Celestia Forums

I downloaded a file named "earth-spec.dds" size 5.33Mb, that creates a specular image on the earth's ocean surface. How do I install it? And what line do I have to add to the solarsys.ssc file?
Thanks!

You can't use it with the current version of Celestia. It does not yet include sufficient support for ATI cards. DDS file formats and specular reflections both work only with Nvidia cards.

My understanding is that Chris plans for v1.2.6 of Celestia to use OpenGL v1.4's new vertex and pixel shader routines that are supposed to work with any graphics card. (Of course, that also requires updated OpenGL drivers from the card manufacturers.) That'll make specular reflections work with cards that have v1.4 drivers. Unfortunately, Celestia v1.2.6 probably won't be available for quite some time. If we're lucky, the final release of v1.2.5 will be out in a week or two.

Sorry.

I'd still like to know what to do with a DDS file - I downloaded it and dropped it in the Textures\HiRes directory but it doesn't seem to work...

Dave,

You need to edit whichever SSC file would be referencing the texture so that it specifies the correct file name. If it's a surface texture for one of the planets in the solar system, for exemple, you'd need to edit /data/solarsys.ssc

Thanks, but I have no idea what you just said

Is it not possible to have textures "plug in and go"? Why the manipulation of files?

SSC files are text files used to define objects in Celestia.
The definition of an object includes the name of the texture file to be used for it.
All of the objects defined in Celestia 1.2.5 specify JPEG (or PNG) images for their surface textures, not .DDS files.
If you want to use a different type of texture file, something other than .JPG (or PNG), you have to edit the defintion of the object so that it specifies the appropriate texture file type.

This is because DDS files used with Celestia can only work if you have a graphics card that uses an Nvidia graphics chip. JPEG (or PNG) images can be used as surface textures with any graphics card.

(added later:
While it would be nice if Celestia could automatically detect the hightest resolution image file type that'd work with whatever card you have, that'd require a lot more code to be written as well as for the developers to have a lot more different types of graphics cards. There are other features for Celestia that are felt to be more important.)

I hope this clarifies things a little.

> I hope this clarifies things a little.

No offence, but no it didn't clarify it.

I'll get me coat.

How about this:

If you don't have an Nvidia card, don't waste your time with .DDS files.

If you do have an Nvidia card, DDS files can look a lot better than JPEG or PNG images in some circumstances, but you have to be willing to invest the time in learning how Celestia works.

I have a GeForce3 running NVidia drivers (but it's not VNidia branded). Does that count?

Dave,

In principle your card should be able to display smaller DDS textures just fine. The amount of memory on the card will put a limit on the maximum size that'll actually work.

I don't think Nvidia makes any cards themselves, except as "reference designs" that other companies often duplicate.

You can use NotePad to edit solarsys.ssc

I'm using a jpg for the specular map:

earth4k.jpg

It's around 740k in size and works great.

Texture "earth4k.png"
NightTexture "earthnight.jpg"
SpecularTexture "earthspec4k.jpg"

Its like a sea mask with the earth/terrain black and the oceans white.