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Positioning the Death Star next to the Earth?

Posted: 19.11.2007, 19:39
by IIB
I imagine this would be possible but I'm not yet familiar enough with this platform to be able to figure this out on my own. I'm hoping somebody could help me figure this one out?

Posted: 19.11.2007, 20:48
by bh
Open spacecraft.ssc in notepad, find the entry for iss and substitute the deathstar mesh...

Posted: 19.11.2007, 22:42
by BobHegwood
I wouldn't SUBSTITUTE it...

Simply copy the code as BH described for the ISS, and add a new
entry for the Death Star. Then, you can modify the SSC code until you
get it where you want it, and you won't lose the ISS.

Just trying to help.

Thanks, Bob

Posted: 20.11.2007, 07:16
by bh
You're right Bob...

Posted: 20.11.2007, 15:12
by BobHegwood
bh wrote:You're right Bob...


Hey, whaddya know? One right out of HOW many tries? :lol:

Thanks Bob, Yer the MAN!

Posted: 21.11.2007, 16:14
by Hungry4info
As I understand it, the Death Star had a diameter of ~100 km. You may want to move its orbit up a bit.

Wouldn't it be tidally disrupted? 8O

Posted: 22.11.2007, 00:13
by bdm
And why are we building a death star anyway? Are AT&T running short of excuses for tax deductions? ;)

Posted: 22.11.2007, 06:18
by Hungry4info
bdm wrote:And why are we building a death star anyway?


Microgravity research, biomedical technology advancement, materials development, you know... the usual things you do with space stations. The Death Star, being a bit bigger than the ISS, encourages a bigger cooperation with the various nations, and this way, China can get their desperately wanted contribution to a space station. You see? building a Death Star could help global relations and technology more so than the ISS! :D

Posted: 22.11.2007, 07:51
by bh
And it's better looking! A tad menacing though. Which version?

Posted: 25.11.2007, 06:19
by Hungry4info
bh wrote:A tad menacing though.
How so? Looks remarkable similar to Mimas if you ask me. And with both Mimas and the Death Star, it looks like a solid spherical body most of the time anyway. Just don't look at the crater and it won't look like an eye watching you 8O

bh wrote:Which version?
Probably the complted one, it would have the best scientific impact. Nothing more annoying than a half-complete space station, where many of it's parts have been canceled or incomplete.

*sigh*

Posted: 25.11.2007, 09:53
by IIB
Thanks for all of your replies.

EDIT: Alright I got it. Had to copy all the extra files into the normal Celestia folders.

I dont know if I'll be able to figure out how to make the 2nd DS show up with those funny cloud settings.

Now I just gotta figure out how to make the VT Earth clouds work.


Anyway to make it more visible? It mostly only lights up where the Sol hits it. So its shiny where the sun hits it, but black on the edges causing it to fade into space behind it.

Posted: 25.11.2007, 12:39
by BobHegwood
Simply increase the albedo to something which gives you what you
want, or failing that you can also create a specular image map. This
image contains black where you don't want reflections, and white
where you do want reflections. Then add the specular texture, power
and color definitions for your tastes. You can also play with the
SpecularPower values. Values at 100 cause the reflection to behave
as your seeing. In other words a small reflective spot on the object.
Values lower in power cause the specular reflections to widen out
so to speak. At least that's the way they work on my machine, but I'm
also using the OpenGl render path 2.0 vertex.

Hope that helps. Thanks, Bob

Posted: 25.11.2007, 13:59
by selden
If you want Celestia to show the parts that are in shadow, you can turn up the Ambient Light setting. A few values are available in the menu Render/Ambient Light, or you can adjust it with the { and } keys or by using CEL or CELX scripting.