Ran III Released

[mikej]

Finally managed to download the entire package
A quick question: for this and other large add-ons, would it help to create a second installation of Celestia with all unnecessary files removed from the low, med, and hi res folders? Would it speed things up if Celestia did not have to load our Solar System, but only the systems in the add-on?

Thanks!

[rthorvald]

for this and other large add-ons, would it help to create a second installation of Celestia with all unnecessary files removed from the low, med, and hi res folders? Would it speed things up if Celestia did not have to load our Solar System, but only the systems in the add-on?

If you go directly to Ran after launching Celestia, having the Solar System active does not much matter - it is so far away that Celestia will not load any of it into memory anyway - with one exeption: it will load orbits, so if you have installed a zillion asteroids, you could disable those.

Likewise, to optimize performance, don?t use the one million / two million Star database, or a lot of nebulas, which *will* get loaded. Also, disable the motw_extras file, as mentioned earlier in this thread.

PS: it is never necessary to remove files from the hi/med/lores folders. It is sufficient to disable the SSC files (or entries in them) that points to the graphics (simply rename .ssc to .txt) - bot do not do that with solarsys.ssc, or Celestia will not work (though you could remove everything INSIDE it).

- rthorvald

[BobHegwood]

Interesting that this did not make the Motherlode frontpage, which is still displaying the Educational Activities 2007 as the big new add-on...

If you'll take another look now, I believe that you'll find Runar's add-on prominently displayed on the main ML page.
Many thanks to Ulrich, who has MORE than enough to do nowadays.

[danielj]

I could change my old 7600 GT for an additional 1 GB of RAM and a little thing else and the result is impressive.
In benchmarks,Aquamark3 go from 75000 (2 GB) to 82000 (3 GB).Both at Windows XP.
In Celestia,I can get in Orrery, up to 60 fps with clouds off and 30 fps with clouds on.In Ran.
Although not related,in Mars2 (or 3),I can get 22-30 fps with clouds on and 50 fps with clouds off.

Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and Windows XP PE SP3 32 bits on
Athlon64 X2 3800
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
3 GB RAM DDR400
XFX 8800 GS 192 bit 384 MB
2XHD 160 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA
Celestia 1.4.1 and 1.5.0
Nvidia Forceware 169.32 on Windows Vista and 175.16 on Windows XP

[danielj]

I downloaded the Ran III Extended Package today,but several models like the Cycler and the Capturing Sudri,Ruins of Landfall,Aegir Cycler,Factory Drone and others are missing.What I did wrong in the installation to happen something like this?

[rthorvald]

I downloaded the Ran III Extended Package today,but several models like the Cycler and the Capturing Sudri,Ruins of Landfall,Aegir Cycler,Factory Drone and others are missing.What I did wrong in the installation to happen something like this?

No models in the extended package. Everything is in the standard download. The Extras only give you much higher resolution for the textures. You add the HiRes folder found in the extended package to the existing installation?s Textures folder.

But those models only exist at certain times. Maybe you looked at them at the wrong date?

- rthorvald

[danielj]

YOU ARE RIGHT.I saw in the wrong data.But the datas are strange.Some are around 200 and some are bigger than 1 MILLION YEARS!?

[Hank Cotman]

In case anyone is interested, I have successfully modified the .ssc files where necessary to run "Ran - Memory of the Waves" in Celestia 1.4.1 version. The reason I have done this, is that my system crashes every time that I try to run 1.5.0 or 1.5.1 or 1.6.0 Celestia versions. Anyway, it works great, and I have spent many months exploring the multitude of wonderful worlds throughout their 4000 year development including the hidden system of Rootax Prime. Because of the many .ssc alterations necessary to work on 1.4.1, I have made a "COMPLETE TOURGUIDE" of all things "Ranian" by way of a spreadsheet. This guide includes all timelines of events with beginning and ending dates both in calendar and Julian formats as well as meshes used for each event. I had to do this because the scripted tours would not work for me in Celestia 1.4.1. This is the most beautiful system developed for Celestia that I have ever seen. I should know, because I have downloaded everything from the "Mother Lode" as well as many other celestia storage sites. You can reach me at poolhammer@comcast.net if you would like a copy of may navigational spreadsheet (345 kb in size with 1130 line items to identify each event). I wish to thank all of the Celestia developers and contributers for the many months of pleasure I have gleemed from my explorations of the fabulous worlds and ships provided by Celestia.

[Teto]

I'd like to love this add-on (terrific work!) but I have problem with my Celestia (1.6, the distribution only). It crashes sometimes, but more than this, many planets look like the picture displayed below. And I don't think that's normal. I suppose that it's because of the new version is using Open-GL differently.
And I have problems with CMOD files too: I can see hidden faces.

Note: I liked the comet's names.

So if the cubes are int the story, ok, please tell me.

Teto.

[Reiko]

I'd like to love this add-on (terrific work!) but I have problem with my Celestia (1.6, the distribution only). It crashes sometimes, but more than this, many planets look like the picture displayed below. And I don't think that's normal. I suppose that it's because of the new version is using Open-GL differently.
And I have problems with CMOD files too: I can see hidden faces.

Note: I liked the comet's names.

So if the cubes are int the story, ok, please tell me.

Teto.

Those cubes only show up when running it in 1.6.0. so it must be some kind of bug.

[Chuft-Captain]

This is a bug. See earlier post about it: http://shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13924

I've already logged a bug report on Sourceforge.

[rthorvald]

Those cubes only show up when running it in 1.6.0. so it must be some kind of bug.

It is a 1.6 bug. And there?s very simple fix, too, here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14100

Now, i wonder if the ultimate fate of the boat that launched the Grand Tour Probe from Hroenn is in that spreadsheet...

- rthorvald

[Reiko]

Those cubes only show up when running it in 1.6.0. so it must be some kind of bug.

It is a 1.6 bug. And there?s very simple fix, too, here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14100

Now, i wonder if the ultimate fate of the boat that launched the Grand Tour Probe from Hroenn is in that spreadsheet...

- rthorvald

Thanks!

[Teto]

Yes, thanks

[straight]

Just wanted to say that this thing is astonishingly cool and fun. It's almost like a Myst-style adventure game in space. I've just barely scratched the surface, tracing backward from the Grand Tour Orbiter I've found the Orion and seen where it came from. Very cool. And I've also discovered the mysterious and shocking event c. 300 but don't really know what it is or who all was affected yet.

The amount of detail and nifty ideas and sci-fi sensawunda stuffed into this thing is just amazing. You really put a lot of work into this!

I can see that Memory of the Waves is going to give me many hours of really fun exploration and detective work. Thank you very much.

[rthorvald]

It's almost like a Myst-style adventure game in space

Well, it?s kinda obvious that Myst is an inspiration, i think

I've just barely scratched the surface, tracing backward from the Grand Tour Orbiter I've found the Orion and seen where it came from. Very cool. And I've also discovered the mysterious and shocking event c. 300 but don't really know what it is or who all was affected yet.

If you actually have found out where it came from, i think you?re the first to do that!

I guess Memory has been out long enough to drop a few (very minor) spoilers here:
- The Orion has indeed an origin you can discover. You can, in fact, see it leaving it?s home world, and find out why.
- The 300 event isn?t exactly a catastrophe of nature - there is something else going on, that can be discovered. But not until very late in the story.
- The Encyclopaedia isn?t complete. But it can be...
- There?s a "window in time" where it is possible to complete the Encyclopaedia. If you find out who started it, you will find the window (it is, of course, in their lifetime, even though that *seems* like an anachronism).

I can see that Memory of the Waves is going to give me many hours of really fun exploration and detective work. Thank you very much.

Thanks, i?m glad you enjoy it.

- rthorvald

[straight]

Actually, I only meant that I've traced the Orion back to it's appearance in the Ran System. I was kind of disappointed looking at it's orbit because I initially thought I was just seeing a limitation on what Celestia could render (and perhaps, in a sense, I was). I did not at all expect what I found at the other end of that orbit and was delighted.

Thanks for the hints. I'm quite looking forward to more exploration because it's clear this thing is much, much deeper and more rewarding to explore than I'd realized when I downloaded it.

[straight]

Now, i wonder if the ultimate fate of the boat that launched the Grand Tour Probe from Hroenn is in that spreadsheet...

OH. MY. FREAKING. WOW.

That is so cool I can't even swear right. What a genius way to "animate" that. It's so clever, and it looks great.

My kids and I had a great time exploring the hollowed-out asteroid today. They loved finding the shuttle. And the spam.