Orbiting, chasing - a couple of q's.

[Dr Norman Bates]

Is there a way of using the keyboard to orbit a selected object (rather than right mouse button) ?

Also - I'm having some trouble understanding what "chase" does. Would someone care to clarify (with respect to, say, what "lock" does) ?

Thanks to all who make this such an incredible simulation.

Dr. N.

[chris]

Is there a way of using the keyboard to orbit a selected object (rather than right mouse button) ?

Well, there wasn't until about 10 minutes ago . . .

I just added some code to allow orbiting with the keyboard by holding shift while pressing the arrow keys. If I recall correctly this is the same key combination used by Orbiter; it works equally well in Celestia now.

Thanks for the suggestion.

--Chris

[don]

Thanks for adding these new keystrokes Chris!

I too am interested to know more about chase, from anyone "in the know" (smile).

-Don

[-Shadow-]

Will there be some sort of On/Off for the orbit?
Since the holding down Shift and pressing arrow keys is already used,
maybe there could be some sort of activation sequence like Shift + O
to activate and turn off the new orbit function instead of assigning new keys to the rotate view and look up, down, and replacing them with the orbit keys the On/Off thing could be implemented. If your adding something like this That's great and if you aren't I'll still be happy.
Will the new orbit keys be something like this?
Shift + up - enter orbit
Shift + down - exit orbit
Shift + left - Orbit to the left
Shift + right - Orbit to the right
F2 to F3 - Orbit speed ( light speed + would look ridiculous IMO )


- Shadow

[don]

Howdy Shadow,

The existing use of Shift+arrowKey may be a mistake, since it does the same exact things as just plain arrow keys. So, Chris probably does a check to see if the Shift key is pressed, and then does something different.

As to enter/exit orbit, I believe the request was simply to have the right-click+drag functions duplicated on the keyboard -- orbit the selected planet in any direction (up, down, left, right).

If I am mistaken, I hope Chris jumps in to correct (smile).

-Don

[-Shadow-]

Oops my mistake for the shift + arrows then.
I know he was requesting just to have the right-click+drag functions duplicated on the keyboard but I was just saying it would be cool to have the other stuff. Hmm Maybe Shift + arrows just for the orbit in any direction and Shift + O to activate the stuff i suggested.
That would be cool...

- Shadow

[chris]

As to enter/exit orbit, I believe the request was simply to have the right-click+drag functions duplicated on the keyboard -- orbit the selected planet in any direction (up, down, left, right).

If I am mistaken, I hope Chris jumps in to correct (smile).

Affirming, not correcting . . .
You're exactly right about the function of shift+arrow keys.

--Chris

[don]

... it would be cool to have the other stuff. Hmm Maybe Shift + arrows just for the orbit in any direction and Shift + O to activate the stuff i suggested.
That would be cool...

- Shadow

Ahhh, so you're looking for some way to orbit an object non-synchronously, but automatically, instead of using the arrow keys / right-click+drag to change your position? Hmmm, and there's no way to do this currently?

I wonder if a script could do this? Get to where you want to be, and then run a script that does an automatic orbit?

-Don

[-Shadow-]

A script could probably do the Shift + O activate thing
and my list commands;
Shift + up - enter orbit
Shift + down - exit orbit
Shift + left - Orbit to the left
Shift + right - Orbit to the right
F2 to F3 - Orbit speed

Though I don't really know much about scripting in Celestia, I can't even Draw anything decent in photoshop! That's why I started doing things in Flash MX, I don't have to draw anything that looks amazing

- Shadow