Even if it is not the main feature of Celestia, it is fine to have a close view of the place where we are living on . And having a departure or arrival point on the Earth for a tour in the wide space lets us have a more precise idea of our situation in the big Universe.
For that purpose, Rome, one of the most ancient cities in the world is possibly a good choice.
The addon is a Virtual Texture showing Rome and surroundings in Italy in a very detailed way.
Interesting points are:
- * The texture is in a DDS DX3 format with an alpha channel so that water reflects the light.
* The level of detail is very high and reaches 2.5 m/pixel for the City of Vatican.
* A locations file is provided to show the names of cites around and features inside and outside Rome.
* A celx script is installed in the script menu to toggle the display of the Vatican's border.
* The readme file explains how to install and use this addon with other useful informations.
There is an Italian and a French version of this file. Please, read it!.
* An uninstall batch file allows to remove cleanly the many files in different directories that the install process put.
General view of the add-on. If you activate labels you can see some features. When you get closer, more labels are visible.
I like the perspective views near the sea, they are often quite spectacular.
Here we fly over the airport of Fiumicino, near the mouth of the Tiber.
Soccer (calcio) is very important in Italy. Here on the top left, the "Stadio Olimpico" and the big parks in the north of the city.
Another view focuses on the Vatican.
Notice the reflections of light on the Tiber.
The same view closer, and after activating the border.
This addon is available at
Motherlode Earth:Virtual Texture Close-Ups
Explore by yourself and enjoy!
Comments and questions are welcome and never hurt me.
NOTE: I committed this post before the addon was actually available . Sorry for that. This explains some of the following discussions that have no more object now.
Best regards