Celestia Forums

Add the equatorial bulge to 3d mesh:



This time the model is correctly oriented.

http://marauder.webng.com/files/iapetus_cmod.zip 670 kb

Very nice! Does this model take into account Iapetus's non-spherical shape? For Iapetus, I normally use the following semi-major axes:

SemiAxes [ 747 747 712.4 ]

Just downloaded, pretty neat. Thanks ^.^

volcanopele wrote:Very nice! Does this model take into account Iapetus's non-spherical shape?

From what I can tell, no.

volcanopele wrote:Very nice! Does this model take into account Iapetus's non-spherical shape? For Iapetus, I normally use the following semi-major axes:

SemiAxes [ 747 747 712.4 ]

Nope, because I wish to rest within the default Celestia's ssc data. Just some parts has been retouched, because close to the boundaries of bulge the Iapetus' shape is a bit flatness. I've not tested that values, nonetheless such oblateness wouldn't be a problem whether texture maps account for. IMHO, this moon have had a collapse on itself, perhaps due to its inconsistent mantle-core since from the early accretion and the bulge could be the result of a fast shock-wave from the centre. The cause could be asteroids' impact that have "shaked" its inner structure. Probably the mantle-core is a bit "empty", with different compactness nowadays.

Hi all, I need help installing this. I've followed the installation instructions but when I load Celestia and get to Iapetus, I see nothing at all. Help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Step 1 and 3 of the install instructions already work fine. Try to do this first.

Did you also change textures?
Be sure those texture names are also present in the ..\textures\medres\ folder (probably Case sensitive depending on your OS !!! )

Alright, it's working now. Thanks again!