SolarSystemTour for Celestia 1.3.2 now available!

[TimMc]

Hi all.

The next version of my SolarSystemTour celx script is now available. It utilises some of the new lua commands (including some code based on Don G's "Run_A_Script.celx") to allow user keyboard input to set the tour speed for each system to be toured. It also allows you to tour spacecraft that are in solar orbit (but not planetary orbits).
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides some of the same functionality is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

Thanks to Terrier for a comment which inspired the settourspeed() function, and Don G for pointing me in the right direction re. using the new lua commands.

I am working on a menu system for the user to select which systems and object types to tour without having to edit the script. I am aiming to make this facility available by the end of March. In the meantime, I hope this updated script allows even more flexibility for exploring the Celestia universe.

Regards, Tim Mc

[don]

Yipieee! Our first, truly interactive, Celestia script.

It looks good and seems to run just fine on 1.3.2 pre7. Thanks Tim!

It is truly wonderful to be able to have user interactivity when running a script. A big THANK YOU goes to Harald for this!

Well done gents!

[TERRIER]

Cheers Tim and Harald, the script is even better now.

The option to set the tour speed for each system during the the running of the script, gets a thumbs-up from me.

Thanks for including a solar system spacecraft tour option too, but I'm getting a rather shakey view of the spacecraft as you flyby. This is with tour speed set at slow.

regards
TERRIER

[TimMc]

Touring spacecraft suffers from the same problems as touring deep space objects (see DeepSpaceTour_v1.0.celx Readme) - large spacecraft models will display in a jerky manner. A workaround is to call for two identical spacecraft tours in succession - the second tour often has spacecraft displaying smoother than the first, presumably because some of the model and texture data stays in cache memory. This will obviously be hardware dependant.

The reason I have left out tours of spacecraft in planetary orbits is because the stuttering of the spacecraft object during fly-by is unacceptable when a planet with a large texture or VT is in the field of view. I can't foresee a fix until rendering issues in Celestia are addressed - see my feature requests in the Developers forum.

Cheers, Tim Mc

[TERRIER]

Tim / Harald

I just thought I'd try a whistle stop tour of my 120 (or so) solar system asteroids today, but I've encountered the problem of getting stuck in a seemingly endless loop touring Eugenia when the script reaches this binary asteroid. (Petit-Prince is it's 'moon').

However I don't have any problem when I fly-by Ida and Dactyl, which appear earlier on.

Anyone any ideas as to what could be causing the problem ?


regards
TERRIER

[TimMc]

Terrier

Can you post the portion of the SSC code that specifies Eugenia & Petit-Prince, and also Ida & Dactyl? That should allow me to determine if this is a bug in the script.

Regards, Tim Mc

[TERRIER]

Yep, here's the code for Eugenia and Petit-Prince (taken from JACKbinaries.ssc);

Code: Select all

"Eugenia" "Sol" # 45 Eugenia
{
   Texture   "asteroid.jpg"
   Mesh    "roughsphere.cms"
   Class "asteroid"
   Radius    107.32

   EllipticalOrbit
   {
      Period       4.48661
      SemiMajorAxis    2.720237581877349
      Eccentricity    0.08298089837324901
      Inclination    6.61115701821445
      AscendingNode    147.9766825955555
      ArgOfPericenter   86.46480654305924
      MeanAnomaly    -66.10503059635559
      Epoch       2451560.5
   }

   RotationPeriod    5.699
   Albedo       0.040
}

"Petit-Prince" "Sol/Eugenia" # S/1998 (45) 1
{
   Texture   "asteroid.jpg"
   Mesh    "roughsphere.cms"
   Class "asteroid"
   Radius    6.5

   EllipticalOrbit
   {
      Period       4.691
      Inclination    45 # ?
      SemiMajorAxis    1190
   }

   Albedo       0.040
}

and here's the code for Ida and Dactyl (taken from my solarsys.ssc);

Code: Select all

"Ida" "Sol"
{
   Class "asteroid"
   Mesh   "ida.3ds"
   #Texture "ida.jpg"
   Texture "idamosaic.*" # Phil Stooke
   Radius 28.9
   MeshCenter [ -1.424 -0.417 0.115 ]

   EllipticalOrbit
   {
   Epoch     2449228.0        # 1993 Aug 28 12:00UT (Galileo encounter)
   Period          4.8417     # mean
   SemiMajorAxis   2.863731   # at epoch
   Eccentricity    0.043109   # at epoch
   Inclination     1.137110   # at epoch
   AscendingNode   324.586055 # at epoch
   ArgOfPericenter 113.017101 # at epoch
        MeanAnomaly     131.594945 # at epoch
   }

   #Orientation          [ 180 0 0 1 ] # retrograde rotation
   RotationPeriod         4.633632
   Obliquity        156.96
   EquatorAscendingNode 352.77
   RotationOffset       359.46

   Albedo 0.24
}

"Dactyl" "Sol/Ida"
{
   Class "asteroid"
   # Data for Dactyl is a very rough guess based on a value of
   # 2.8 g/cm^3 for Ida
   Texture "dactyl.jpg"
   Mesh "roughsphere.cms"
   Color [ 0.52 0.47 0.42 ]
   Radius   0.7

   EllipticalOrbit
   {
   Epoch        2449228.2028  # 1993 Aug 28 16:52:05UT
   Period             0.96534 # stable 5:1 resonant orbit (Petit et al.)
   SemiMajorAxis     83.5     # stable 5:1 resonant orbit (Petit et al.)
   Eccentricity       0.13    # stable 5:1 resonant orbit (Petit et al.)
   LongOfPericenter 310       # stable pericenter at 90:E Ida longitude (Petit et al.)
   AscendingNode     90       # VERY approximate - chosen to place Dactyl north
                                   # of Ida's equator, as seen at time of Galileo encounter
   Inclination        8       # estimated at 7-9 degrees (Petit et al.)
   }

   RotationOffset   123       # place prime meridian facing Ida

   Albedo 0.2
}

regards

[TimMc]

Terrier, thanks for the Eugenia info. I've reproduced the infinite loop on the version of the script you downloaded. There was a bug in the script, which I have since eliminated. There are a couple of other adjustments I've made as well. I'll post an updated SolarSystemTour.celx to my website later today. I'll do a post here (not as a new thread) to notify you when I've done it. Regards, Tim Mc

[TimMc]

I've updated the scripts to fix a bug causing an infinite loop on the last object in a tour. I've also tidied up the observer position for objects when loading and doing fly-bys. Everything else remains the same. This is not a new release, so the links and filenames remain the same.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides some of the same functionality is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

Tim Mc

[TERRIER]

Hello again Tim

I've downloaded your latest script, and thought I'd have a go at touring the asteroids again.

The first time I ran it (on fast speed 7) I got passed Eugenia and its moon OK ...but I got stuck at Hermione .

I tried it again on speed Stupendously fast 0, and got stuck on Antiope, which is where I seem to get caught in the endless loop every time I run it now - at both speeds.

Any ideas ?

[TimMc]

Sorry, Terrier, for this hassle. I thought I'd fixed the bug. The issue is not about speed directly, but about the distance-trigger set when the next target is selected. Before I get you to send me the SSC specification for Antiope & Hermione, could you download SolarSystemTour once more from my web-site, and see if the change I've made to the script fixes the problem? This is an important bug to get ironed out, so I appreciate your patience.
Regards, Tim Mc

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides some of the same functionality is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

[TERRIER]

Tim
I'm not cracking up here am I?
But did you post some ammendments to a couple of command lines in one of your previous posts? I can't see them any more, and it doesn't look as if you've edited anything !
Anyway I tried them and they worked, I got a full tour of my 120 asteroids

I've just sent you an e-mail with a couple more thoughts on the script.

Cheers
TERRIER

[TimMc]

The amended commands Terrier refers to above have been included in the current version of the SST script at the link below. It works for all planetary, lunar and asteroid configurations tested so far, but more tweaking will be done in weeks to come to iron out varying fly-by distances for small objects.
Tim Mc

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides some of the same functionality is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

[TimMc]

The latest updates of SolarSystemTour have been posted on my web site, at the links below. Tours now allow small objects to be flown-by close enough for good viewing. The script has tested successfully with binary asteroids. Please read the Readme for a description of known issues, especially with regard to tour speed selection.
Tim Mc
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides the same functionality except for the omission of interactive tour speed selection is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

[TimMc]

The last updates of SolarSystemTour for a while to come have been posted on my web site, available via the links below.
In addition to fixing the fly-by distances notified in the post above, I have made menus display against a black space background for easier reading, started and finished each tour with a nice view of the system centre object, and made proceeding to the next tour dependant upon a user keypress.
The next release will not be for at least another month, and will automatically find planetary systems from which to select tours, thereby not requiring the user to edit the script. It should be a fully interactive script.
As always, please read the Readme for a description of known issues, especially with regard to tour speed selection.
Tim Mc
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_2.zip

A version which provides the same functionality except for the omission of interactive tour speed selection is available for those who only have Celestia 1.3.1:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/timmcmahon/SolarSystemTour_for1_3_1.zip

[don]

Thanks for all your hard work on this script Tim.

[TERRIER]

Tim,
The script is working quite nicely now, and the binary asteroid trouble is now history.

The next release will not be for at least another month, and will automatically find planetary systems from which to select tours, thereby not requiring the user to edit the script. It should be a fully interactive script.

Looking forward to it