1.3.0 Prerelease

[chris]

After a suggestion from selden, I've decided to call this release 1.3.0 instead of 1.2.6. There is some major new functionality, that warrants more than just a minor version number increment.

There's a lot of new rendering code, which is intended to make Celestia run on a wider range of graphics hardware. However, there may be some serious problems with this new code. I'd advise against overwriting your old version of Celestia. With my NVIDA GeForce4 and 40.72 drivers, everything is fine, but I need input from people with different hardware to help find all the bugs.

The biggest new feature in 1.3.0 is multiview. Currently, all views have the same time and render options, but we'll fix that soon. The multiview keys are:

Ctrl+R : split view vertically
Ctrl+U : split view horizontally
TAB : cycle active view
DEL : delete active view
Ctrl+D : delete views except active one

There are new features for handling light time delay:

? : show light time to selection
- : subtract light time to selection

The KDE interface has light time controls added to the time dialog; the Windows UI is still catching up, however.

Also new to the Windows version of Celestia is support for cel:// URLs. A cel:// URL is a string containing camera position, orientation, time, and other state. If you click on a cel:// URL in a browser window, Celestia will pop up and go to the location stored in the URL. Ctrl+INS will copy a Celestia's state to a cel:// URL in the clipboard. You can then paste it into an HTML document or a posting to this forum or wherever. The KDE version of Celestia has had this feature since 1.2.5.

Celestia 1.3.0 has support for deep sky objects other than galaxies. Galaxies.dat has been replaced by galaxies.dsc. .dsc files can contain definitions for open clusters and nebulae as well as galaxies. They can also appear in the extras directory, just like add-on .ssc files.

Some bugs were fixed . . . eclipse shadows should now appear on just one side of the planet. Z-fighting artifacts with eclipse shadows are also gone. And, the nasty OpenGL 1.1 crash on WinXP is fixed.

You can download the prerelease for Windows here:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/celestia/files/ ... .0pre2.exe

Update: The above link now points to prerelease 1.3.0pre2. There solarsys.ssc in pre1 had an Earth definition with bad texture names.

--Chris

[julesstoop]

Congratulations!

[Vicware]

Chris -

I can't figure out what version of the NVIDA GeForce4 driver I'm using -
though I think it's the 40.72 drivers. I went through all the desktop settings
properties app and didn't see it anywhere?

Vic

[Sum0]

1.3.0 already? Chris, you're spoiling us.

[Jango Fett]

Option "Use Vertex Shader" is gray, I can't use it. Why? I could on version 1.2.5...

MSI StarForce GeForce2 Titanium 64 MB DDR on 41.09 WinXp Detonator drivers.

[Darkmiss]

also -fullscreen doesn't work any more ?
did you remove this, change this, or is it just not working ?

I love to load this program in fullscreen

Update:-----------------------------------------------------------------

Nevermind i just read in another thread about the new command line

"--fullscreen"

Also I too do not have vertex shaders
not sure if it is needed now, as everything looks fine.
but vertex shaders is greyed out.

intel P4 1.5
512 rambus ram
Gforce 4 Ti4600 128meg

[timcrews]

also -fullscreen doesn't work any more ?
did you remove this, change this, or is it just not working ?

I love to load this program in fullscreen

In another thread it was indicated that the -fullscreen option has been changed to --fullscreen (two dashes.)

Tim

[selden]

Vic,

It's easiest to just start your current version of Celestia and look in its Help menu. The OpenGL Info item includes the version of OpenGL. If it says "Version: 1.4.0" then v1.3.0pre1 should work fine. It *should* work with the older drivers, but some of the eye-candy may be missing.

Jango and Paul,

There are now several different vertex shaders, not just 1. I suspect Chris didn't have the time to make all of the menu entries for them. Instead you can just type Cntrl-V. It'll step through the various combinations. There'll be a "flash message" for each. You'll also see different image features come on with each one.

Be sure to post the problems you encounter to the Bugs forum.

[Thierry]

Very good!

Thank you for letting us enjoying multi-view so quickly!

Here it seems to work perfectly:

P4 1.5 Ghz
Win XP SP1
ATI MOBILITY M6


PS: The cel-url thing works too: good idea!

[Rassilon]

Since I started playing around with these Ive not had many problems just one so far the model I built...the floating city from a long time ago locks up Celestia...It never did before...Im wondering if anythings changed for meshes? I know you did a few builds back how the models are rendered so Im guessing that might be the problem...No matter Ill just rebuild it someday...

The other thing Im wondering is how do I take advange of the new shaders? Has there been any new script features added?

Another wonderful release Chris!

[selden]

Ras',

You don't have to do anything to take advantage of the new shaders. All of the ones that your card will support are automatically enabled. Sometimes it's useful to turn one or more of them off to debug problems, though. That can be done using the Control-V command.

There are some new script commands, but they don't have anything to do with the shaders: track {}, mark { object "name" size # color [# # #]} and unmark { object "name"}. Track operates on the currently selected object.

(p.s. I've corrected my descrition of unmark)

[Guest]

i already have rassilion's orion nebula and eta carinae nebula. was wondering how i can take the nebula and star data and make it into a fully working dsc file. if there is a patch for those files that just updates the ssc files by removing the nebula from the planets part of the system and puts it in a seperate dsc.

[billybob884]

1.3.0? I've only been gone a few days, how fast are the releases coming out?!?!?

[Vicware]

It'll step through the various combinations. There'll be a "flash message" for each. You'll also see different image features come on with each one. ..

You said you would step thru those modes - but where is it?

Thanks for reply - I have 1.4

Vic

[selden]

Vic,

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but...

When you type a Control-v (Hold down the Control key and type the letter "v") Celestia will change from the current rendering mode to the next one available for your hardware. (That's what I meant by "step through".) On my system (I have an Nvidia Ti4200) there are 5 different rendering modes (shaders) available.

Here's what gets added each time I type a Control-V while watching Earth:

1st time: Render path: Basic: surface plus clouds
2nd time: Render path: Multitexture: nightlights
3rd time: Render path: NVIDIA combiners: bumpmap
4th time: Render path: OpenGL vertex program: bumpmap + specular reflection highlights (this bumpmap view looks slightly more exaggerated then the previous one)
5th time: Render path: OpenGL vertex program/NVIDIA combiners: haze
6th time: back to Render path: Basic: surface plus clouds

Here's what happens while watching Saturn:

Render path: Basic: surface plus rings
Render path: Multitexture: shadow on rings by planet
Render path: NVIDIA combiners: more graduated terminator
Render path: OpenGL vertex program: ring shadows on planet
Render path: OpenGL vertex program/NVIDIA combiners: haze

Does this help?

[Rassilon]

Sorry I ment the scripts in the ssc files themselves....

Also I noticed while cycling through the shaders how nice it is to now see the night lights faded to nothing on the day side...Nice work!

[selden]

The NormalMap declaration was defined back in January. As I recall, Fridger posted a description to the forum of how to create normal maps in place of the usual bumpmaps.

[chris]

The NormalMap declaration was defined back in January. As I recall, Fridger posted a description to the forum of how to create normal maps in place of the usual bumpmaps.

Fridger cleverly discovered how to make Celestia use a normal map without any modifications to the program by setting BumpHeight to 0. As of Celestia 1.3.0pre1, normal maps are officially supported in .ssc files via the NormalMap field.

--Chris

[Borg Collective]

Feature requests:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- We create a shortcut, right click on it, select "Properties". Once the dialog appears, we add the address to the Celestia "Show" file (*.cel) to the already present address in "Target:" field. Example:

"C:\Program Files\Celestia\Celestia.exe" -C:\Program Files\Celestia\Shows\Alpha Centauri.cel

When we run Celestia from this shortcut the previously chosen CEL file is executed with Celestia.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Ability to turn the "Show Orbit" function for ONLY specified orbits (of objects)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[alegator]

Cris,
Everytime I try to change the Display Mode the program crashes, even if I try to toggle to full display. Also, something curious: everytime I select the Moon and clik "G" (GoTo command) the program also crashes.
Any feedback?