Celestia Forums

Hi guys:

In checking out Chris's new fix to pre 10 that corrected some problems with models, I discovered that the NASA MER Spirit and Opportunity models that were offered as add-ons some time ago, no longer display in pre10. To the best of my knowledge, they did display in pre8, although I'm not certain. The position is there (the dot displays) and clicking on the dot selects the model, but when you go there, no models are visible. I've obviously checked my ssc file for errors and found none. The only thing about these models is that they both depend upon an "invisible" that was positioned inside Mars, so that they stay in one position on Mars. They also have several textures inside their medres folder. I thought I read recently that 1.3.2 does not do multiple textured models any more??

This is the ssc quote from the Spirit ssc file:

### MER-A ROVER LANDING SITE
### Gusev

#Mars radius = 3396 + for mer rover add 0.0009 for radius = 3396.0009
#MER-A Latitude = -13.5
#MER-A Longitude = -176

"Spiritlandingplace" "Sol/Mars" #A dummy body to provide a suitable orbit centre
{
Radius 5
Class "invisible"

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 9e99 #Effectively stationary
SemiMajorAxis -842.016 #Desired radius * sin(Latitude)
AscendingNode 136.005 #Mars RotationOffset
Inclination 90 #Polar orbit
MeanAnomaly 90 #Fixed on Mars' rotation axis
}
}

"Spirit" "Sol/Mars/Spiritlandingplace"
{
Class "spacecraft"
InfoURL "http://marsoweb.arc.nasa.gov/"
Mesh "mer.3ds"
Radius 0.0009

EllipticalOrbit {
Period 1.02595675 #Mars' rotation period (in days)
SemiMajorAxis 3290.171 #Desired radius * cos(Latitude)
#Mars' RotationOffset = +136.005
MeanLongitude -49.5 #Subtract west longitude = -176
#Add 180 to reorientate on 3ds = +180
# =======
# 140.005
}
Orientation [0 1 0 0] # Latitude in x rotation
# Re-orient model = +90
# Mars' rotation Offset = +136.005
# Subtract west longitude = +4
# __________
# Result = 240.005
RotationOffset 310
Color [ 1 1 1 ]
Albedo 0.80
}

Both models are excellent, so any fix you can figure out would be appreciated.

Thanks

Frank

I haven't checked out the models, but I can say that 1.3.2 definitely does handle models with multiple textures.

--Chris

Hello Frank

Have you tried positioning the models with the new "LongLat" feature ?
You can use it with the latest Celestia release, and it gets rid of the Invisible Placeholder.

I have the Spirit model that Jestr provided with his Gusev Crater model, and these are the settings;



You may need to change the final value of 0.001 in the [Long Lat Brackets] to bring the model closer to the surface if you are not resting it on the crater model !

I also have a .ssc file for Opportunity too;



Hope these settings work for you.

Yep, I tried the settings. All I get now is a 1/2 sphere (black). No model.



Frank

Looks like Celestia isn't finding the mesh. Are your models appropriately named and in the appropriate place?

Grant

Grant:

Thanks for the obvious tip. I had my ssc file outside of the "MER" sub-folder, so Celestia was not finding models and textures folders adjacent to the ssc. It works now. However, because we are not using placeholders anymore, the models are not aligned with the surface of Mars anymore, at least not on my Mars. I am not using the Gusev crater add-on but I don't see why that would make a difference. They need a rotation offset and an orientation.

I aligned them. Here are the ssc commands.

"Spirit" "Sol/Mars"
{
Class "spacecraft"
InfoURL "http://marsoweb.arc.nasa.gov/"
Mesh "spirit.3ds"
Radius 0.0009
LongLat [175.4785 -14.5718 0.13]
Color [ 0 0 0 ]
Orientation [-13 1 0 0]
RotationOffset -45
Albedo 0.15
}

"Opportunity" "Sol/Mars"
{
Class "spacecraft"
InfoURL "http://marsoweb.arc.nasa.gov/"
Mesh "spirit.3ds"
Radius 0.0009
LongLat [-6 -2.5 0.13]
Color [ 0 0 0 ]
Orientation [11 0 0 1]
RotationOffset 130
Albedo 0.15
}


I also had to change their height above Mars to 130 meters. Anything lower, and Celestia 1.3.2pre10 starts to show a black horizon. If you have better success with black horizons, change the 0.13 in the LongLat command to a smaller number.

It is strange that my old Spirit and Opportunity add-on using placeholders no longer works in 1.3.2pre10.

Frank

fsgregs wrote:However, because we are not using placeholders anymore, the models are not aligned with the surface of Mars anymore, at least not on my Mars. I am not using the Gusev crater add-on but I don't see why that would make a difference. They need a rotation offset and an orientation.

Frank

Frank,
I think the difference is that you are using an original model, of the Mars rover.
Jestr produced a model for both Spirit and Opportunity, and I think he physically altered the orientation of each model within his modelling program to suit their positions on the Martian surface.

Must admit that I don't seem to be having any problems with a black horizon, except if I go 'under' the surface and look up (which is fair enough!) ,even with a setting of 0.001.

regards
TERRIER

fsgregs wrote:Thanks for the obvious tip.

Obvious tips I perform with ease ...

Grant