Timed Texture Reload

[Troy]

Could I interest the Celestia developers in including code in .ssc files to automate new texture downloads? This code could be useful in obtaining current cloud maps for earth ala XPlanet:

Code: Select all

   Atmosphere
   {
      CloudMap "http://www.mirror.com/earth-clouds2k.png"
      MapUpdate 10800
   ...


The MapUpdate parameter lets Celestia know how often it needs to update the texture, although a reasonable minimum should probably be enforced to stop bandwidth abuse.

Even if you can't include the automatic downloads via http, just reloading from disk can still be useful for Linux users, since we can setup a script and wget to do the downloading.

I'm trying to make arrangments to get regularly updated earth clouds in a Celestia friendly image format. Volunteers to run mirrors would be greatly appreciated.