My Mars Page

[danielj]

The VT textures didn?t work in my system.I simply unzip it to Extras directories and the alternative texture showed a feauterless red globe.I think that the problem is the alternative texture is MarsNormal and was to be flat mars.I don?t know how to change this.
My system is,as I already had said :
Athlon XP 1800
256 MB RAM
Geforce 4 mx 440SE 64 MB
Page texture set to 1100 MB.
I already have a 16 k Realistic-Earth texture,a 8k VT Mercury and Moon and a 8k Mars VT(redmars VT)

I've managed to get some space to host some textures so i put up a mars page.

http://www.electronics.dit.ie/dbrady/celestia/index.htm

enjoy

[Brian Short]

This is probably another newbie question, but I downloaded FlatMars_L4.zip and MarsNormalMapDXT3_L2.zip, unzipped them to the Extras folder as directed, but the new texture doesnt show up, it's just the regular med res Mars texture. Am I supposed to be doing something that the directions aren't telling me? Is there a FAQ i can read that answers all this stuff?

**Edit** I figured out the Alternative Texture thing, but I have the same problem as the guy above me... just a featureless red globe.

Brian

[danielj]

Why don?t you put a readme for your files?I tried everything,but your VT simply don?t work in my system.It only appears a red globe with specular.Problem is you are the only 16k VT Mars texture.
What can I do?
Look to my folders.
In Extras,I created a folder called MarsDBrady.
Inside it,there are two folders:MarsNormalMap32k_DXT3(4k) and Flatmars.Look to what is inside:
MarsNormalMap32k_DXT3>MarsNormalDXT3.ssc

MarsNormalDXT3.ssc :

AltSurface "MarsNormalMapDXT3" "Sol/Mars"
{
# Texture "MarsFlat.ctx"
NormalMap "MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx"

Color [ 1 0.75 0.7 ]
HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
HazeDensity 0.45
Radius 3396 # equatorial
# Oblateness 0.0069

}

In the same place,is the folder Textures.
Then:
Texture>MarsNormalMapDXT3
>medres>level 0

Then,looking to Flatmars
Flatmars>MarsNormalMapDXT3.ssc

NormalMapDXT3.ssc :

MarsAltSurface "MarsNormalMapDXT3" "Sol/Mars"
{
Texture "MarsFlat.ctx"
# NormalMap "MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx"

Color [ 1 0.75 0.7 ]
HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
HazeDensity 0.45
Radius 3396 # equatorial
# Oblateness 0.0069

}


Then,I have the folder Texture
textures>Marsflat.ctx
>medres>Flatmars>level 0 and 1

I don?t know if helps,but when I move the ctx files to inside medres,Mars become a gray bland globe,with raw specular texture,I think.

Can ypu help me?

[Dora]

Hi,

same problem here (blank red mars with specular but with no detail at all).

As you write on your website I have extracted all zips into the Celestia/Extras folder. My Extras folder look like:

Celestia
|_Extras
| MarsClouds4k.dds
|_FlatMars
| | MarsFlat.ctx
| | MarsNormalMapDXT3.ssc
| | Readme.txt
| |_textures
| |_medres
| |_level0
| |_level1
| |_level2
| |_level3
| |_level4
|_MarsNormalMap32k_DXT3
| MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx
| MarsNormalMapDXT3.ssc
| License.txt
|_textures
|_medres
|_MarsNormalMapDxt3
|_level0
|_level1
|_level2
|_level3

In the level dirs there are a lot of dds files. Is this directory tree corect or did I something tataly stupid?

Ciao
Dora

[Guest]

Hi,

same problem here (blank red mars with specular but with no detail at all).

As you write on your website I have extracted all zips into the Celestia/Extras folder. My Extras folder look like:

Celestia
|_Extras
.....| MarsClouds4k.dds
.....|_FlatMars
.....|.......| MarsFlat.ctx
.....|.......| MarsNormalMapDXT3.ssc
.....|.......| Readme.txt
.....|.......|_textures
.....|.......|_medres
.....|.......|_level0
.....|.......|_level1
.....|.......|_level2
.....|.......|_level3
.....|.......|_level4
.....|_MarsNormalMap32k_DXT3
..............|MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx
..............| MarsNormalMapDXT3.ssc
..............| License.txt
..............|_textures
........................|_medres
................................|_MarsNormalMapDxt3
.............................................|_level0
.............................................|_level1
.............................................|_level2
.............................................|_level3

In the level dirs there are a lot of dds files. Is this directory tree corect or did I something tataly stupid?

Ciao
Dora

...unfortunately blanks weren't shown right, so I replaced them with points.

Ciao
Dora

[Buzz]

I remember having fixed this by replacing a regular ( or ) by a curled one { or } somewhere in the config files. It was hard to see the difference with the font I used... I hope this helps.

[Dora]

Hi Buzz,

just for the beginning, is my directory structure ok, or did I extracted the zips in a wrong way?

Ciao
Dora

[Ptarmigan]

is my directory structure ok,

I think the .ctx files are in the wrong place, try them in the medres folders.
That is where I always put my ctx when I am playing with VTs
hth,
Malcolm.

[selden]

Dora,

Think of a ctx file as just another type of surface texture image -- like jpeg, png or dds. The bits and pieces at the various levels are parts of that image. They just happen to be exposed as separate files instead of being all mashed into one big one.

[Dora]

Hi Selden and Ptarmigan,

let me thank you for your help.

I have moved both the ctx files. Unfortunately the texture set doesn't work like it should.

If I remove the flat texture directories, the normal map works. And if I remove the normal map directories the flat texture works. But they don't work together at the same time....

Ciao
Dora

[selden]

Dora,

How are you telling Celestia what the textures are? Are you using an SSC file with AltSurface declarations?

Also, I don't think you've mentioned what kind of graphics card you have or how much memory it has.

Is there any chance you're just trying to load too many textures into it at the same time?

[Dora]

Hi Selden,

thanks for your soon reply.

When I start Celestia, I press "4" followed by "g" (for go to Mars). Then I do a right klick on Mars and select "MarsNormalMAPDXT3", which is listed in the "Alternate Surfaces" menu.

I don't think, that my problems are caused by hardware limitations, because I have installed the 32k vt for Earth and a 16k vt for the Moon, which all work like a charm.

Have you installed a vt for Mars?

Ciao
Dora

[Dora]

Hi,

because of all the problems I have decided to remove DBrady's. I have found some working textures / vt, which are quite easy to install and look really great!

- http://home.earthlink.net/~bobhegwood/
- http://www.celestiaproject.net/~praesepe/files ... ed-16K.zip

Big thanks go to Selden, Ptarmigan, Buzz and Andrea for their help and hints. Last not least I'd like to thank the authors of Celestia! You guys are just great!

Ciao
Dora

[Osmosis]

For those of you who have had problems with installing DBrady's Mars VT textures, this is how I got it to work on my system. I'm a newbie to this community, so just slap me if I state the obvious, or am incorrect about something I say .

Here is how the directories look on my machine:



I put the flat and normal maps in the same master directory.

The ssc I modified to look like this:
______________________________________________
AltSurface "MarsNormalMapDXT3" "Sol/Mars"
{
Texture "MarsFlat.ctx"
NormalMap "MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx"

Color [ 1 0.75 0.7 ]
HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
HazeDensity 0.45
Radius 3396 # equatorial
# Oblateness 0.0069

}
_______________________________________________

I just took out the # commenting out the texture or normalmap.

The MarsFlat.ctx and MarsNormalMapDXT3.ctx I put in the medres folder, and since I noticed in the MarsFlat.ctx file that it called for a "MarsFlat" directory, I created one as there wasn't one originally, and put the flat textures there. I just wanted to get it to work as I had the same problem as others here did, but I wasn't going to let 18hrs of downloading on dialup for JUST ONE FILE (the last 180MB normalmap one) plus all the other ones go for nothing...

Hope this helps someone .

[Dora]

Hi,

thanks for posting the solution. Now it works!

Ciao
Dora

[Osmosis]

No problem, glad it works for you now .