check out this neat program

arneB · Post #1by **arneB** » 04.02.2003, 18:29

Terrain IS feasible, and here's someone who has done it...

http://home.attbi.com/~s-p-oneil
(download GSPlanet)

The program features 4 planets, with increasing LOD, so that you will see
detailed terrain as you approach the surface. The author has also managed to blend the distant terrain neatly with the haze in the horizon,
and the atmosphere the ground slightly blue when seen from space.

Rassilon · Post #2by **Rassilon** » 04.02.2003, 18:39

Oh WOW I would love to see this in Celestia in the future :mrgreen:

You know what really impresses me is the clouds omg those are beautiful!!!

*goes and downloads*

Paolo · Post #3by **Paolo** » 04.02.2003, 22:15

Very Very Very Beautiful.

Immediatly downloaded and got the source code.

Should be a dream to view something similar into Celestia.

Bye

Paolo · Post #4by **Paolo** » 04.02.2003, 22:40

I'm starting to hate my ATI Radeon 8500 Card.

Another program that uses practically only NVidia Extensions. :cry:

Another beautiful and similar program: The planet engine (see http://drtypo.free.fr/) not even starts on my system.

Sum0 · Post #5by **Sum0** » 04.02.2003, 22:50

Just wonderful... flying over the moon... now I know how Neil and Buzz felt.

billybob884 · Post #6by **billybob884** » 04.02.2003, 23:51

not bad at all, actually, quite nice!

Paul · Post #7by **Paul** » 05.02.2003, 00:57

I think Dr. Typo's Planet Engine is much better:

http://drtypo.free.fr/

* It already supports real data
* It has a better frame rate (I don't care what that FPS number says in GLPlanet, that's not what the terrain is updating at.)
* It doesn't have such ugly "popping" terrain artifacts and inconsistency of detail across the surface.
* GLPlanet often has a low-res pixellated appearance, presumably due to some rendering trickery which, in my opinion, hasn't paid off.

Just my two cents...

Rassilon · Post #8by **Rassilon** » 05.02.2003, 05:41

Well all I have to say is Im impressed...The graphics arent the best in the universe but one thing that impresses me is the size of the exe...And the fact that it uses a scripting language to color and render the planets...This has tons of potential to be integrated into Celestia...With some additional work it can be made to work on some other graphics platforms (maybe)...Also it can be made to be optional if added...I suppose in Celestias future Chris...or maybe someone else could add this into Celestia...Not to mention the clouds (far future)...now that would be cool :mrgreen:

John Van Vliet · Post #9by **John Van Vliet** » 05.02.2003, 07:13

it's cool , but needs a joystick

Redfish · Post #10by **Redfish** » 05.02.2003, 14:01

This is nice, i'd say the second program is better, but it needs some kind of increased height for mountains and stuff, the earth is stuff very flat now. The clouds are superb!

arneB · Post #11by **arneB** » 05.02.2003, 17:28

If you liked the clouds, you should try another free demo program
called SkyWorks. (there is a link at the GSPlanet page)
The framerate is between 80 and 120 fps, and the clouds are beautifully shaded. Perhaps it could be possible to apply the same technique to nebulae in Celestia some day.

Redfish · Post #12by **Redfish** » 06.02.2003, 12:00

Yes Skyworks is even better in my opinion. I dunno how it's with copyight or GNU licenses so someone would have to figure that out.