To Jack Higgins: About Mars Pathfinder ssc file

[Mario]

Hello,

It's not really important. I'm just trying to understand the program better.

Why do the Mars Pathfinder ssc file starts with an entry like the following?

Code: Select all

" " "Sol/Mars"
{
    Radius 1
    Mesh "empty.3ds"
    EllipticalOrbit {
        Period 9e200
        SemiMajorAxis 1123.446228
        AscendingNode 136.005
        Inclination 90
        MeanAnomaly 90
    }
}


Also I gather the "empty.3ds" mesh is just what it is, an empty model. As such it's ok if it is pointing to a non-existing file. Right?

Mario

[JackHiggins]

No problem - the reason I have this is because, to place an object (a model, not just a location), you first have to have an invisible placeholder inside in the planet, to set the object's latitude. Then the other object (the visible one) is in the correct place, because that's where you set the longitude of it's loaction.

Grant Hutchinson originally came up with this system, if you do a search in the forums, you'll find his topic where he describes what each of the lines in the surface locations ssc file means.

You don't need the empty.3ds - actually you can replace this line with

Code: Select all

Class "invisible"

Which means that you won't be able to select this object by accident!

[Mario]

Thank you Jack. Most informative.

I saved the link your provided for future reference.

I also changed the mesh line as you suggested. It's more informative this way.

Mario