Oh yes, I changed the name of this thread because this addon has grown with important features.
A) This version includes some improvements in terms of cockpits management:- Some minor bugs fixed
- Five positions control tool to change the current view in cockpits with multiple views
- You can define a rear panel for direct access
- Each view can have a particular point of view
- Additional customizable key (W) to hide / show the cockpit
- Ability to customize each view of a cockpit (single or multiview) with an additional image
- The Mynock cockpit is updated to benefit the quick access to the front/rear views.
Two new cockpits are added:- The Beepilot in which you have a quick acces to up to 5 views from another view. The upper front view is rather empty but you can personalize it by adding your own photo.
vues-beepilog.png
- A "manoeuvre cockpit" which is not exactly a cockpit but gives you increased possibilities in conjonction with
the manoeuvre panel. (See the video below)
You can get additional cockpits here:
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/creat ... ts_new.zip apollo cockpits by MIR
http://www.celestiaproject.ru/files/oth ... lexell.zip atlantis shuttle and fictionnal spacecraft cockpits by Alexell
You can use all these cockpits together. Just install them in the extras/cockpits/panels directory of Celestia as explained in the cockpits/readme.pdf file.
B) But more importantly it includes substantial assistance for maneuvering in space.With the keyboard keys and the mouse it is easy to reach the right position when it stands at a distance larger than the radius of the object.
But things become more complicated when it comes to small objects like models of irregular shape.
Sometimes we must get closer than the radius of the model.
Until now I used to use the "a" key but as it starts at about 100m/s I had to start from afar, slow down, and when I was close enough to my target I was still a little too high, or too far left, or too close, and I had to make many maneuvers to reach the exact location I wanted.
This method is even worse if you are in sync orbit mode. The movements are then very weird.
To overcome these issues it would be fine if we could have simple and reliable movements in the six directions (up,left,right,down, forward and backward) from the observer.
Another issue was that it is difficult to move in another direction than the view direction. This prevents look sideways when you are moving and you don't want to change direction.
All these problems are solved with this plugin.
The movement starts with a reasonable speed with respect to a reference object and then adjust the speed to move faster or slower according to the distance. You can of course easily accelerate or decelerate.
The plugin comes with an extra manoeuvre panel. It provides an easy way to move sideways or up and down as well as back and forth.
manoeuvre-control.png
When you are stopped the starting speed is displayed in orange and you can adjust it before you start. It becomes green as you start.
Here are two demo videos of the plugin.* The first one is very short (30s) with a bad video quality (sorry).
It shows how the different cockpit are called with Lua Edu Tools
http://youtu.be/HJgs5h9sJdY* The second is a 4 mn 30s High quality video.
It gives an example of the possibilities of the plugin.
It is made with Lua Plug-ins rather than Lua Edu Tools to benefit from a more open screen.
Please adjust for youtube at the HQ 720p quality and view the video in the enlarged window.
Snap4.jpg
http://youtu.be/UsWTq1_-SU0All is not shown in this video. The readme.pdf covers most of the plugin's capabilities.
Unless you find bugs or weird things in this plugin, it is likely the last version before I release it.
It is localised for English and French. If you are interested in localization for other languages, just ask!
One interesting thing with localisation is the possibility to translate the file name of the cockpit ex:
cockpit_Apollo11_wide.png --> Apollo 11 (or whatever name you want)
If someone knows the true name of the Beepilot, please tell me!
@+