Improved Huygens Probe model & Cassini news

[JackHiggins]

Hey all

I'm working on a better cassini model at the moment (reduced file size, proper colours etc...) and an obvious offshoot of that is an improved Huygens Probe model. This one is the exact same as what will be attached to cassini in the final thing, except it's on it's own.

You can download this new model from my site http://homepage.eircom.net/~jackcelestia/ but here are a few screenshots first...





Enjoy!

(Cassini model will be coming soon.... Probably tomorrow- maybe later tonight!)

[Darkmiss]

Ah great a new Cassini model.
Hopefully with a bit more colour than the one I found.

[JackHiggins]

Ah so it was from you that I got the original model! I couldn't remember who it was...

The original had every face in the mesh duplicated 3 times, but all merged into one object... In other words the file size was 3 times what it should have been... I had to hack away at each component & rebuild it bit by bit- but now it looks pretty good!

I didn't put any of the crinkly foil effect onto the new version (of cassini, not huygens), because you can't see the insulation covering, and that's what actually has the foil on it... I also put transparent cylinders coming out of each side to balance the rotation- so it really looks like it's rotating around a centre of gravity!

Anyway... I'll almost definitely be putting it up on my site tonight- give me an hour or so!!

[granthutchison]

Jack:
New versions of Celestia will let you specify the the rotation centre for a mesh object using

Code: Select all

 MeshCenter [ x y z ]

where [ x y z ] is a vector specifying the offset between the centre of the bounding box and the centre of the mesh object.
Should save you having to do that (cunning!) thing with the transparent cylinders.

Grant

[JackHiggins]

Jack:
New versions of Celestia will let you specify the the rotation centre for a mesh object using

Code: Select all

MeshCenter [ x y z ]

where [ x y z ] is a vector specifying the offset between the centre of the bounding box and the centre of the mesh object.
Should save you having to do that (cunning!) thing with the transparent cylinders.

Grant

Brilliant!! That could be handy for asteroids too i suppose- where the centre of gravity wouldn't necessarily be where celestia thinks it is!

[granthutchison]

That could be handy for asteroids too i suppose- where the centre of gravity wouldn't necessarily be where celestia thinks it is!

Yes indeed - I've recently finished respecifying the rotation for various 3ds objects in Celestia. It's also vital in order to get Locations to display correctly on 3ds objects - otherwise the lat & long are plotted relative to the bounding box centre, and so end up plotted skewed on the surface of the mesh object.

Grant

[JackHiggins]

Yes indeed - I've recently finished respecifying the rotation for various 3ds objects in Celestia. It's also vital in order to get Locations to display correctly on 3ds objects - otherwise the lat & long are plotted relative to the bounding box centre, and so end up plotted skewed on the surface of the mesh object.

Grant

I don't suppose that could also be used to simulate barycentres, could it? Obviously it wouldn't be the proper way to do it, but say for when you only have 2 bodies involved, like pluto-charon or a binary asteroid?

[chris]

don't suppose that could also be used to simulate barycentres, could it? Obviously it wouldn't be the proper way to do it, but say for when you only have 2 bodies involved, like pluto-charon or a binary asteroid?

No, I'm afraid MeshCenter can't be used for barycenters . . . It only works for mesh objects, and does so by actually modifying the mesh vertices. To simulate barycenters you'll still need to define an invisible object--that's the 'right' way anyhow.

--Chris