Minerals/Industries add-on: work in progress...

[Fenerit]

In building this add-on I'm arrived at the standpoint in which needs your suggestions. Why you suggestions? Because before to draw 266 country maps, I want to be sure to draw thats right. My problem arise from the fact whether is best to draw mineral maps as below (blue border where is coastline, otherwise red when country-country boundaries) and leaving free the world:



or put minerals in Celestia as below and to draw country's industrial/factory activities (not yet realized due to the forementioned issue but similar, with simbols for mechanics, refinery, electronics etc.)



Note that infoText.lua has been enhanced with countries' geographics description taken from the World Factbook.

For this purpose I've appreciated the new locations types; I wonder whether others would be possible: e.a for mining/ores, geological and historical (ruins) and natural reserves. As I've said, your suggestions are very welcome.

[duds26]

Is it possible to turn on and off this map without affecting other maps?

If not, making it possible to handle maps separately from others: show/hide with a check box in the right-click sub menu would be useful and appreciated.

And Celestia could do this kind of maps better if it supported user defined symbols.

[Fenerit]

The ways are two. The first image show just 2 LuaTools function (enhanced text and Australia's picture), the second image show a SSC file as LuaTools add-on, that is a toolpanel in which there are checkboxes. I do not nothing about checkboxes in the contest menu. Whereas you intend of notto fullfill the world with other locations when does accomplish the minerals checking, this is matter of SSC's location Type and Importance. A location Type used for other SS planets can prevent to be displayed others Earth's locations. Practically what you see in the screenshots are linked and hiterto could be related; just the two way street amongst text and picture can't be mutually excluded if not by unadding the entries, whether I've cought the meaning of: "Is it possible to turn on and off this map without affecting other maps?" sentence; otherwise all images that you want are cycled whitin the diaporama box.

[Fenerit]

Minerals of Africa finished! Well, I've decided: no maps, only countries' text description (infoText).



Just a bit of comment:

Dx = diamond (white)
Sx = sapphire (white)
Ex = emerald (white)
Rx = ruby (white)
Tx = Topaz (white)
Gems = unspecified (white)

Gold and Silver = yellow
Carbon (all types) = gray
Platinum group metals = orange
Radioactives (artificials included) = magenta
Gases (noble gases included) = cyan
Rare Earths = ? (not yet decided: your suggestions? maroon?)

To do:

crude oil, wells, offshore platforms = red asterisc
gas fuel (all types) = blue asterisc

My basic purpose is that of covering as much as possible the entire periodic table of elements. Some mines of Rare Earth doesn't specify which commodity is then refined, but reading here and there the PDF's of the countries, are often quoted elements refined in the relevant country; so, with a bit of arbitariety, I ascribe to the mine a rare element.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/index.html#pubs
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/maps/

[Fenerit]

just FYI, this add-on continue... Now, I'm at point in which all mines' data have been filtered from that of plants.

- " " Only commodity's mines/unknow way of production;
- "( )" = Commodity's mines/smelters/plant in the same site;
- "[ ]" = Commodity's producing plants in differents sites;
- "REE" = Rare Earth Elements;
- "PGE" = Platinum Group Elements;
- No past producers;
- Mercury mines are holds, although not operative in several countries;

...

[Aphyle2007]

Fenerit,

I've just returned from the Geological Society of America meeting and was able to pick up a number of datasets and reports on CD/DVD from the US Geological survey:

-Reviews of the geology and nonfuel mineral deposits of the world
-Surficial materials in conterminous United States
-FGDC Digital Cartographic standard for geologic map symbolization
-Database of the geologic map of North America
-Map showing geology, oil, and gas fields and geologic provinces of Europe including Turkey
-Map showing geology, oil, and gas fields and geologic provinces of the Asia Pacific region
-Areas of historical oil and gas exploration and production in the United States
-US Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000- : Description and results (huge! Four CDs, listing undiscovered conventional petroleum reserves for the next 30 years)

If any of these are of interest to you (or anyone else), send a PM and I'll post them on some web-space for download. I've only just started to wade through them all!

Aphyle2007

[Fenerit]

Another update. Be patience, but the world start to be full of mines.



In the final render the Carbon (C) will no longer be the symbol for coals but for graphite. Coal is energy-relate and will be part of another add-on. New conventions are reserved for commodity's occurrences and for "uncommon" elements attained as byproduct of more large productions: colored dot-asterisk "*" (Au/Ag, PGE, REE, fissionable) and "< >" respectively. See below, for a close screendump.



In the image above Tellurium (Te) is marked <Te> being a byproduct of an Au-Ag production. Now, since about Au-Ag there are ALOT in the West so one understand why there was the famous "Gold Rush" event, I've decided - with a bit of arbitrariety - to mark the Tellurium, a not METAL useful in certain situations. Surely when you go at supermarket you shouldn't find the Tellurium over the scaffold, but your wife could find some pigments drews up from rocks contains Thorium, for example; and whether after some years of use she decides to make a lifting at the bows or at the lips because something doesn't like to her, is because such elements have acted on mind instead on body.

Returning to be more serious, asterisks are a bit coarse at far distance, but looks fine at closest views; simple dots "." looks inversely, because at closest distance and with the sunlight it vanished. Green asterisks, which could stay for the rest of all commodity will be avoided, since they wouldn't specify which commodity is and would fullfill the view.

Finally, new entries are Qz, Ax, Tq (white) for quartz, amethyst, turquoise.