Celestia Forums

Hi,

Here's a download link to a first beta version of "The future of our Sun" addon:
http://vincent.gian.club.fr/celestia/fu ... ur_sun.zip

This addon is for use with Celestia 1.5.
It dynamically shows how our Sun will evolve and die in the next billion years...



The scenario is based on the following studies:
> http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~po ... tas97.html
> http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lwillson/FuturSun.pdf

Feedback about the scientifical accuracy of the scenario or about the addon itself will be welcome...

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Installation:
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- Unzip the package into the 'extras' folder.
- Once in Celestia, run the 'future_of_sun.celx' script from the 'extras\..\future_of_our_sun\scripts' folder.

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Credits:
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Original addon by Vincent, Oct 2007 < vince.gian@free.fr >

This addon can be used, modified or distributed freely for non commercial purposes.
Please, keep a copy of this Readme.txt in the modified version of the addon.

- Solar flare animation models were created by Runar Thorvaldsen in 2005.
> http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catal ... don_id=629
- Earth alternative textures are from Frank Gregorio's Educational Activity 6: The Life and Daeth of Stars.
> http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/s ... don_id=879
- Solar convection animation models were created by Martin Charest (Cham).
- Helix nebula 3D model was created by JLL.
> http://j.leboutet.free.fr/celestia/models/

Vincent... that looks a super add on.

I have to say that I'm a bit peeved that a lot of developers are releasing add ons for a build of Celestia that HASN'T been released!

I'm still using Celestia 1.4.1 which is the latest official build.

I take it that this will not work for 1.4.1?

bh,

You really should consider installing pre3 in a separate directory.

Celestia v1.5.0pre3 is quite stable. It's just that some of the new features don't work quite as well as they might, and some older bugs present in v1.4.1 still aren't fixed.

What I'm getting at is that 'Joe Public' will be using 1.4.1 so why not release add ons for them (inc myself).?!

bh,

The problem is that this kind of Addon requires features that simply aren't available in v1.4.1. In particular, Celestia v1.5.0 has added quite a few features which make some kinds of animation possible.

In this case, Vincent is changing the radius of an object while Celestia is running, which isn't even available in pre3. Hopefully enough bugs will get stomped soon so that pre4 can be made available in the not too distant future.

Okay... looks superb anyways.

will this addon be remade for 1.4?? because 1.5pre1,2 and 3 slows my computer, or disables my video/graphics card...(therefore it comes back to life when i restart my computer...)

Vincent:

The techinques used in your add-on are just awesome. I love the swirl of gas moving across the sun as "fluids", and the great way you caused the sun to swell and shrink via ssc commands and script commands. That is excellent.

Thanks for the add-on. I agree that it is too bad it won't work in 1.4.1.

You may want to consider adding a "final" phase to the sun's future. Eventually, it will cool from a white dwarf to become a "red dwarf", then a "black dwarf", which is considered by Astronomers to be its true "final" fate. Of course, that cooling phase will take billions of years beyond its white dwarf phase to occur ... but ... it is technically the final phase of the sun.

If you like the idea, feel free to use the black dwarf add-on I have in my educational activity.

Frank

Awesome, Vincent! I haven't had problem to run it on my slow computer.

conj wrote:will this addon be remade for 1.4?? because 1.5pre1,2 and 3 slows my computer, or disables my video/graphics card...(therefore it comes back to life when i restart my computer...)

conj,

You need to update your graphics drivers.
Download the current version for free from the Web site of the company that made your graphics hardware.

You can download a Celestia 1.5 build (23/10/07 CVS) from:
> http://vincent.gian.club.fr/celestia/ce ... .5_CVS.exe

Where can I get libpng1.dll needed to install this CVS version?

baldeagle21b wrote:You can download a Celestia 1.5 build (23/10/07 CVS) from:
> http://vincent.gian.club.fr/celestia/ce ... .5_CVS.exe
....

Vincent,

What's the target platform for your builds?

Vincent, do you confirm this: fatal error 193: "attempt to call method 'setradius' (a nil value)"; with the 1.5.0 pre3 (Win) no CVS?

setradius does not exist in v1.5.0pre3
You must use a version of Celestia built from CVS.

selden wrote:setradius does not exist in v1.5.0pre3
You must use a version of Celestia built from CVS.

Yes Selden, so I've made. I was just curious if at least the errors were the same, independently from the platforms!

Just tested it now and indeed it's a pretty cool script...

fsgregs wrote:Vincent:

The techinques used in your add-on are just awesome. I love the swirl of gas moving across the sun as "fluids", and the great way you caused the sun to swell and shrink via ssc commands and script commands. That is excellent.

Hi Frank,

The "fuilds" effect is indeed fantastic, and I really want to thank Martin (Cham) for this great idea !

fsgregs wrote:You may want to consider adding a "final" phase to the sun's future. Eventually, it will cool from a white dwarf to become a "red dwarf", then a "black dwarf", which is considered by Astronomers to be its true "final" fate. Of course, that cooling phase will take billions of years beyond its white dwarf phase to occur ... but ... it is technically the final phase of the sun.

If you like the idea, feel free to use the black dwarf add-on I have in my educational activity.

Frank

Thanks Frank! I will sure do that.

baldeagle21b wrote:Where can I get libpng1.dll needed to install this CVS version?

[edit on 29/10/07]
You just need to install Celestia 1.5pre4: http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11605
The addon will run fine with it.

Vincent

Fantastic job! This is the type of stuff I want to see more of coming to celestia. Other then the Black dwarf thing, the only other thing that I can think of to add would be the formation of the sun.

Other then that, I think with some slight timing enhancements, (helium flashes are way to quick) this is awesome.

If you continue to pursue doing more of this, can I recommend;

Formation of Earth to present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis

Neutron star formation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star

Black hole formation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_holes

Journey though the solar system (the musical) This is where adding sound would really help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets

bh wrote:Okay... looks superb anyways.

Fenerit wrote:Awesome, Vincent! I haven't had problem to run it on my slow computer.

ElChristou wrote:Just tested it now and indeed it's a pretty cool script...

MKruer wrote:Fantastic job! This is the type of stuff I want to see more of coming to celestia.

Thanks guys !
And good to know that it runs great on all systems.

MKruer wrote:Other then the Black dwarf thing, the only other thing that I can think of to add would be the formation of the sun.

Yes, I already thought about that. However, it may be worth waiting for point sprites rendering, especially for objects like the pre-solar nebula or the protoplanetary disk...

MKruer wrote:Other then that, I think with some slight timing enhancements, (helium flashes are way to quick) this is awesome.

Thanks, I will increase the duration of the Helium Flash as you suggest.

bh wrote:I have to say that I'm a bit peeved that a lot of developers are releasing add ons for a build of Celestia that HASN'T been released!

bh,

Celestia 1.5pre4 was just released.
You can get it here: http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11605