What is Celestia for? Add-ons analysis

[ajtribick]

Recently ElChristou asked the question: what is Celestia for?

One way it is possible to find out is to see what kind of topic areas the add-ons fall into. So here's an analysis based on the Celestia Motherlode. I broke down the fiction part into two just to get some idea (note that the "other" category in the Celestia Motherlode add-ons also includes TV/Movie tie-ins, these are included in the appropriate category). I split the TV/Movie tie-ins from the rest of the fictional category because it didn't seem fair to lump original works in with derivative ones.

As you can see, a fairly good case can be made that Celestia is there to display models from various TV series. Although the chart doesn't go to this level of subdivision, by far the largest category was the Babylon 5 add-ons.

In the light of this, is there any point in working on scientific data for Celestia?

[selden]

But all those spacecraft are so dull! They just sit there orbiting! Obviously the next step is to make Celestia into a games platform so they can shoot at one another!!!

[t00fri]

Andrew,

I agree with Selden. Moreover, your analysis may answer some question, but NOT the one you posed. Scientists have always been a small fraction of the total population, just as Linux users constitute only a small fraction of Windows users. Yet, it neither means that scientists nor that Linux affectionados are redundant...

Only very few among the Celestia community have a strong background in astrophysics and cosmology. But should this mean that packages about visualization of advanced astrosphysics and cosmology don't make sense?

Fridger

[ajtribick]

I was wearing my cynical hat.

[Reiko]

But all those spacecraft are so dull! They just sit there orbiting! Obviously the next step is to make Celestia into a games platform so they can shoot at one another!!!

Oh yes please!

[Cham]

This addons analysis is exactly why I don't support the Motherlode anymore. To me, this site is a failure.

[BobHegwood]

This addons analysis is exactly why I don't support the Motherlode anymore. To me, this site is a failure.

So we should throw everything away?
Are we a failure because we don't host only scientific add-ons?
Sorry, but I don't understand the argument. We are providing a
valuable service for people with a very wide variety of interests.

Sorry they don't meet yours.

[ElChristou]

This addons analysis is exactly why I don't support the Motherlode anymore. To me, this site is a failure.

So we should throw everything away?
Are we a failure because we don't host only scientific add-ons?
Sorry, but I don't understand the argument. We are providing a
valuable service for people with a very wide variety of interests.

Sorry they don't meet yours.

I agree with Bob, ML is what it is because of people. At the moment you let the public create the content, there is no surprise in having such result. I don't think it's completely negative, many many users will be happy with such repository. You can find some stuff in all categories, certainly more in the fictional part, but again I see nothing wrong.
Cham, if you had released all your stuff there it would have help quite a lot to balance the contents. So in fact it's up to you to do something if you want to change this situation...

[Cham]

Cham, if you had released all your stuff there it would have help quite a lot to balance the contents. So in fact it's up to you to do something if you want to change this situation...

Certainly NOT ! It takes forever to update, on the ML. And I don't want to mix my stuff with all the mediocrity there. 80% of all the stuff on the ML is pure trash !

[ElChristou]

Cham, if you had released all your stuff there it would have help quite a lot to balance the contents. So in fact it's up to you to do something if you want to change this situation...

Certainly NOT ! It takes forever to update, on the ML. And I don't want to mix my stuff with all the mediocrity there. 80% of all the stuff on the ML is pure trash !

But it won't be mixed at all with the "trash"! Unless you consider Franck's edu activities and others addons as mediocre... (finally there is nothing but Franck's stuff in the edu resources...)

[Guckytos]

Hi Andrew,

did you also look how old those SciFi addons (especially the Babylon 5 ones) are?

And you should perhaps also make a chart which shows how much of addons was made from the same person and also the latest update included in it.

With other words, as usual with such analysis, with the right question and method you always get the answer you want from the data.

Perhaps you should look at how much addons were lately (within the last year perhaps) produced in the same categories as before.

But, I don't think that this would tell a lot about their quality (eiter visual or scientifically or ...)

[ajtribick]

Hi Andrew,

did you also look how old those SciFi addons (especially the Babylon 5 ones) are?

And you should perhaps also make a chart which shows how much of addons was made from the same person and also the latest update included in it.

With other words, as usual with such analysis, with the right question and method you always get the answer you want from the data.

Perhaps you should look at how much addons were lately (within the last year perhaps) produced in the same categories as before.

But, I don't think that this would tell a lot about their quality (eiter visual or scientifically or ...)

Yeah but that would require an awful lot more effort on my part ... there's a limit to how much I'm willing to do while wearing the cynical hat

(also the intention was not to bash the Motherlode)

[jogad]

 
This is Celestia's fault that makes this possible. People have a nice program and think they can play and have fun with it.
They are not aware enough of the dangers of misusing it.

This beautiful program should not be spoiled by incompetent people.
So I suggest this screen for the setup of the next version of Celestia

[SiriusCG]

I don't understand all this "What is Celestia for?" analysis anyway... It's a tool. It can be whatever one needs, a game, a sim, a scientific application, etc. Modify the source code, write scripts, whatever...

I've been working on an Add-On that models the Smoke Ring environment from Larry Niven's "The Integral Trees" and it's sequel, "The Smoke Ring". Hardly scientific, but it's fun. And I'm also looking at making a "game" like Sierra's "Outpost" from years back. A sim of sorts that explores the possibilities of terraforming and colonizing new worlds. Celestia would be wonderful for both of these projects.

Then again, maybe I won't. After all, it will expose my level of competence and artistic ability...

[Guckytos]

This is Celestia's fault that makes this possible. People have a nice program and think they can play and have fun with it.
They are not aware enough of the dangers of misusing it.

This beautiful program should not be spoiled by incompetent people.
So I suggest this screen for the setup of the next version of Celestia

[ajtribick]

Actually to do a survey of the survey, that pie chart is BY FAR the most viewed graphic that I have posted to the Celestia forums. Therefore I conclude that Celestia's audience is in fact NOT the Star Trek/Babylon 5 crowd, but actually a bunch of statistics fanatics.

Weirdos.

[fungun]

Oh, for crying out loud, here we go again.
I have 2 favorite programs on my system, Celestia and Homeseer. Homeseer is home automation software (it's cool Google it).
I wonder if the makers of HS had intended for their software to be used so that my house looks, behaves, and sounds like Star Trek. ??????
If the fictional stuff on the ML is such a pain, split the site. One just for scientific addons and one for just fictional addons.
Hell, I'd help run the fictional one any day.
Both of my daughters are taking Astronomy class in high school, and they both hate Star Trek. They use Celestia for what they need and I use it for what I need.

[asteroid]

Cham, if you had released all your stuff there it would have help quite a lot to balance the contents. So in fact it's up to you to do something if you want to change this situation...

Certainly NOT ! It takes forever to update, on the ML. And I don't want to mix my stuff with all the mediocrity there. 80% of all the stuff on the ML is pure trash !

I've only downloaded reality based plugins from "ML" and been fairly impressed with many of the plugins offered.
Can you share where you host your plugins so I can get an idea of what your superior plugins look like and can achieve?