Coming Back

[John M. Dollan]

I'm not sure if anyone present will remember me, or if any were here when I was last active, years ago, but I've recently discovered that the forums were reborn, and so I've decided to come back. It's been a long time since I've used either Celestia or the forums (primarily because of many real world issues), and I find myself wanting to return to the wonders of creating worlds and visualizing what might be Out There.

I've made a new account; the details of my old one are long lost, and in any case why not start fresh?

I'm excited to hear that the program itself is having some life breathed back into it; it was always a favorite of mine, and helped me a lot with my own writing. I'll be anxious to see what new things will be made in the coming months and, hopefully, years.

Ah, well, time to relearn the coding, and to get to work!

...John...

[Cham]

Welcome back John.

I suggest that you check these recent addons :

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17467

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17432

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17428

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17426

[Hungry4info]

I'm glad to see you're back
- Someone who does remember you.

[John M. Dollan]

Thanks Cham and Hungry!!

I'll definitely be starting my homework for Celestia after the holidays. Between finishing up work and traveling, I won't have the time till then...

[Adirondack]

Hi John. Welcome back.

[fungun]

Glad to see you back.

Tim

[Fenerit]

Ciao Dollan!

[John M. Dollan]

Thanks for the welcome back, guys!

I won't get much done until after the holidays, but in the meantime I need to gather resources. Are there any relatively up to date tutorials or information pages on Celestia coding? I'm not even sure if Selden's pages are still out there, but if so, they would likely be horribly outdated.

Also, what are the best files to download in order to have the most astronomically updated version of Celestia? I seem to recall a major star file... but it's all been so long ago.

[Fenerit]

What Celestia version do you have now? Things are at rest to-day: major official version is still 1.6.1. Some common astronomical updates data/models/textures are available on Motherlode while more detailed planet's orbits are set through SPICE kernel at CelestialMatters thanks to John Van Vliet. Scripting documentation is also updated for that version at Celestia Wiki with very minimal exceptions.

[selden]

As Fenerit mentioned, Celestia has been stalled at v1.6.1 for several years, so most of the information on my pages is still applicable.

A major source for reference material is the Celestia WikiBook at https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia although improvements provided by v1.6.0 and v1.6.1 are mostly documented in appendices and aren't all fully incorporated into the main body of the text. It'd be nice if some people could take the time to help do that.

Similarly, the User's Guides on the MotherLode are for v1.6.0 and probably need very little in the way of updates. See http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/documentation.html

[Cham]

Don't forget there's a special version 1.7.0 for OS X there : viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17423

Full 64bit, many bugs fix, an absolute must have for any OS X user.

[John M. Dollan]

I have 1.6.1, though I haven't run it since I installed it several months ago.

The Motherlode is still being supported, yes? When I get back from Christmas vacation on Monday, I will check it out....

[selden]

The MotherLode is still active, although the current submission rate is slow. Acceptance requirements are very strict, but submittors are told exactly what needs to be fixed.

[John M. Dollan]

I'll definitely check the Motherlode out again.

And I have to say, I'm kind of jealous of the "with us" stat under most peoples' names. Makes me want to try and recover my old account....