Running Activities in Celestia 161-ED issues

[Dan_47]

Great program creators. I'm trying to run the Activities on Celestia 161-ED but I keep getting the error saying Line 9 character 1, "The system cannot find the file specified", code 80070002, null. I tried redirecting the hyperlink on the word HERE in the MS Word doc for Activitiy_1&2-161-The_Universe. I put the files: Activity1.vbs, Activity1-161.cfg, celestia-161-ed.exe (I changed the 'ED' to 'ed to match the letter case on the Activity1.vbs file [ which says Shell.run "celestia161-ed.exe --conf Activity1-161.cfg"] with no success), all in the same root folder Celestia161-ED to see if that would help but I can't seem to launch the 1st activity. Celestia-161-ED will run but not through the Activity with scripts and configuration file. Maybe my files are in incorrect locations but it looks like scripts get the current file path name/location. I'm not an expert by any means in scripting, a newbie at best.
I'm not sure if moving vbs files to the Activity-cels folder will have an effect if I pointed the hyperlink to the current location of vbs file. Should the .cfg file be in a specific folder? Is running celestia161-ed and celestia161-ED really different files? The mentioned files are all in the main folder currently. I'm using a 64 bit (install was done to Program Files(x86) folder though), Windows 8 Lenovo Yoga. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Dan47

[fsgregs]

Sorry for your troubles. Fortunately, I have just updated the entire Educational page and its add-ons for 2017/2018. All files have been changed. Motherlode should be able to update the education page within a few days max. You will have to discard your old Celestia161-ED.exe directory on your PC (keep whatever extras add-ons you wish), then reinstall the base program, and all of the files and add-ons on the education page. Hopefully, everything should work fine.

[Dan_47]

Thank you, I look forward to the reinstall.

[John Van Vliet]

unfortunately i CAN NOT test the Microsoft ONLY ed addons and the Microsoft windows only exe

i do not own nor have ANY Microsoft operating systems on any of my computers

i am 100% Microsoft clean and free

so i can not test the ED adons nor the exe file that is in my motherload testing folder

[Dan_47]

Update,
I reinstalled Celestia 161 ED from scratch with the Package in the right folder this time and had success. I installed in Program Files instead of Program Files (x86) but this probably wasn't the issue at first anyway. I have been thoroughly enjoying the journeys and facts from activities 1,2, 7, and 8. So much to learn. When it came to "Paragraph" #72 and above though on Activity 8 (up to at least paragraph #101), I have had Celestia "Not Responding" on all the Mars spacecraft links. If I start from the 'Here' links located mid-document, Celestia responds but not appropriately since not all scripts have loaded without starting from the initial Here. The craft and/or locations/or options are not in sync. This is the Problem Signature details I get if I click on details.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: celestia161-ED.exe
Application Version: 1.6.1.0
Application Timestamp: 4d774950
Fault Module Name: ig75icd32.dll
Fault Module Version: 10.18.14.4264
Fault Module Timestamp: 55c1981b
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0021b623
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.4
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 36c1
Additional Information 2: 36c1814e185661db4b686cf0a3961694
Additional Information 3: 844f
Additional Information 4: 844f5c84688a70ddc8479f9eec11e631

If anyone knows a relatively easy way to address this, I'd much appreciate it. Since this same signature is given at different links (#72 - 101), I don't think it's the hyperlink giving the bug. I know a newer ED version is coming out soon (Yay!) but in the meantime... I'd like to continue my voyage the way it was meant. I hope also that there is a MAC ED version too. I can dream a little. Thanks in advance

Dan_47

[selden]

One cause for Celestia crashing is that it has loaded too many Addons and surface textures, resulting in it exceeding the 32-bit address limitation. Here are couple of things to try which will reduce its memory usage:

1. Make sure that Celestia's extras directory does not contain any other Addons before you start the EDU Activity.

2. Before running any Activity, start Celestia, select medium resolution surfaces textures, then exit Celestia. This sets the default to be medres and not hires, thus reducing memory usage. If you continue using Celestia and don't exit after changing the default, it will already have loaded some hires textures, pushing it over the memory limit that much sooner.

Another type of crash happens when you've exceeded the amount of graphics memory in your graphics card. Usually, though, Windows will generate a popup explicitly saying that's what's happened. Unfortunately, Celestia does not provide any way to release either its own or the graphics card's memory. When they fill up, it falls over.

Some other things to take into account:

You are supposed to use the appropriate "starting Celestia Here" link because the associated VisualBasic script specifies a particular .cfg configuration file when it starts Celestia, one which is unique to that specific Activity. Among other things, that config file tells Celestia which "built in" databases to load (like the 1M stars database) and which Activity extras folder to use.

Similarly, you are supposed to use the appropriate "spacecraft sound Here" link because it runs a .celx script in the background. This Activity-specific .celx script implements the individual keystroke commands which provide various effects.

If you haven't used the initialization link required by the part of the Activity that you're working on, however, the usual symptom is not a crash, but rather that the Activity's Cel:// URLs take you to empty space. This happens because Celestia doesn't have access to the Activity-specific extras folder and, as a result, hasn't loaded the correct SSC, STC and DSC catalogs. A workaround for this "empty space" symptom is to move the entire Activity-specific extras folder into your default extras folder.

A workaround for not using the Activity's "spacecraft sound Here" link is to manually select (double-click-on) the appropriate sound .celx script.

p.s. Unfortunately, I doubt there will be a Mac version any time soon. In addition to needing a Mac-specific version of Celestia, there are many Windows-specific features used in the doc files and in the various addons, not least of which are case mis-matches.

[Dan_47]

Thanks for the suggestions selden. If you don't hear from me back soon, it worked and I'm off on Mars somewhere like The Martian cheking out the Vikings and rovers.

[fsgregs]

Dan:
The entire educational page and its activities have been updated for 2017, and are now being uploaded to motherlode. Visit by the end of this week, and you should fine everything new. Uninstall your old Celestia-ED program and all files, and install the new ones. Then read the "Quick-Guide that appears at the end of the installation. It will tell you how to use the activities.

Enjoy
Frank

[Dan_47]

Thanks Frank for all the work you and the crew did and do for education. Reducing the render did prevent the 'not responding' message. I wish I could fly through Valles Marinaris, even simulated.