This is an interesting concept. I have actually explored and tried something similar with MEL scripts in Maya but got busy and frustrated with working out the c, the language used in the sim I was working with. Again I am only an artist, not a computer scientist!
Toti wrote: you could write scripts to import Celestia's ssc files into Blender and (via VSOP 87 routines, etc.) automatically keyframe the objects they describe, in order to match Celestia bodies' trajectories.
Ok, so to help my feeble mind first what are VSOP 87 routines"? I am not enough of an expert on Celestia yet but is it really the ssc file that you would use to bring all the Celestia content (3d and otherwise) into Blender? I could use a little more of an explination (with respect).
I want to run everything in realtime. Audiences are stunned when they think their watching a typical CG film and you inturupt the motion and fly at will. I also want to avoid the cost of using a VDDR and keep everything on a single box.Toti wrote: Once done, you could save the scene (in Blender's own format) and work with it like any usual animation, doing wireframe or GL-shaded, real-time previsualizations.
Toti wrote: Once finished, your spline points could be exported (again, Phyton) to Celestia for final use.
That's the idea...
Is this something you have considered previously or a new idea. If so or if you have some experience with such a concept I would love to explore the idea in more depth with you. I am with immediate need to get this "editing" interface, however it gets done, completed very, very soon.
Toti wrote: No, the spline doesn't get drawn.
Could it?
Toti wrote: Now you have your first bspline "datum". You are near crater1, at 3 times the planet's radius, looking at crater1.
You can repeat the process for other surface features. (It is fast)
Finally, the spline routines will create a soft trajectory between them. You can run the script to check the results, then you can tweak the points to improve the movements. There is little "interactive editing", as you see
So you are generating the data already. Would it be hard to writ a routine that outputs this to a file to be used in Blender. Seems these coordinates once initially captured could be used in many ways.