Release: Postcards From Titan

[rthorvald]

Release:
Postcards From Titan
-----------------------------------------
I have been working on this since christmas, and it is the hardest thing i
have done yet in Celestia. Not the work, but the thinking; trying to balance
what we know with some reasonable extrapolation, not go overboard with too much
imaginary stuff... I wanted realism, without having enough information.
Well, here it is: two addons, actually:

- one realistic, light one
- one conceptual, monster sized one
Note that the conceptual version offers much higher resolution and detail,
both for the textures and for the 3D models. The light version are very
simplified to make an easy installation.

I want to thank several people:
--------------------------------------
- Adirondack, for writing a custom version of his Cassini/Huygens tour
(included in the package)

- Jestr, for sharing his Cassini/Huygens models and data (his updated
Cassini XYZ file is included here, reflecting the course change in mid april)

- And expecially Fridger, for sharing his maps (included here, in the Light
Realistic version), information, and for answering lots of ignorant
questions over the past six months


Some screenshots:


More info, screenshots, celurls and download links on my website.
Criticism is welcome.

-rthorvald

[t00fri]

Runar,

Congratulations! I am really enthusiastic about how you have managed
to blend emotions with realism, feelings of loneliness with the most
detailed surface structure, phantastic colours..., just a great piece of art!

One suggestion: why don't you link your "Titan postcards" once more to
the users department, since they are really something /nobody/ should
miss.


Bye Fridger

[ElChristou]

Really nice work... I love the sky of last pic... congratulation!

[t00fri]

Once again, me:

Your Website is the best I have seen since years! Unbeliebably good.
Please mirror its URL also in the users department....

Cheers,
Bye Fridger

[Giorgio]

How did you manage to have those clouds in the last picture?
And that beautiful reflection in the first one on the left second row?

[Jeam Tag]

This is superb, Runar... And I'm agrre with Fridger about your site. Your infos are nicely provided.. (Please, Could you add a direct cel/url link to the Pinguins with the last pict on your 'postcards pages? Jeam (and sorry, I'm very busy this time, i'll add refs and shots in my catalog in a few days later)

Edit: Thanks for the Bonnestell scene, too

[danielj]

Very nice,but I have to stress that no version is truly realistic,because we didn??t have confirmation of any sign of liquid in Titan.It??s a bit speculative,yet.
Anyway,what do you mean with "realistic"?

[Fightspit]

Once again, me:

Your Website is the best I have seen since years! Unbeliebably good.
Please mirror its URL also in the users department....

Cheers,
Bye Fridger

The link is here:
http://runar.thorvaldsen.net/celestia

Bye !

[t00fri]

Once again, me:

Your Website is the best I have seen since years! Unbeliebably good.
Please mirror its URL also in the users department....

Cheers,
Bye Fridger

The link is here:
http://runar.thorvaldsen.net/celestia

Bye !

That I know of course. My suggestion was rather that
Runar puts that link somewhere into a mirrored thread in
the users board, since newbies for example might
start and end right there


Bye Fridger

[rthorvald]

...great piece of art

Thank you all, for the kind words.

Please mirror its URL also in the users department....

I??ll think about it; i??m not really too fond of double-posting, even should our esteemed moderator
not frown on such

How did you manage to have those clouds in the last picture?

That is a 2k png cloudmap with clouds only around the equator. This is
attached to the landscape model, and are faded to 100% transparency
north and south so that it does not stick up above the Titan cloudmap,
and does not touch the ground. BTW, the clouds change over time...

And that beautiful reflection in the first one on the left
second row?

That is just a property of the material on the model; it??s reflective.

Could you add a direct cel/url link to the Pinguins
with the last pict on your 'postcards pages

Well, the penguins is a joke, so it is not part of the AddOn. One has to
download it separately, and it can only be found by going directly to my
creators dir on the ML (it is not, and will not be, listed).

But: if you download it, the CelUrl are discreetly placed beneath the
screenshot as three small gray dots.

-rthorvald

[rthorvald]

Very nice,but I have to stress that no version is truly realistic,because we didn??t have
confirmation of any sign of liquid in Titan.It??s a bit speculative,yet.

Danielj, There are no liquids in the "realistic" version. Well, there??s the mud
Huygent are standing in, but that is a very reasonable supposition.

Anyway,what do you mean with "realistic"?

I mean that there are nothing there that we don??t know about, and the map
only show what we know. As i wrote in the documentation, the landscape
features on the landing site are imaginary... But the general shapes _are_
an interpretation of the available photographs. The only thing about it that is
really "unreal" is the height of the hills.

-rthorvald

[t00fri]

...great piece of art

Thank you all, for the kind words.

Please mirror its URL also in the users department....

I??ll think about it; i??m not really too fond of double-posting, even should our esteemed moderator
not frown on such
...



-rthorvald

Runar,

right you are ...but...

i) In my view, that kind of "seminal" work belongs to the
"most central" board" of this forum. Too bad that it's
already located in the "Add-on" department. Logically it's
of course where it belongs to, ...but... no logics without
exceptions!


ii) Why am I going for this point at all?

After arguing a lot during the last one or two weeks in
connection with proposed forks of Celestia, the
breakdown of Celestia's development, and further
depressive issues, your work is a highly motivating
demonstration that with the necessary KNOW HOW, great
things can still happen around here


I just WANT this to be noticed by others


Bye Fridger

[alphap1us]

Hi Runar,
This looks fantastic! I'll try it out later today.

Would you be willing to submit the version of Cassini-Huygens that you improved to the motherlode as a newer version of Jestr's work? If you really tweaked the ssc to make it better and made the parachute look better, we shouldn't fool anyone into thinking that that version is the most current and accurate.

Cheers,
Joe

[rthorvald]

Too bad that it's already located in the "Add-on" department. [...] I just WANT this to be noticed

Hm, well, if Selden would care to move it to the User??s forum, i??m OK with that... Selden?

Would you be willing to submit the version of
Cassini-Huygens that you improved to the motherlode as a newer version
of Jestr's work? If you really tweaked the ssc to make it better and made
the parachute look better

If it is Ok with Jestr, i can do that.

This is what i changed:
- fixed all texture paths and names to lowercase
- re-named everything so that there is only one focus point for the
freeflight part, instead of many (just looks simpler when browsing)

- re-textured the parachute so that it has texture, not plain white

- modded the Huygens XYZ so it intersects with the landing site. But that
part won??t work without my Titan, since i have elevated the landing point
a bit up in the air. Since Jestr has tried to do this at zero altitude, it is
uncertain if it is possible; we have both encountered a sort of "grid-like"
behaviour with XYZ plotting (the gap between each possible point is
sometimes too large). But i can give it a go...

This is what Jestr has changed:
- modded the Cassini XYZ, adding new data for the latest course change

As i wrote, if Jestr is OK with this, i can do it. Or i can send him my
changes, and he can incorporate them in a V2.

-rthorvald








-

[jestr]

Sounds good to me Runar-go for it if you have time,great work on Titan also,it looks fantastic,Jestr

[selden]

Fridger and Runar,

Since it's an Addon, I think the primary message about it belongs in the Addon forum.

I don't see any reason why someone couldn't post a message to the User's Forum saying it's here, though. It doesn't have to be posted by Runar.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why Fridger thinks Addon postings don't get noticed. My impression is that they're the things most people look for first. Let's just say that the Motherlode's traffic is, umm, substantial.

[t00fri]

Fridger and Runar,

Since it's an Addon, I think the primary message about it belongs in the Addon forum.

I don't see any reason why someone couldn't post a message to the User's Forum saying it's here, though. It doesn't have to be posted by Runar.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why Fridger thinks Addon postings don't get noticed. My impression is that they're the things most people look for first. Let's just say that the Motherlode's traffic is, umm, substantial.

That's certainly fine with me, yet your reasoning does not sound entirely convincing. My clearcut personal experience is that threads of mine that offer a new texture download, say, get several times the number of hits in 'users' as compared to the 'texture' board. Nevertheless, I suppose the 'texture' traffic in ML is also, umm, substantial .

Bye Fridger

[Omega_Parsec]

That is amazing. Great job.

[rthorvald]

Sounds good to me Runar-go for it if you have time,great work on Titan also,it looks fantastic,Jestr

Ok, thanks.
Joe, you??ll get the Cassini/Huygens V2 in a week or two (it??s summer holiday here, and my family are chasing me out of the office...)

-rthorvald

[rthorvald]

My clearcut personal experience is that threads of mine that offer a new texture download, say, get several times the number of hits in 'users' as compared to the 'texture' board.

Well, looking at my website stats, there seems to be (usually) more traffic referrals from the ML, and a fair bit from Rassilons and Jeam Tag??s sites, than from the Shatters.net forums. So it would seem the majority of Celestia users are webpage-centric, and does not even read the forums...

-rthorvald