Celestia Add-On Builder

[Drydareelin]

30/06/2012 Edit
-Thanks to Selden's comment, there's now the degrees symbol (°) after the Right Ascension and the Declination sections.
-You no longer have to put in quotes..for anything. The Program does all the hard work for you (you lazy bunch!)
-I am currently in the process of finishing the .SSC Builder form and implementing a 'Report Bug' feature.
-As I've previously said; if you can think of anything else I can add, let me know!
[edit]
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I previously made a Celestia Star Builder and posted it in the same sub-forum as this.
It was extremely basic and it was just me seeing if it was possible.

Well, I've decided to up the ante!

I am in the process of making a Full on Celestia Add-on Builder.

A lot more options, and the ability to make and adjust so much more than previously.



This is the main screen. From here you can open new add-on forms, change the main theme, open/save files and run certain programs (so far).
Hopefully more will be added (and it will look a lot more attractive).

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This is the Star Builder screen that appears when you press the 'STC' button.
Here you can see I've implemented a texture-loading system (basic), the option to chose between 'AppMag' and 'AbsMag' and a small '?' next to each section which, when hovering the mouse, shows tooltips and information.
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This is the screen you see when you press 'Build Star'.
Yes..it's the main screen. I did this so you can make any needed tweaks before saving.

Well, that's all I can show right now.
If anyone can think of anything I can add, even if it's just eye-candy, let me know!

Thanks, I hope you're liking it so far..

Dryda

[selden]

It looks like a good start!

A suggestion:
It'd be nice if the word "Degrees" were shown next to the Right Ascension field for STC entries
and "Hours" next to the Right Ascension field for DSC entries. That might help avoid the fairly common accidental use of the wrong units in the two different catalogs.

[Drydareelin]

It looks like a good start!

A suggestion:
It'd be nice if the word "Degrees" were shown next to the Right Ascension field for STC entries
and "Hours" next to the Right Ascension field for DSC entries. That might help avoid the fairly common accidental use of the wrong units in the two different catalogs.

When you hover the house over the '?' next to the section, it does show the unit it's in.

For instance, next to Right Ascension:

[selden]

Unfortunately, if people think they know the right units, but are wrong, they won't bother to hover over the ?.

RA is the only parameter which uses different units in different catalogs, so I think "hovering" for other parameters is OK. I frequently have to point out the units problem when people can't figure why stars are in the wrong place on the sky, which is one reason I think RA needs more help so they get it right.

[Drydareelin]

Ah I get what you mean.
Okay what I will probably do is include a small label in-between the textbox and the '?' showing the units.

So for Right Ascension and Declination it would be the Degrees sign (°)
Distance it would say 'Ly'
Radius 'Km'
etc...

If that's what you mean If you can think of a better way, please let me know

[selden]

That sounds fine to me! (Although I was suggesting doing that only for RA)

[Drydareelin]

I like it!
I might play around with the design, maybe a combo of them both

[duds26]

I like where his is going.

Since suggestions are welcome:

From an addon builder I would like to start with a start screen containing:
list of recently opened addons
list of addon folders
List of favourite or important addons (user editable)
button to start new addon
Button to open existing addon

If I start a new addon, First I have to choose a name of course.
Then I come in an empty form. Left is a pane shows the files.
And another dock for more information about the current edited value/object.
I can add a new file by a button or right clicking in the file area.
Using tabs for multiple files. Using a new tab like in firefox to open a new file.
Can choose a new file: stc, ssc, other.
When choosing a file, main pane is showing content in a tree view.
With the values and editing in the tree view itself.
Can add a new object to the tree. Have buttons and right-click options to add each kind of thing.
Automatically generate most of the code necessary.
Important: Always show all units for all values explicitly! Maybe even include links to help files or web pages such as wikipedia for their meaning.
The extra dock could for example include a more verbose name of the property.
A short summary what it is.
Units.
Type and range of values possible.
And other useful helpful information.

Are there any plans to make this cross platform? Using C++ and a cross platform GUI toolkit?

[Drydareelin]

Wow that's a lot of suggestions o.O

One issue I don't think I stated previously -> I am not a very skilled programmer.
I am using VB.Net because I feel comfortable using it
I will take all you said in though and see what I can do with it.

I haven't been able to do much work on it these last 2 weeks or so, because of college studies. Now I am finished though, so I can crack on with it. As said before, I will defiantly take some of what you said in; seeing if I can make it work with the design so far.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[John Van Vliet]

--- edit ---

[Fenerit]

Wow that's a lot of suggestions o.O

...
I am using VB.Net because I feel comfortable using it

Please, keep it as simple as possible by removing all the unnecessary VB/Net references and custom controls. It's a waste of space to install lots of futile MB when few kB can accomplish the same calculus.

[Tegmine]

Will the star builder have a feature to calculate decimal degrees or will it still be up to the creator to supply that info?

I'm looking forward to the completion of this.

-M-

[Drydareelin]

Will the star builder have a feature to calculate decimal degrees or will it still be up to the creator to supply that info?

Do you mean like this:


You can see the RA and the DEC are in decimals, if that is actually what you mean.
If I am getting the wrong idea, please let me know

[Drydareelin]

hey sorry guys, I haven't been able to work on it recent at all since I've been so busy.

Anyway, I hadn't even thought about the update element until now o.O My original idea was that you'd just replace the original .exe file but I will have to think about it.

In 9 days I am going camping for a week, after that I will really start cracking on with this

[Alexell]

You can try to create this program on C ++?
Then we can translate it into Russian.

[Drydareelin]

You can try to create this program on C ++?
Then we can translate it into Russian.

Unfortunately, I don't know C++
I've been trying to learn but haven't found any guide that I can get stuck into.

[John Van Vliet]

--- edit ---

[Alexell]

I badly know English,
but I hope you will
understand me.

Unfortunately, I don't know C++
I've been trying to learn but haven't found any guide that I can get stuck into.

I study C++ in college, but still it is not enough my knowledge for creation of such program. I have to you some questions:
1. When you plan to finish development of the program?
2. If I translate lines of your program and I will send them in such look: "a line in English" = "a line in Russian", you can insert them into the program and compile it in Russian?

[Fenerit]

I remember that with the "old" INI method, now called ".lang" one could translate even in other languages. I.e:

label1.caption = readini("label1", "caption")

where within the INI was:

[label1]
caption = language

being "language" the text string shown by the label.

[Alexell]

That's
wonderful.

And how the
program defines, what language to
show, if them a little?
Language gets out the user at the first start?
Or language is
defined automatically,
how in Celestia?