create a pilotable space craft?

peteuplink · Post #1by **peteuplink** » 01.03.2008, 12:31

I've been meesing with Celestia on and of for a while now and I got to wondering whether it would be possible to create a pilotable space craft that I can use to "realostically" go from planet to planet? I'm not talking about something like an x-wing from Star Wars or the Enterprise from Star Trek. I'm actually talking about some sort of ship that can travel between planets relatively realistically, maybe with a limited light speed capability...

I've got some experience of 3d art packages so designing a model shuldn't be too difficult, but I'm not sure about how to actually go about the scripting... or if it's even possible in Celestia to do such a thing.

Post #2by **selden** » 01.03.2008, 12:42

peteuplink,

Yes, it is possible in Celestia v1.5.0. One can use the new ScriptedOrbit function to position a body anywhere in a solar system.

However, to do this one does have to learn how to write programs in the Lua programming language.

There's a description of ScriptedOrbit in the Celestia Wikibook at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia/T ... iptedOrbit

Eb · Post #3by Eb » 23.03.2008, 20:40

Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...

Reiko · Post #4by **Reiko** » 23.03.2008, 22:03

Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...

What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Eb · Post #5by Eb » 23.03.2008, 22:30

Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...
What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Same idea as above, Only create an overlay of a Starship instead of a Cockpit.

Reiko · Post #6by **Reiko** » 23.03.2008, 23:35

Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...
What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Same idea as above, Only create an overlay of a Starship instead of a Cockpit.

I'm talking about more like seeing the starship from the outside and be able to change your camera angle of the starship as well as pilot it.

Eb · Post #7by Eb » 23.03.2008, 23:37

Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...
What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Same idea as above, Only create an overlay of a Starship instead of a Cockpit.
I'm talking about more like seeing the starship from the outside and be able to change your camera angle of the starship as well as pilot it.

Ah, I see.

Well, So far i have not seen anything in Celestias code that can allow that.
Youll have to play around with the source code a bit and see if its even possible to do that :wink:

Reiko · Post #8by **Reiko** » 23.03.2008, 23:51

Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...
What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Same idea as above, Only create an overlay of a Starship instead of a Cockpit.
I'm talking about more like seeing the starship from the outside and be able to change your camera angle of the starship as well as pilot it.

Ah, I see.

Well, So far i have not seen anything in Celestias code that can allow that.
Youll have to play around with the source code a bit and see if its even possible to do that

Me playing around with the source code would be like a chimpanzee trying to figure out how a nuclear reactor works. lol

Eb · Post #9by Eb » 24.03.2008, 00:00

Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:
Reiko wrote:
Eb wrote:Technically, All you need to do is make an overlay texture for your Celestia display. As your basically in a ship already. The hard part is making the Cockpit 3D...
What about piloting a ship from a third person perspective?

Same idea as above, Only create an overlay of a Starship instead of a Cockpit.
I'm talking about more like seeing the starship from the outside and be able to change your camera angle of the starship as well as pilot it.

Ah, I see.

Well, So far i have not seen anything in Celestias code that can allow that.
Youll have to play around with the source code a bit and see if its even possible to do that
Me playing around with the source code would be like a chimpanzee trying to figure out how a nuclear reactor works. lol

XD (For those who dont know what that is, Its the equivelent to me laughing until i spit my lungs out)(Ok, That was a Hyperbole, but you know what i mean)

Heh, I guess well have to ask the guys who do know how to do that =P

Also, Me playing with any kind of code (besides .stc and .ssc) is like a Fly attmepting to cure cancer... -_-

Post #10by **selden** » 24.03.2008, 11:26

If you're willing to learn Lua and Celestia v1.5.0's ScriptedOrbit and ScriptedRotation functions, you can make a spacecraft model fly anywhere you want in a solar system and you can observe it from any position.

The new Timeline feature (available if you compile from Celestia's SourceForge svn repository) might make it possible to fly between star systems in a limited way.