New Friendship model

[Cham]

Very nice Friendship model available here, in 3ds format :

http://www.jrbassett.com/html/MPIndex1.html

[ElChristou]

Hey, seems to be a way better model than mine!
Will have a look...

EDIT: This model is just FANTASTIC! It's way better documented than mine...
We need to hire the author for a Gemini!

[ElChristou]

Guys, I've been playing a bit with this model and I must say... JUST TRASH MY OLD LB7!
Not only the model is really accurate but it's a also a very good work from a 3D point of view. In fact the author (James R. Bassett) succeed where I fail because of lack of documents...
Anyway it's a really neat model and you can find here a similar great model of the Freedom 7...

I really hope he will do a Gemini...

[ANDREA]

Guys, I've been playing a bit with this model and I must say... JUST TRASH MY OLD LB7!
Not only the model is really accurate but it's a also a very good work from a 3D point of view. In fact the author (James R. Bassett) succeed where I fail because of lack of documents...
Anyway it's a really neat model and you can find here a similar great model of the Freedom 7...

Yes, it's a great model, but your one is very close to.
And for Star Wars fan, there are many very nice SW models.

I really hope he will do a Gemini...

I remember I visited these pages (or the older ones, I don't remember) some time ago, so he probably is still on the job.
Therefore, just a suggestion, why don't you try to contact him?
Bye

Andrea

[ElChristou]

(Cross posting Andrea!)

Ok, I got the green light from the author to adapt his work into a Celestia addon format.
As I now have to remove my old Liberty Bell 7, I will probably host these models at CM.
I'll try to have this ready as soon as possible!

(Ah, and the good news is that he will probably do a Gemini! )

[chris]

(Cross posting Andrea!)

Ok, I got the green light from the author to adapt his work into a Celestia addon format.
As I now have to remove my old Liberty Bell 7, I will probably host these models at CM.
I'll try to have this ready as soon as possible!

(Ah, and the good news is that he will probably do a Gemini! )

Very good news... That Mercury capsule model is beautiful. Looking at the renderings on the author's web page makes me think that I really need to get shadows working in Celestia...

--Chris

[ElChristou]

Very good news... That Mercury capsule model is beautiful. Looking at the renderings on the author's web page makes me think that I really need to get shadows working in Celestia...

Shadowing a single model is cool but imagine on a huge structure as ISS... that would make a huge difference!

[Cham]

Shadowing a single model is cool but imagine on a huge structure as ISS... that would make a huge difference!

Could also make a huge difference on the frame rate.

When implemented, I suggest that this feature is defined at the SSC level, so some large models don't receive any shadow...

Should be consistent in usage as for the clouds shadows, which should be defined at the SSC level, since gas giants with clouds shouldn't all have shadows...

[ElChristou]

Shadowing a single model is cool but imagine on a huge structure as ISS... that would make a huge difference!

Could also make a huge difference on the frame rate...

Of course, but as it won't be for tomorrow, I'm confident the GPUs in a close future will offer enough power to do a descent shadowing...

[Chuft-Captain]

Shadowing a single model is cool but imagine on a huge structure as ISS... that would make a huge difference!

When implemented, I suggest that this feature is defined at the SSC level, so some large models don't receive any shadow...

Sounds like a reasonable idea, but surely the decision should be whether or not a given mesh "casts" a shadow, not whether it "receives" shadow. (or am I misunderstanding what you mean?? )
IMO, the default should be that a mesh DOES cast a shadow.

Also, some thought would need to go into whether semi-transparent meshes (or transparent portions of meshes) cast a shadow or not. ie. windows etc....

[selden]

"casting a shadow" and "receiving a shadow" are different options in 3D graphics. Depending on what you're drawing, one can be more important than the other. When drawing a complex mesh, they can be very expensive, reducing the framerate substantially.

[Chuft-Captain]

"casting a shadow" and "receiving a shadow" are different options in 3D graphics. Depending on what you're drawing, one can be more important than the other. When drawing a complex mesh, they can be very expensive, reducing the framerate substantially.

Yes, I understand the difference, and why it can be very expensive. eg. Space Station V, Hale Telescope
To clarify my previous post, I was suggesting that the default should be to cast and receive shadows by all meshes (otherwise you may never know that a cast shadow intersects with any given receiving mesh).
Cham's SSC definition idea could be used to disable shadow casting and/or shadow receiving on more complex meshes if necessary for performance reasons.

Cheers
CC

[Cham]

Cham's SSC definition idea could be used to disable shadow casting and/or shadow receiving on more complex meshes if necessary for performance reasons.

Yes, we need both options for a given model, something like this, in some SSC declarations :

ReceiveShadow false
CastShadow false

[ElChristou]

Cham's SSC definition idea could be used to disable shadow casting and/or shadow receiving on more complex meshes if necessary for performance reasons.

Yes, we need both options for a given model, something like this, in some SSC declarations :

ReceiveShadow false
CastShadow false

Perso I think that would be too complicated; we will end with users doing whatever tuning resulting in completely unnatural rendering... A simple shadows true/false in the ssc of a model or better in the incoming addon manager would be IMHO much than enough....

[chris]

The capability to enable and disable shadows may indeed be necessary, but this discussion is premature. It will likely be some time before shadows are ready, and the performance impact may not be that significant.

--Chris

[Chuft-Captain]

The capability to enable and disable shadows may indeed be necessary, but this discussion is premature. It will likely be some time before shadows are ready, and the performance impact may not be that significant.

Premature yes , but for the record: I think a simple on/off (as for eclipse shadows) would be best... especially if performance hit turns out to be a non-issue.

That's my 2CW. I'll shut up for now.

[bh]

A gemini would be just great!

[ElChristou]

In a few days I will have a Celestia adapted version of Jim's models. They are a bit heavier than my old LB7 but it's normal view the details on these models...

[BobHegwood]

In a few days I will have a Celestia adapted version of Jim's models. They are a bit heavier than my old LB7 but it's normal view the details on these models...

I know that you don't need any motivation, but - as always - very much
appreciated by the Brain-Dead.

[ElChristou]

See the CM thread!