Celestia .CEL Scripting Guide for Celestia 1.3.1+

[don]

Howdy Everyone,

An updated version (1.0g) of the Celestia .CEL Scripting Guide is now available from my Celestia web page: http://www.donandcarla.com/Celestia/, in .doc, .html, and .rtf file formats.

Please post your comments, suggestions, additions, corrections, etc.!!!

Thank you, and HAPPY SCRIPTING!

-Don G.

PS. If someone wants to convert it to PDF, and make sure that all the cel://URLs and hyperlinks still work, I'd be happy to host it on my web page.

[Bob Hegwood]

Hey Don...

Thanks very much for the update to my Bible.

Only thing I would mention is that some explanation of the gotolonglat command
might be in order when used to display locations on planets or objects which
feature a retrograde rotation. You already know about this, but I discovered
it on my own, and it might be very confusing to someone not familiar with Celestia's
peculiarities.

Just a thought my friend... How are the fingers today?

Take care, Bob

[Oni2501]

Thanks for the update Don! I'm still way behind in my scripting knowledge and it's so good to know I have a guide

I watched your short movies and decided to make a couple of my own. The first one was done on the old HP 650 Mhz pc with a TNT graphics card and Celestia version 1.3.0 (I think). Recently made another using a 3.2 Ghz HP with GeForce 5700 graphics card, Celestia version 1.3.2 pre 7 and better add-ons. So much better! I captured both at 720x480 NTSC DVD quality and then pulled the clips into Pinnacle Studio 8 and edited them to music. They are both on a dvd now that I show to friends and I do get some ooh's and ahh's as feedback Unfortunately the files are much too large to post and I have no website that would hold them anyway, but if you're interested in seeing them I'll be happy to make you a dvd and mail it your way. I could also make reduced 320x240 versions, but the details are lost at that res and even then the files are still well into the 3 digit megabyte range. It would take me days to upload it with my slow dial-up If you're interested in a dvd just say so here and I'll get back in touch.

[don]

Thanks very much for the update to my Bible.

You're quite welcome Bob!

Only thing I would mention is that some explanation of the gotolonglat command might be in order when used to display locations on planets or objects which feature a retrograde rotation.

Very good idea, Sir Hegwood. Would you mind sending me a PM or e-mail describing what you did to counteract this odd behavior? That is, aside from pulling hair out.

How are the fingers today?

Sore, but usable. Some days are better than others.

Cheers,

[don]

Thanks for the update Don!

You're very welcome.

I'm still way behind in my scripting knowledge and it's so good to know I have a guide

A new command a day keeps the boredom away.
I've seen and enjoyed your scripts of Transit cel:// URLs in another thread. Keep it up and you'll be an expert in no time! We should probably copy the latest transit cel:// URLs to the sticky thread in this forum.

I watched your short movies and decided to make a couple of my own.

Cool! For posting video files on the web ... There are some good, free encoders available out there, that can reduce an AVI file to a fraction of it's original size.

One is from Microsoft (Windows Media Encoder 9), which creates .wmv files. Doesn't Studio have a built-in encoder for QuickTime (.mov)? These seem to be the most popular video formats for the web (aside from DivX).

If you encode at a high enough bit rate, a 320x240 image can be enlarged by the end-user (click-drag the display window) and still have decent quality. It *can* be a pain to balance quality and file size and usually requires a lot of experimenting because it depends a lot on the video content.

Cheers,

[Bob Hegwood]

Very good idea, Sir Hegwood. Would you mind sending me a PM or e-mail describing what you did to counteract this odd behavior? That is, aside from pulling hair out.

Sir Goyette,

Methinks also that perhaps one of the *educated* Celestia Elite might have
a better description of the complications caused by a retrograde object. I will
certainly *try* to explain it to you, but Mr. Hutchison had the best explanation
for me when I asked about the complications. Perhaps he could re-iterate the
explanation here if we asked him nicely?

Take care, Bob

[ANDREA]

Howdy Everyone, An updated version (1.0g) of the Celestia .CEL Scripting Guide is now available from my Celestia web page: http://www.donandcarla.com/Celestia/, in .doc, .html, and .rtf file formats. Please post your comments, suggestions, additions, corrections, etc.!!!Thank you, and HAPPY SCRIPTING!
Don G.

Don, first of all thank you again for your precious and appreciated guide.
And in order to make it even more useful, could you mark in any way the MODIFIED wording (BOLD+ITALIC+underline, or a side black line, e.g.), in order to give immediate evidence of the changes from the previous version?
This could be useful and less time consuming, IMO (please remember that in Celestia forum there are a lot of non-English speaking people, like me, and that reading ALL the guide is truly a fatigue, while probably all the changes are in a few pages only).
Thank you anyhow

Andrea

[ANDREA]

Don, ..... in order to make it even more useful, could you mark in any way the MODIFIED wording (BOLD+ITALIC+underline, or a side black line, e.g.), in order to give immediate evidence of the changes from the previous version?
Andrea

Sorry Don, I just arrived to page 52, where is clearly shown what has been changed.
Forget about my previous script.
By and thank you again

Andrea

[Bob Hegwood]

Would you mind sending me a PM or e-mail describing what you did to counteract this odd behavior? That is, aside from pulling hair out.

Don,

I can do better than that... Go to THIS thread and read it from the
beginning. Will make more sense than my explanation would.

As to how I handled the problem, I simply turned the universe upside-down
at the begiining of the script, so that we could approach Venus using the gotolonglat
command to get to its dark side. Then, I rotated the planet from North to South
in order to view the daylight side which would *now* be rotating in the correct
direction. Lost yet? If you simply use gotolonglat to get to the daylight
side directly, then the planet is rotating in the wrond direction, AND you're looking
at it upside-down. See what fun this is?

Take care, Bob

[don]

Sorry Don, I just arrived to page 52,

No need to be sorry. I thought of your idea too, thus the section at the end of the guide. However, there are a couple of changes that are not in that section, and I can't remember what the specific changes were. So now, I am sorry.

[don]

Go to THIS thread and read it from the
beginning. ... As to how I handled the problem, ...

Thank you very much Bob!

[Oni2501]

Cool! For posting video files on the web ... There are some good, free encoders available out there, that can reduce an AVI file to a fraction of it's original size.

One is from Microsoft (Windows Media Encoder 9), which creates .wmv files. Doesn't Studio have a built-in encoder for QuickTime (.mov)? These seem to be the most popular video formats for the web (aside from DivX).

If you encode at a high enough bit rate, a 320x240 image can be enlarged by the end-user (click-drag the display window) and still have decent quality. It *can* be a pain to balance quality and file size and usually requires a lot of experimenting because it depends a lot on the video content.

Hey Don

Thanks for the info and sorry for the late reply. Had a lot of yard work and a Nephew to take care of over the weekend I don't have Windows Media Encoder 9 (yet) and my version of Studio doesn't have QuickTime options. I do however have DivX so I'll play around with that and see if I can make something that's both small in file size while keeping the quality level and resolution. If I can get them small enough I may be able to find a site that will host them at least long enough for others to download. Will keep ya posted on my progress.

I'm holding off on updating the Transits script to see what other cel url's they post in that thread. Then I can copy it over here.

[don]

Hi Oni2501,

Sounds like you had a fun weekend!

Depending on the size of the file, I can probably host it for you on my site for a while.

Looking forward to seeing it!

Cheers,