Dawn mission addon

[ElChristou]

Christophe?

I have e-mailed the converted package in its entirety to you. I re-packaged it a bit just to save you some work too.
You'll see the 3ds file in the models directory, and the textures in the textures\medres directory. Go read your mail, son.
You have LOTS of stuff cluttering up your mail box now.

I go right now! hold down!

[BrianJ]

Brian, nice model! It's your own creation?

Thank you. Yes, my own creation.

Sorry about the textures directory path - what should the path be? Is there a tutorial about making spacecraft add-ons for Celestia anywhere? (a quick search on Google didn't turn up anything).

[BobHegwood]

Sorry about the textures directory path - what should the path be? Is there a tutorial about making spacecraft add-ons for Celestia anywhere? (a quick search on Google didn't turn up anything).

Brian, NOTE: One more edit here...

All the textures should be contained in a sub-directory of the add-on folder. I'll describe as follows:

Your primary add-on folder can be called anything (obviously) but it is always a good idea to keep the name in lower-case, and without any spaces. This is in order to make the add-on as compatible as it can be with all of the different operating systems available to Celestia users. With this in mind, you might set it up like the following:

dawn - This is the main add-on folder which will be placed in the user's Celestia\extras directory. This folder MUST contain the add-on's SSC file.
...data - This sub-folder MUST contain any XYZ files if they are being utilized by the add-on's SSC file.
...models - This sub-folder will contain the dawn.3ds file.
...textures - This sub-folder will contain the "medres" sub-folder.
......medres - This sub-folder will contain all of the texture files called by the model.

So, in the end, you will have the main folder "dawn" which contains three sub-folders "data" "models" and "textures" as well as the dawn.SSC file.
The "data" sub-folder will contain the XYZ files.
The "models" sub-folder will contain the dawn.3ds file.
The "textures" sub-folder will contain another sub-folder called "medres" which will contain all of the jpg files.

Okay?

Let me add my thanks for your work here too. Much appreciated by us Celestia fanatics.

[ElChristou]

BTW Brian, how do you use such model in Orbiter? Orbiter is a manned spacecraft fight simulator, right?

[BobHegwood]

Just one other note to all here...

I re-downloaded Brian's revised 3ds package (which is now available in the original download message available on the first page of this topic,) and it appears as if the textures are all included within the 3ds file itself. Is this correct Brian? If so, then there is no need for the directory structure I explained in my earlier post. The 3ds file should display itself correctly within Celestia now.

Thanks again, Bob

[ElChristou]

... and it appears as if the textures are all included within the 3ds file itself...

mhh... not sure...

[BobHegwood]

... and it appears as if the textures are all included within the 3ds file itself...

mhh... not sure...

Nope, my mistake...
The textures were simply being pulled from the same folder as the model when I extracted it to a single directory.
So, the only way to fix this model is to associate the textures with the 3ds file as described in my tip above. I can do this, but it will take me a while.
Can you not do this much easier with your own 3ds programs Christophe? No problem, but - as you know - I am NOT very talented with stuff like this.
I can do it, but it will take me a good while.

Sorry... Bob

[ElChristou]

The problem is that I have no idea how the textures are mapped and where! (I just can load the nude 3DS model...)

[selden]

Bob,

Celestia should be able to display the textured model if you create an addon directory, put the model and its textures into the Addon's \models directory (so Anim8or can find and draw them) and copy all of the texture image files into the Addon's \textures\medres directory (so Celestia can find and draw them).

[BobHegwood]

Bob,

Celestia should be able to display the textured model if you create an addon directory, put the model and its textures into the Addon's \models directory (so Anim8or can find and draw them) and copy all of the texture image files into the Addon's \textures\medres directory (so Celestia can find and draw them).

Well I'll be damned...
Thanks very much for that tip, Selden. It did display the model as you described. Is there anything you do NOT know?
This ability should make it very much easier to assign the appropriate textures in the correct places on an updated 3DS model.
Hell, maybe even *I* can figure out what textures go with what meshes now.



Click on the image to view full-scale reproduction using Selden's advice from above.
Thanks again. My mind simply boggles at what one can learn here.
Love ya my friend, Old, Decrepit, Easily-Amazed, Geezer, Brain-Dead Bob

[BrianJ]

BTW Brian, how do you use such model in Orbiter? Orbiter is a manned spacecraft fight simulator, right?

Did you mean "manned spacecraft flight simulator"? (although I think some people would like to use it as a fight simulator!) Orbiter is just a "spaceflight simulator" - manned or unmanned. Most folks use it for Shuttle missions but my personal interest is trying to figure out interplanetary trajectories and simulating current real-life missions.

Bob - thanks for the info, methinks the file paths for the textures needs to be relative, yes? Like ..\textures\medres (that's what I've set it to now)

See if the .3ds model in this .zip behaves better....
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/briansutilitysite/dawn.zip

EDIT: OH! I see you've got it fixed anyway! Well done!!

I hope the scale and axis orientation are OK.

Regards,
Brian

[BobHegwood]

Bob - thanks for the info, methinks the file paths for the textures needs to be relative, yes? Like ..\textures\medres (that's what I've set it to now)

See if the .3ds model in this .zip behaves better....
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/briansutilitysite/dawn.zip

EDIT: OH! I see you've got it fixed anyway! Well done!!

No my friend, I simply cheated using Selden's excellent advice in order to see where the textures should be placed. I have just downloaded your revised version, and we'll take a look at it again.
I'll let you know what I find now. By the way, would you mind if I posted the finished add-on to the Motherlode after all of the bugs are worked out? Would be listed under YOUR name of course, but this does appear to be an interesting (and educational) add-on.

I would be happy to add everything needed in order to satisfy our current requirements for an add-on if that would be okay with you?

Again though, in either case, thanks very much for the work you have done here. You caused me to learn something else I didn't know about Celestia.

[BobHegwood]

Brian?

Just so you know about it...
Your revised 3ds model (from latest post) now works perfectly in Celestia with NO modifications needed to the file.

Again, many thanks for your patience and hard work here. Much appreciated by the Brain-Dead

[BrianJ]

By the way, would you mind if I posted the finished add-on to the Motherlode after all of the bugs are worked out?

Of course, I hoped someone would be able to do just that. Just sorry I don't have the time to get up to speed with Celestia add-on making right now.

Please feel free to modify the model in any way you like.

Regards,
Brian Jones

[BobHegwood]

Of course, I hoped someone would be able to do just that. Just sorry I don't have the time to get up to speed with Celestia add-on making right now.
Please feel free to modify the model in any way you like.

Okay then... Will do as soon as Ulrich gets back from wherever he is at right now.
I still may have to play with the data a bit in order to understand how close the spacecraft is supposed to come to Vesta and Ceres too. So far, I have been unable to see that Dawn even comes close to the two bodies it is supposed to visit. I'll give that some more thought and some investigation though.

Again, thanks very much.

[Cham]

BrianJ,

I think the model is wrongly oriented, relative to its trajectory, and the solar panels should be 90° rotated. See the picture below :

model.jpg

As you can see here (unless I'm wrong), the ion thrusters AND the solar panels should be oriented toward the sun, so it makes some sense. Could you simply rotate the central part of the model by 90° ?

I must admit I'm not sure of what I'm talking about here, since on all the pictures I've found on the net, the model is oriented the same. For example : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dawn ... tion_2.jpg

However, on a physical sense, I'm not sure this is right.

[ElChristou]

BTW Brian, how do you use such model in Orbiter? Orbiter is a manned spacecraft fight simulator, right?

Did you mean "manned spacecraft flight simulator"? (although I think some people would like to use it as a fight simulator!) Orbiter is just a "spaceflight simulator" - manned or unmanned. Most folks use it for Shuttle missions but my personal interest is trying to figure out interplanetary trajectories and simulating current real-life missions.

LOL! (Sometime the English and I...)

But still curious, from what I now, in general Orbiter allow the user to enter the craft's cockpit to use the commands; in the case of Dawn, how do you do? (ok, perhaps my question can be silly but as I'm on Mac could never use this soft...)

[ElChristou]

BTW, here is Cap-team' ssc modified to keep dawn's panels targetting the Sun. I put a very long period for aesthetically purpose, just comment it out if necessary...

Code: Select all

# Dawn Mission Timeline
#
# Launch September 27, 2007
# Mars gravity assist February 2009
# Vesta arrival August 2011 
# Vesta departure May 2012 
# Ceres arrival February 2015 
# End of primary mission July 2015 

"Dawn" "Sol"
{
   Class      "spacecraft"
   Mesh      "dawn.3ds"
   Radius      0.012
   Orientation      [ 90 0 0 1 ]

   Beginning   "2007 09 27 12:41:00"
    Ending      "2015 02 01 00:00:00"

   SampledOrbit   "dawn.xyz"

   Albedo      0.05

   UniformRotation
   {
       Period 50000
   }

}

Modify "Dawn" "Sol"
{
   BodyFrame
   {
      TwoVector
      {
         Center "Sol/Dawn"
         Primary
         {
            Axis "-z"
            RelativePosition
            {
            Observer "Sol/Dawn"
            Target "Sol"
            }
         }
         Secondary
         {
            Axis "x"
            RelativeVelocity
            {
            Observer "Sol/Dawn"
            Target "Sol"
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

modify "Ceres" "Sol"
{

   Beginning   "2007 09 28 00:00:00"
   Ending      "2016 01 01 00:00:00"
   SampledOrbit   "ceres.xyz"

}

modify "Vesta" "Sol"
{

   Beginning   "2007 09 28 00:00:00"
   Ending      "2015 02 01 00:00:00"
   SampledOrbit   "vesta.xyz"
 
}

[BobHegwood]

Okay Brian,

I have completed a package for upload to the Motherlode, and everything works according to the mission outline as displayed on the Dawn Mission website. The trajectories and time frames are perfect, so this add-on will be made available just as soon as Ulrich gets back. I'll let you know when it becomes available.
Thanks once again for this add-on.

EDIT: I have also included ElChristou's modified SSC data from above. Is this okay to include in the add-on Christophe? If not, just let me know. You would receive the credit obviously.

[ElChristou]

EDIT: I have also included ElChristou's modified SSC data from above. Is this okay to include in the add-on Christophe? If not, just let me know. You would receive the credit obviously.

Bob, it's before all Cap-team' ssc, so no need to credit me.