folders. I then installed pre4 into the same directory folder as I had pre3 and earlier and let Celestia install everything fresh. Now, cel:urls are working fine when I create one and paste itinto a Word document and click on it. The problem seems gone (maybe).

Now, I am going to take the time to move my original files back into the Celestia directory, one folder at a time, and see if the original problem can be recreated. Is it possible an add-on in an Extras directory can somehow be $^$&@% up cel:urls? (I have a lot of add--ons)? What actual files in the Celestia directory have anything to do with cel"urls?

Frank

Frank,

"open new browser window" seems to be a feature of the current version of phpBB, the Forum software used on Shatters.net for the Celestia forum. Cliking on any URL (not just a Cel::// one) will open that Web page in a new window.

Unfortunately, I don't have Word on my system at home, just Word Viewer and WordPad. I installed OpenOffice a couple of days ago, but I seriously doubt that it's "bug compatible" with MS Word

I've been doing a few tests (while editing this post)

OpenOffice v1.1 isn't sufficiently compatible with Word yet. When I used it to paste a Cel:// URL into a Word .DOC file, the result caused WordViewer to complain "Error! Hyperlink reference invalid".

Hmmm. I got it to "fail" once, but I can't reproduce it.

The following sequence of commands failed (no Celestia windows opened) on a system with lots of windows open and lots of task icons in the taskbar (it was full from left to right, but should have been able to create a new icon by shrinking them)

open local web page of Cel:// URLs
highlight one of the URLs and use right-mouse-button-menu item "copy"
open empty doc file using WordPad
Insert the url using right-mouse-button-menu item "paste"
close document
Open document using WordViewer
Click on the URL.
Celestia starts and runs but never opens a window.
while that copy is running, try to start Celestia by double-clicking on the desktop icon.
Celestia starts and runs and the screen blinks as if it were about to open an OpenGL window, but it doesn't actually open the window.
The task manager shows two copies of Celestia running and using all the cpu, but no windows opened.

But...
kill everything except the IE "group" in the taskbar and the task manager.
Double click on the Celestia icon
Celestia starts and opens a window looking at Io
open the Web document in WordViewer
click on the URL
Celestia goes there.

So somehow (on my system, at least) it seems related to starting Celestia from scratch from a Word document. It starts fine from scratch from an HTTP (Web) document.

Hmm.
And it also seems related to what else might be running:
killing off Celestia and Word Viewer and restarting them while lots of other programs are running, I can't reproduce the failure: now Celestia starts every time.

sigh.

Frank,

Maybe your Celestia registry entries got corrupted somehow? (I don't expect you to know, that's a rhetorical question.)
Installing Celestia from scratch rewrites them, which might fix such a problem.

FWIW, I always install Celestia into a new directory and then move into it only the add-ons I'm currently interested in. I've seen quite a few postings by people complaining of having problems when they install Celestia on top of a previous version, so I've carefully avoided doing that.

Selden, I always thought that if you put a new version of Celestia into a new directory, it leaves the old version on your system also, and you wind up with four or five versions of Celestia all installed and registered. I thought I saw some posts about that being confusing to Windows and it should not be done.???



Frank

Frank,

I've never had any problems with multiple versions of Celesita on my system. In fact, it's important (to me) to be able to go back to an older version to find out if a glitch is due to a new version of Celestia or to something I've done. I just tell the installer to put Celestia into a directory that I specify, usually one that ends in the new version number. e.g. celestia131p4.

It is true that each of the registry entries for the url and script associations can only point to one of them at a time, but I wouldn't call this "confused". Normally, having them point to the directory of the most recent version of Celestia is appropriate. I once actually took the time to edit a registry entry to point it to an older directory, but that't not something I normally have to do. It's easier to rename the directory that Celestia is in

Frank,

So . . . it sounds like cel:// URLs working in 1.3.1pre4 for you? What was the result of putting the add-ons back?

None of the data files that Celestia uses should have any affect on cel:// URLs. The only things that matter are celestia.exe, the installer script (which has not changed in a way that would break cel:// URLs), and getting the install directory right.

--Chris

Chris:

So far, so good. Cel:urls are working as they should for me. I just downloaded pre5 so we'll see what that does. I am using some complex add-ons. For example, in the Terraforming Mars Activity, I have 8 sets of orbiting mirrors, each with its own "beam", + station keeping laser (each with its own laser light beams (internal and external), plus invisible placeholders to keep them all in place, etc.) All told, there are 40 separate meshes and 40 textures being loaded just for this one add-on. I am finding bugs in the cel"url feature around the mirrors and a few other places. For example, try as I might, if I "follow" an object that has an invisible placeholder inside it, such as a planet that has an invisible object imbedded in it for use in an add-on, then when I create a cel:url for my position, the placeholder seems to mess things up, even though the Display shows that I am following the planet properly. What will happen when I click on the cel:url is that I will go to that spot but will not be following or locked onto the planet or object. I will be adrift in space above the object. This is a major problem if the object is a spacecraft. As soon as I get to it, it is wizzing away because the cel:url did not set me up to "follow" it.

Another problem I found yesterday is a random quirkiness in the render settings when I set a cel:url. On occasion, it will look OK and will work, but one or two of the render settings will have been turned off or on, even though I did not set it that way when creating the cel:url (e.g. the orbits will come on, or star labels will appear).

I have not had enough time to use pre5 and put it through its paces, so give me some time and I'll report back tomorrow.

Thanks.

Frank

can someone say where the registry entries are that one has to edit in order to point the cel:// urls to a new location of Celestia? I moved mine, and I can't fix the connection... I just looked through regedit and didn't find anything obvious there....

Look in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cel\Shell\open\Command

--Chris

Bonzer! That did the trick. Thanks!

Frank,

I have tried the URLs in my Win XP (into VMWARE for Linux) and they worked fine, but I'm still having problems with CTRL+INS and CTRL+C when I use my Win98 SE.

In Win XP I can't use all resources of my GeForce, and Celestia doesn't work smooth because Vmware.

I really hope Chris can solve this problem in the next pre-release of Celestia.