New Avatar system

[kristoffer]

Hi, I will try to get a new update of the Avatar system, maybe possible to get the ISV Venture Star to orbit around Pandora, and when you see in the beginning of the movie, the big storm. Is it possible to get mountains? normal mountains and/or the floating mountains? do I need to change the bump map or spec map or something? Or use the mountains from Zhangjiajie in China? the mountains in Avatar is from there

[kristoffer]

Zhangjiajie mountains

[selden]

You'll have to create 3D models if you want protruding mountains or floating objects.

Celestia does not support displacement maps, and Celestia's bumpmaps and normalmaps only create shadings which look like protrusions when seen from above. The surface of a sphere (planet) is actually smooth.

[kristoffer]

Will it not be difficult to create floating mountains than real mountains?

[selden]

Both would be handled the same way by Celestia. When you have created a model, Celestia will place it wherever you specify, whether on the surface or above it.

[kristoffer]

so which program do I need? GIMP, Google Sketchup, Photoshop or something?

[selden]

A paint program would be used to create the detailed surface colors (Gimp, Photoshop, Paint.net, Corel Painter, Windows Paint,...). A 3D design program is needed to create the shapes (Sketchup Pro, Anim8or, Blender, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Bryce, maybe Terragen ...). Note that you would need Sketchup Pro in order to produce 3DS format files that Celestia can use, or find some other way to translate Sketchup's proprietary format into 3DS.

[kristoffer]

Okay, thanks

[TranslightDefender]

Wings3d is a good free 3D modelling program. It can export in 3DS format, which Celestia can use.

[Fenerit]

You could take a look here: http://www.voxelogic.com/
The demo is fully functional for 30 days. Maybe the time is enough to get what you want.

[kristoffer]

do I need to convert the google sketchup file to 3ds or cmod?

[kristoffer]

here is the skp file:

http://www.4shared.com/file/rjofI_qW/Pa ... ntain.html

[selden]

do I need to convert the google sketchup file to 3ds or cmod?

Yes. Otherwise it can't be used in Celestia.

[kristoffer]

my computer cant have 3D studio max, it will not run

[selden]

There are many other 3D design programs, many of which are free.
Some are listed at http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celest ... lling.html

[selden]

It looks like MeshLab might be able to do a useful conversion:

tell Sketchup to export to DAE format (which supposedly is the same as Collada format)
tell MeshLab to import Collada format
tell MeshLab to export 3DS format

Meshlab is available at http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Disclaimer: I have never tried to do this, so i cannot provide detailed instructions.

[kristoffer]

It looks like MeshLab might be able to do a useful conversion:

tell Sketchup to export to DAE format (which supposedly is the same as Collada format)
tell MeshLab to import Collada format
tell MeshLab to export 3DS format

Meshlab is available at http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Disclaimer: I have never tried to do this, so i cannot provide detailed instructions.

Thank you

[kristoffer]

It looks like MeshLab might be able to do a useful conversion:

tell Sketchup to export to DAE format (which supposedly is the same as Collada format)
tell MeshLab to import Collada format
tell MeshLab to export 3DS format

Meshlab is available at http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Disclaimer: I have never tried to do this, so i cannot provide detailed instructions.

I cant create the mesh file itself, just the texture when I using Meshlab

[kristoffer]

It looks like MeshLab might be able to do a useful conversion:

tell Sketchup to export to DAE format (which supposedly is the same as Collada format)
tell MeshLab to import Collada format
tell MeshLab to export 3DS format

Meshlab is available at http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Disclaimer: I have never tried to do this, so i cannot provide detailed instructions.

and what means vertices?

[selden]

"Vertices" is the plural for "vertex". A vertex is a place where lines meet. In a 3D mesh, it is a corner of a surface patch, typically a triangle. A mesh is composed of many vertices, and all of those vertices together define the surface of a 3D object.

As I wrote, I've never used MeshLab, so I can't tell you how best to use it. Sorry.