Another Feature Request

Bob Hegwood · Post #1by **Bob Hegwood** » 10.11.2003, 05:23

Hi all,

Sorry to keep bothering you with questions, but is there any way in which Celestia can be set up to perform under a specific windows display resolution?

In other words, using my 800x600 display, I'm getting a LOT closer to the planets than I want to when selecting them from the Solar System Objects Menu. When Celestia starts, my WHOLE screen is filled with a picture of the Earth, and I have to use the END key in order to get to a place where I feel comfortable viewing the display.

If this feature already exists, I apologize in advance. I have not seen anything concerning this topic, nor have I heard about it yet.

If it doesn't, I'd like to request it. Not all of us are using display resolutions greater than 800x600. Just a thought for you.

Take care, Bob

marc · Post #2by **marc** » 10.11.2003, 07:15

Bob Hegwood wrote:Hi all,

Sorry to keep bothering you with questions, but is there any way in which Celestia can be set up to perform under a specific windows display resolution?

In other words, using my 800x600 display, I'm getting a LOT closer to the planets than I want to when selecting them from the Solar System Objects Menu. When Celestia starts, my WHOLE screen is filled with a picture of the Earth, and I have to use the END key in order to get to a place where I feel comfortable viewing the display.

If this feature already exists, I apologize in advance. I have not seen anything concerning this topic, nor have I heard about it yet.

If it doesn't, I'd like to request it. Not all of us are using display resolutions greater than 800x600. Just a thought for you.

Take care, Bob

Celestia does have an option to change resolution in its menu, Render->Select Display Mode..
How many different options that are there depends on your video chipset.

Im just guessing here, your video chipset may share its memory with the PC ram.
You might find that you only have 8M allocated for video memory.
How much ram that is allocated to video can be set in the bios. Press delete as the computer boots up (F2 if its a Dell) then search around for the video ram setting it will have settings of a power of two between 8M and 64M (or similar)
If you have never played with the bios, read your motherboard manual first if you dont have it then only change one thing at a time.

hope this helps, Marc.

Bob Hegwood · Post #3by **Bob Hegwood** » 10.11.2003, 07:32

I appreciate that input Marc, but I can't use it, since I get an error message and Celestia just will not work after I try to change the display mode.

The error says something like "Unable to change while in Windows Mode" or some such. Then the system is screwed until I press CTRL-ALT-DELETE in order to end Celestia. The error message will not let me close the message display.

Hmmm... Maybe another bug topic?

Nah... I've been driving Selden nuts for a while. I think I'll leave him alone today.

Take care, Bob

don · Post #4by **don** » 10.11.2003, 10:44

Howdy Bob,

Bob Hegwood wrote:... is there any way in which Celestia can be set up to perform under a specific windows display resolution?

Try the "." and "," (period and coma) keys, which adjust the Field of View (FOV). Where ever you leave it when Celestia is shut down, it should stay there the next time it starts.

Hope this helps!

-Don G.

Bob Hegwood · Post #5by **Bob Hegwood** » 11.11.2003, 05:15

Or I could change it in the "start.cel" file?

Sounds good, Don. Thanks AGAIN for your help. I'll give it a try.

Take care, Bob

don · Post #6by **don** » 11.11.2003, 07:18

Hi Bob,

Yes, you can change/add any script commands you want to, in the start.cel file, and they will be run every time you start Celestia.

-Don G.

Bob Hegwood · Post #7by **Bob Hegwood** » 11.11.2003, 07:57

Don,

You and Selden have my complete and utter attention in all topics from now on...

I simply set the field of view to 35 in my "start.cel", and "voila" - 800x600 resolution display. (Almost)

How'd you guys get to be so smart, eh? Never mind...
(I know... It's probably just from answering dumb questions from guys like me all night!)

At any rate, that solution works fine.

Now on to my other problem...
As I mentioned, when I try to change my perspective on the M4 Globular Cluster, not only do the stars in the cluster change colors, but all of the stars displayed in the field of view change colors. After further investigation and some experimentation, I got my display to keep changing the colors of the stars continually. In other words, if I just sit here and look at M4, all of the stars in my FOV will change colors at a rate of about 1 different color per second. Weird, but this HAS to be a bug doesn't it?

The only thing I'm using to display M4 is an STC file. A portion is listed below for your perusal.

Code: Select all

# HIP 450000
450000 {
   RA  245.90000000
   Dec  -26.53333333
   Distance  6848.0000
   SpectralType "S0V"
   AppMag 10.00 # Radii: 44.9777523122543
}
# HIP 450001
450001 {
   RA  245.90853122
   Dec  -26.53440933
   Distance  6848.6349
   SpectralType "F1Ia"
   AppMag 15.00 # Radii: 1.34147025384999
}
# HIP 450002
450002 {
   RA  245.90353097
   Dec  -26.56378506
   Distance  6847.0256
   SpectralType "K0V"
   AppMag 18.00 # Radii: 0.607489116287257
}
# HIP 450003
450003 {
   RA  245.90524831
   Dec  -26.53496819
   Distance  6847.9579
   SpectralType "R0III"
   AppMag 16.00 # Radii: 2.83788537048743
}
# HIP 450004
450004 {
   RA  245.91292297
   Dec  -26.51476415
   Distance  6848.6931
   SpectralType "G0Ia"
   AppMag 19.00 # Radii: 0.290621804618159
}

Any ideas? Have I found a real bug, or am I just doing something stupid again?

By the way, I did *not* have this problem in 1.3.0 either. :roll:

Thanks again, Bob

don · Post #8by **don** » 11.11.2003, 10:10

Howdy Bob,

Bob Hegwood wrote:Don,

You and Selden have my complete and utter attention in all topics from now on...

Selden is "the man". My knowledge is pretty much limited to the Windows user interface and .cel scripting. Otherwise, I'm just another user <smile>.

Good luck with the next problem!

-Don G.

Post #9by **selden** » 11.11.2003, 12:55

Guys,

It's just a matter of starting with something simple and building on it. And making lots of mistakes along the way.

Bob,

While there are lots of stars with different colors in the cluster, they don't usually change color. So far as I know, Celestia doesn't have that ability. The only way I know for it to change colors is for a rotating object to have different colors on different parts of its surface. As different areas come into view, the colors on-screen change.

One guess is that maybe your OpenGL driver is using a color lookup table with a limited number of entries. As one area on-screen changes its colors, other areas on the screen that were set to have the same original color change, too.

Please double-check to make sure you've set the display property setting "Color quailty" to be "Highest (32 bit)" or as close to that as you can.

Does this help?

Bob Hegwood · Post #10by **Bob Hegwood** » 12.11.2003, 07:41

Selden,

My display color quality setting is maximized for my machine at 24-bits.

Interestingly, when I just tried to reproduce the error so that I could show it to you, I couldn't get it to happen again. If it does, I'll save some pictures for you.

This really was weird though. First the entire cluster turned a sickly shade of green, then it simply started changing colors about every second or so. I'll play with it some more to see if I can reproduce it.

By the way, I *have* updated my OpenGL for the Intel 82815 card.

Sorry to keep bothering you with all of this, but - hopefully - someone else can benefit from my experiences thus far.

Take care, Bob

Bob Hegwood · Post #11by **Bob Hegwood** » 12.11.2003, 08:57

Selden, I *did* manage to re-create the problem after I logged off of the net last time. The following image is what you're SUPPOSED to see while viewing M4.

Next, is what happens AFTER I try to right-click and move around the object(s):

Finally, the display keeps changing colors - About one change per second.

Jusat thought I'd show you so you don't think I'm NUTS. (Well, so you don't think I'm any nuttier than you did before :wink:

Take care, Bob

Post #12by **selden** » 12.11.2003, 16:57

Are you running Celestia full-screen or in a window on the desktop?
If in a window, does the whole screen change, or just the image within Celestia's window?

I'm wondering if maybe there's a loose video connection somewhere.
That'd cause the tint of the entire screen to change, not just that of the particular star cluster.

Bob Hegwood · Post #13by **Bob Hegwood** » 12.11.2003, 17:18

Selden,

I'm running Celestia in a maximized Window on my XP. It's just the stars in the entire field of view that change, NOT the PC's graphics. It's related only to the Celestia display.

More information...

I can only use the "Basic" or the "MultiTextured" OpenGL information because I don't have a graphics card.

I managed to correct the problem one time by disabling the Galaxy-rendering option, but that only worked one time. I also tried using CTRL-V to switch the OpenGL rendering to no avail.

No big deal, I just thought I'd let you know about it.

Thanks again, Bob

Post #14by **selden** » 12.11.2003, 19:58

Bob,

Unfortunately, I'm left with the conclusion that there are some unresolved bugs in the drivers for Intel's graphics chips. They haven't updated the drivers for more than a year, so you might want to consider uprading (if possible) to an inexpensive version of a more modern card from Nvidia or ATI.

Sorry.

Bob Hegwood · Post #15by **Bob Hegwood** » 13.11.2003, 05:19

You know, I KNEW I was going to get to this point, somewhere back when I first started using Celestia. :wink:

Thanks for trying sir...

Celestia Forums

Another Feature Request

Another Feature Request

Re: Another Feature Request

Re: Another Feature Request