How to use addons on iOS/iPadOS ?

Droopy Angora · Post #1by **Droopy Angora** » 11.07.2021, 11:39

Hi everyone !

Just installed Celestia on my iPad. I went to check on the Pluto-Charon system, to see if the New Horizons textures were available or not. They aren't, so I went on trying to use the right mod from the motherlode. I located the "extras" folder in the Files app, unzipped the mod there. Celestia tells me it loads the mod when I restart the app (pluto-charon.ssc) but the old Hubble LOK maps are still displaying on the surface. Can somebody tell me if any motherlode content could work on the iOS app as of today or if this feature is still unavailable ? I'd really like to fine tune Celestia as I did on my PC in the past.

Thank you all.

trappistplanets · Post #2by **trappistplanets** » 11.07.2021, 12:29

can't you use your pc as the device for celestia, instead of your IPad?

Droopy Angora · Post #3by **Droopy Angora** » 11.07.2021, 12:49

I could, but it's a desktop, so that's indoors use only : if I wanna explain my nephews what's up there in the sky and beyond, and show them accurately while outside watching the night sky, I'll need my tablet :biggrin:

Post #4by **onetwothree** » 11.07.2021, 13:13

i suppose you can install selected addons from celestia.mobi but i don't use ipads, but afair Markerz added ui to do this

Droopy Angora · Post #5by **Droopy Angora** » 11.07.2021, 18:09

Thank you all, I just could figure it out :

I installed the Haumea's rings mod directly from the app (as onetwothree told me) and I found out the mod's directory in the "extras" folder. So I proceeded to add a second simple texture mod myself onto Haumea's surface. And it worked...

Image : Haumea with ring and semi-fictional texture

Then I checked back on Pluto... ...still no texture. So I opened the SSC file of the mod to see if there was any error.

And a few errors there were. The mod's creators didn't take account of the Pluto-Charon system's barycenter, around which every object is located in the original solarsys.ssc file. Just modified every object's location ("Sol/Pluto-Charon") and restarted the app. Boom, it worked.

Image : Pluto and Charon with accurate textures

Image : Pluto's atmosphere

Guess most of the mods can work on the iOS version of Celestia. So let's everyone who wants to use the motherlode's mods hear about it...

Only one more question : I saw in the app's settings it is possible to use a custom celestia.cfg file, which could be useful for some mods like DarkerStarTextures, BrownDwarfs and stuff like that. Could I use a PC version of the .cfg file ? Or should I use an iOS version, that which I'll need to find if so...

Markerz · Post #6by **Markerz** » 12.07.2021, 02:26

Yeah most add-ons should work out just fine. The ones that do not work usually has an issue itself. ( such as incorrect capitalization in the naming of files, use of npot textures, etc)

The mobile .cfg is the same as the 1.7.0 cfg.

Added after 2 hours 29 minutes:
For add-ons you downloaded from other places just extract them to the extras folder and it should be fine.

Droopy Angora · Post #7by **Droopy Angora** » 12.07.2021, 08:54

Markerz wrote:Yeah most add-ons should work out just fine. The ones that do not work usually has an issue itself. ( such as incorrect capitalization in the naming of files, use of npot textures, etc)

Or some errors in the SSC file, Haumea's Rings mod adds another 8km wide body to the solar system, had to edit it to remove this error.

Also tried the Star Wars Atlas addon, most planets end up having no surface texture and ringed planets (such as Geonosis) get glitchy saturn rings. Are the textures' formats responsible of such graphic issues ?

Markerz wrote:The mobile .cfg is the same as the 1.7.0 cfg.

Good to know. Tried the DarkerStarTextures addon with the 1.6.1 cfg, telling the app to fetch in the "extras" folder for new star textures, didn't work.

Markerz wrote:For add-ons you downloaded from other places just extract them to the extras folder and it should be fine.

Apart from these few issues I mentioned earlier everything works fine for now, gonna try more add-ons and give some feedback to the dev team for further improvements if needed. Thanks !

EDIT : about the textures, I will try different formats and different encodings, then post a recap about what's working and what's not, in order to let everyone know to which formats they should convert their textures to make them compatible with the mobile app. I also have some doubt about 3D models, as Star Wars ships don't appear at all, though some specific asteroid shapes in other mods do appear.