Lua Edu Tools v1.2 beta

[Vincent]

Lua Edu Tools v1.2beta is now available for testing. The whole package can be downloaded from:
[edit on 2010-03-09: linked to v1.2beta8]
http://gvince.perso.sfr.fr/celestia/lua ... 2beta8.zip

Note: v1.2 will be for use exclusively with Celestia 1.6.1.

Changes from v1.1:

- Added new Dwarf Planet and Minor Moon classes to the 'Solar System Browser';
- Updated the 'Render Options' setting window with the new Celestia 1.6 features (globulars, new grids, ...);
- Added an 'Addon Visibility' setting option;
- Added light version of existing addons as examples : Dying Sun, Political Borders, Meteorite Impacts, Earth Volcanoes
from Martin (Cham), Earthquakes from BillC and Atmosphere Composition from Massimo (Fenerit);
- Made Observer Mode Box less obtrusive;
- Improved info images loading. Each image is now loaded once a Celestia session;
- Enabled compass when selected object is a location;
- Made Asteroid Belt less obstrusive;
- Added superscript notation to distance marker labels;
- Added a new entry in config.lua to set the opacity of the Lua Edu Tools GUI:


Code: Select all

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Define the general opacity of the 'Lua Edu Tools' Graphical Interface.
-- Can take values between 0 (= transparent) and 1 (= opaque).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
opacity = 1

Screenshots:

[Cham]

Great work, Vincent !

By the way, there's a misalignement with the borders CMOD model on your previous second picture. I think you're not using the proper SSC definition for the borders. Some parts are "sinking" into the see, which is wrong.

[Vincent]

Great work, Vincent !

Martin,

Thanks for all your great addons!

By the way, there's a misalignement with the borders CMOD model on your previous second picture. I think you're not using the proper SSC definition for the borders. Some parts are "sinking" into the see, which is wrong.

That's strange. I don't remember having changed anything to your original addon. Could you post your ssc, please?

[t00fri]

Lua Edu Tools v1.2beta1 is now available for testing. The whole package can be downloaded from:
http://vincent.giangiulio.perso.sfr.fr/ ... 2beta1.zip

Note: v1.2 will be for use exclusively with Celestia 1.6.
Thanks to Cartrite, Windows users can get a recent Celestia SVN build (revision 4535 or later) from:
http://cartrite.sitesled.com/index.html

Changes from v1.1:

- Added new Dwarf Planet and Minor Moon classes to the 'Solar System Browser';
- Updated the 'Render Options' setting window with the new Celestia 1.6 features (globulars, new grids, ...);
- Added an 'Addon Visibility' setting option
- Added light version of existing addons as examles : Dying Sun, Political Borders, Meteorite Impacts, Earth Volcanoes
from Martin (Cham), Earthquakes from BillC and Atmosphere Composition from Massimo (Fenerit).
- Added a new entry in config.lua to set the opacity of the Lua Edu Tools GUI:


Code: Select all

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Define the general opacity of the 'Lua Edu Tools' Graphical Interface.
-- Can take values between 0 (= transparent) and 1 (= opaque).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
opacity = 1

Screenshots:

Vincent,

I just saw these images... and was overwhelmed by the amount of output that is superimposed over the canvas.

Right away, I was asking myself whether -- with all the technology we have meanwhile at our disposal --, we could not devise a more intelligent textual overlay!

I can't help it, but in a display of Southern Italy, there is NO reason whatsoever, to display the galaxy light gain, for example...

If I was interested in such textual display, the first thing would be to devise an algorithm that eliminates a (large) number of irrelevant text outputs, as function of what type of graphics is displayed.

Fridger

[Cham]

Could you post your ssc, please?

Here it is :

Code: Select all

"Frontieres" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Mesh "world_borders.cmod"
   Class "diffuse"
   Emissive true
   Radius 6378.5

   OrbitFrame { BodyFixed { Center "Sol/Earth" } }
   FixedPosition [ 0 0 0 ]
   BodyFrame { BodyFixed { Center "Sol/Earth" } }
   FixedRotation { }
   Albedo 0
}


[Vincent]

Vincent,

I just saw these images... and was overwhelmed by the amount of output that is superimposed over the canvas.

Right away, I was asking myself whether -- with all the technology we have meanwhile at our disposal --, we could not devise a more intelligent textual overlay!

I can't help it, but in a display of Southern Italy, there is NO reason whatsoever, to display the galaxy light gain, for example...

If I was interested in such textual display, the first thing would be to devise an algorithm that eliminates a (large) number of irrelevant text outputs, as function of what type of graphics is displayed.

Fridger

Fridger,

Such an algorithm would be great, indeed, but I'm not sure whether this is currently possible.
Following your example, we could hide the galaxy light gain when observer is at close distance
from a solar system body. But then, what would happen in planetarium mode, when observer is
at the surface of an object? The galaxy light gain control is very useful in such a situation...

More generally, please keep in mind that these screenshots are there to show the whole
range of features. The Lua Tools GUI can be hidden very easily with a simple mouse click.
Moreover, each element of the toolbox can be very easily removed using the config.lua
file according to the user's specific needs. One can decide to use exclusively, e.g., the
'Addon Visibility' setting button, and to keep it hidden most of the time. A simple click
would bring it up whenever the user needs to set this option.

[Vincent]

Could you post your ssc, please?

Here it is :

Code: Select all

"Frontieres" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Mesh "world_borders.cmod"
   Class "diffuse"
   Emissive true
   Radius 6378.5

   OrbitFrame { BodyFixed { Center "Sol/Earth" } }
   FixedPosition [ 0 0 0 ]
   BodyFrame { BodyFixed { Center "Sol/Earth" } }
   FixedRotation { }
   Albedo 0
}


Martin,

Thanks! The borders misalignement is fixed.
I've updated the Lua edu Tools package with your revised ssc parameters.

[Fenerit]

Again, thanks a lot, Vincent.

[Imy]

what would happen in planetarium mode, when observer is
at the surface of an object?

When you use Celestia in planetarium mode, your aim is to watch the night sky whatever the surface is, no? When you're watching the surface of the planet, being close enough, you're watching the center of the planet then.

[Vincent]

When you use Celestia in planetarium mode, your aim is to watch the night sky whatever the surface is, no? When you're watching the surface of the planet, being close enough, you're watching the center of the planet then.

I'm afraid this is not that simple. This would actually require computing the intersection between the view cone and the planet sphere.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that this is worth it since one can hide the whole toolbox with a simple mouse click...

[Imy]

hummm...
This would be also interesting to free space in toolbox for others future functions particulary for surface studies : Do you imagine all Google-Earth's functions in your tool box ?

[Vincent]

This would be also interesting to free space in toolbox for others future functions particulary for surface studies : Do you imagine all Google-Earth's functions in your tool box ?

Well, we could surely save some room in the observer mode box.
Would anybody care about removing the 'Goto Sun' button?
Actually, I'm thinking about something like this:

[Vincent]

I've modified the Observer Mode box as specified in my previous post.
> download link: http://vincent.giangiulio.perso.sfr.fr/ ... 2beta2.zip

Here are all the changes included into v1.2beta2:

- Simplified Observer Mode Box;
- Fixed bug with Greek letters in star names;
- Modified Atmosphere Composition layer transparency + fixed bug with Jupiter Atm Comp;
- Updated translations.

> screenshot:

[Fenerit]

Hi, Vincent great work! Now is very simple to add something! Nevertheless, I've found some troubles.

For example, I've moved the Tectonic_Plate dir from the conventional ..\extras\ folder to the Lua ..\add\ folder, then I've made a Tectonic_Plates.lua file in which I've wrote the relevant strings and finally I've add the proper reference in config.lua. Well, nothing is showed, just the "free place" amongst the other voices of the LuaTools add's window.
So, I've created a NEW folder called Tectonic in which I've copied all for then erase that called Tectonic_Plates. ALL WORK FINE. At this point I've newly renamed all (files and dir as Tectonic_Plates and all has continued to work fine. And this also for other addons, it's not a problem of the Tectonic_Plates.

In short, seem that is required to create any directory structures from scratch within the Lua add's tree, and that a "moving operation" of the extant ones, plus the creation of relevant files for the execution, is not recognized as such, even after restart. Do someone has found this behaviour? I've Xp.

Last consideration: when one click on "more info" to show an image, the RAM memory raise up each time one click and unclick the same image, nor a new, also in DDS format, while for the addons is not so, once they are loaded in memory, such value rest where is, no matter how many times one click or unclick. There is a way to still or free the memory?

However, I've said, great work!

[Vincent]

Hi Massimo,

For example, I've moved the Tectonic_Plate dir from the conventional ..\extras\ folder to the Lua ..\add\ folder, then I've made a Tectonic_Plates.lua file in which I've wrote the relevant strings and finally I've add the proper reference in config.lua. Well, nothing is showed, just the "free place" amongst the other voices of the LuaTools add's window.

You have to make sure that all the .lua and .ssc files in your 'Tectonic_Plate' directory are named as 'Tectonic_Plates*.*'.

Last consideration: when one click on "more info" to show an image, the RAM memory raise up each time one click and unclick the same image, nor a new, also in DDS format, while for the addons is not so, once they are loaded in memory, such value rest where is, no matter how many times one click or unclick. There is a way to still or free the memory?

Actually, there's currently no way to free the memory by deleting a texture from lua, whereas this is possible in the Celestia C++ code.
Then, we could surely improve the way 'Info Image' are handled in the lua code by checking out if the image has been already loaded,
to avoid the same image to be loaded several times. I'll have a look at this ASAP.

[Fenerit]

THX!

[jogad]

Hello

The addon visibility feature is a very good idea that I like very much.

But I have some (little) trouble with it:

- When I launch Celestia the “asteroid belt” addon is active while others are not. My wish is that ALL would be disabled at startup. How can I choose those witch are active and those witch are not?

- By default Celestia sets all types of locations as active and records if they must be displayed or not. I don’t know if it is a bug but the Lua Edu Tools begin to deactivate all kind of location and set the display flag to active. As a result, when I press the “&” key to see locations, nothing appears and I must set again locations in the Celestia dialog box. I prefer the Celestia’s fashion to proceed.

- I have also noticed some strange behavior in particular circumstances. But details are boring. So Vincent, with your permission, I send you a PM for that.

[Fenerit]

Ehi, Vincent, as "man of the requests" I wonder whether is possible to add a way to show the Hevelius' Uranographia without to switch in nebulae mode.

[selden]

Fenerit,

Hevelius' Uranographia are implemented as Nebula models, so Nebulae have to be enabled.
It might be possible to implement them as Planets, but someone would have to take the time to do that. Perhaps you?

Perhaps the Edu Tools could include an option to display the Uranographia which enables Nebulae automatically.

[Fenerit]

Fenerit,

Hevelius' Uranographia are implemented as Nebula models, so Nebulae have to be enabled.
It might be possible to implement them as Planets, but someone would have to take the time to do that. Perhaps you?

Perhaps the Edu Tools could include an option to display the Uranographia which enables Nebulae automatically.

Would be possible implement it as star? A .stc file is required to be recognized, which seem not the case in this LuaTools version. As Planets, I've problem with the centering: constellations are not in the right place. Depend how the model has been oriented in the modeller. I've tried some Orientation configuration by guess without success.