New "plug-in" for Celestia

[Vincent]

Hi Serge,

This works well as can be seen in the accompanying picture but I have a question. This line of code can get quite long and messy as objects are added to it and I was wondering if the code could not include a line for Deep Space Objects (dso) to sort by categories the pictures we want to add to the program.

Do you mean that all DSOs should share the same images and folder, like it is already the case for pulsars or black holes or exoplanets ?
Or would you like each DSO to keep its own specific set of images? In this latter case, you need to keep on adding DSO names to the
objectname_t list. JFYI, you can move the objectname_t list into a new file called, e.g., "picture_obj.lua" and organize it like:

Code: Select all

objectname_t = {
    ----------------
    -- Solar system objects:
    ----------------
    "Sol",
    "Mercury",
    "Venus",
    "Earth",
    "Moon",
    "Mars",
    "Jupiter",
    "Saturn",
    "Titan",
    "Itokawa",
    ----------------
    -- DSOs:
    ----------------
    "Milky Way",
    "M 31",
}

Then, don't forget to add the following call at the beginning of your pictureBox.lua file:

Code: Select all

require "picture_obj"

As an added note, I find that Celestia crashes on occasion when using the image box but I can't reproduce it consistently. It appears that if the picture box is showing and another object is selected and the "G" key is pressed then the program will simply exit without warning. I will try to nail it down more precisely.

I can't reproduce this crash. Please let me know about your further investigation.

[selden]

Serge,

Please make sure you've updated your computer's graphics driver to the current version. It should be available for free downloading from the Web site of the manufacturer of your graphics hardware.

Most of Celestia's crashes are due to bugs in the graphics driver, although it's certainly possible for code bugs to do it, too.

[NorthOfPolaris]

Thank you all for the positive responses.

Vincent, I opted for the separate file for the "picture_obj.lua" where I can organize everything neatly and it works very nicely.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I can't reproduce the program faillure for the time being but I will keep an eye on it and report any further difficulties.

Selden, thank you for the reminder however the software drivers are up to date for the graphics card. These drivers support Open GL 3.2.0. I certainly hope this would not be the cause of the software faillures I experienced. The problem occured three times but as I said above, it has not manifested itself in the past couple of days.

Serge