New script: a flight over Mars

[don]

EDIT: Un-checked the "Match Full Word" option since YOU DID TELL ME TO CHECK ALL THE BOXES... and I found the entries.

You have a very strange system Bob ! Mine found the entry even with Match Full selected.

Go back into the Registry (you did back it up already, right?) and add quotes on either side of the first C:\Program Files\Celestia\celestia.exe

Then try your double-click on a celx script.

Does it work?

[Bob Hegwood]

Don,

UPDATE: I added the quotes around C:\Prpgram Files\Celestia.exe and my
CELX scripts work from the desktop now. Yer a GENIUS, son.

Thanks, Bob

[ANDREA]

print(string:text[, number:duration[, number:horig, [number:vorig, [number:hoffset, [number:voffset]]]]])

Hi Andrea, Where it says "number:" that means the value to be placed there is a number. Where it says "string:" that means the value to be placed there is quoted text. The text after the colon ":" defines the argument name, for humans only. Square brackets represent optional arguments. Thus a celx print statement is written like this...

Code: Select all

print ("Hello", 3)

Which would print the word Hello and wait 3 seconds. Your print statement would be written like...

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print ("Ed eccoci pronti per partecipare ad un impressionante\nviaggio sul quarto pianeta partendo dal Sole", 5, 0, 0, -5, -5)

Hello Don, the manual's instructions give different information, in my opinion, e.g all those useless and different brackets:
print(text[, number:duration[, number:horig, [number:vorig, [number:hoffset, [number:voffset]]]]])
If it was written in this other way:
print("text", duration, horig, vorig, hoffset, voffset)
probably my message would have not been needed.
I suggest Harald Schmidt to put some examples in his manual, in order to make things easier even for poorly programming oriented people like me (I think that "Braindead" is Bob Hegwood's copyright, so I don't use it, but my programming skill is surely worst than his one)

FEATURES = {
{ 180, 50, 15, 134, 205, 1, },
{print (string:Ed eccoci pronti per partecipare ad un impressionante\n viaggio sul quarto pianeta partendo dal Sole[, number:duration 5[, number:horig 0, [number:vorig 0, [number:hoffset -5, [number:voffset -5]]]]])}

To use Toti's script, you must replace only the numbers and quoted text here. You cannot add a command statement to this section of code.

Can you inform me if the scripts can be positioned at will on the screen, or not?

When using Toti's script, each line of text you replace will be printed in the same position on-screen (lower-left).

I had this doubt, but I don't understand the reason of this.
Can we hope that in the future this function will be implemented, or it's absolutely impossible?

Another need: to stay longer on an object, if the related text is short, can it be made longer adding spaces in the text with spacebar?

At the top of the script, there is a variable called SEC_LETTER. This value defines how many seconds to display each charactere in a string, with an initial value of 0.1. If you want text to remain on-screen for a longer period of time, increase this value (to 0.15 or 0.2?) and test to see what is good for you.

Yes, I already saw and modified the SEC_LETTER variable, but this makes ALL the scripts stay longer on the screen.
No, I was asking for another thing: I don't ask to have the text for a longer time on the screen, I'm asking to look for a longer time the object, even if the text physical length is short.
I mean, if my text is e.g. "...here!" , if I write it in this way "...here! ", does it make me stay and look for a longer time at the relevant object?

Does this help?

Sure, now many things are more clear.
And now I put another question: about the print command, what are the "special characters encoded in UTF-8" and where can I find some information on them?
Thank you very much, Don, you are very kind, as usual.

Andrea

[don]

UPDATE: I added the quotes around C:\Prpgram Files\Celestia.exe and my CELX scripts work from the desktop now.

Very glad you got it working Bob!

[don]

Hi Andrea,

The square brackets represent multiple optional arguments. They are "normal" for programming command syntax descriptions -- which means other programmers understand them.

For a slightly different version of Harald's Lua/Celx guide, go to my web site (link below) and look in the Celx section for the CelxCommands RTF file. Download that and see if it helps.

I had this doubt, but I don't understand the reason of this. ... Can we hope that in the future this function will be implemented, or it's absolutely impossible?

This is just the way Toti wrote the script -- so that it would be usable by folks who do not know how to program in Celx/Lua. ... If you knew how to program in Celx, then you could change the code he wrote and create a different print text location. However, this is a bit of a complex script to "learn" celx with.

No, I was asking for another thing: I don't ask to have the text for a longer time on the screen, I'm asking to look for a longer time the object, even if the text physical length is short.

Did you try adding spaces? Sometimes, experimentation can prove very useful. My guess is that adding spaces would do what you want, for example:

Code: Select all

"Hello                               "

And now I put another question: about the print command, what are the "special characters encoded in UTF-8" and where can I find some information on them?

Hopefully some else can answer this, as I don't know anything about UTF-8 things. Sorry

Cheers,

[danielj]

I saved it in Rich Text Format.The other options was in text,text format,text format DOS or unicode.I would like to know if it works in Wordpad.Doing things in the regedit is too risky.
Anyway,my problem is with this code in special,not celx in general.I will give up for a while

Try this...

Start / Run / enter: regedit / OK

Select File / Export (make a backup)

Enter a filename and location to store the backup registry file.

Highlight "My Computer" at the very top of the left list.

Press ctrl+f.

Enter "celestia script" (no quotes).

Check ALL checkboxes.

Press Enter.

When found, it will be on the left side, at the bottom of the list, named "celestia_script".

Click the "+" symbols until you see "Command" under celestia_script.

Click the Command folder.

Click the single entry (Default) on the rigt pane and select Modify.

Press ctrl+c

Click the Cancel button.

Select File / Exit.

Paste the copied data to a plain text file or directly into a message here.

It *should* look like the following:
"C:\Programs\Celestia\celestia.exe" --once --dir "C:\Programs\Celestia" -u "%1"

The double quotes should be part of the data. The "C:\Programs" part should be the path to YOUR Celestia.

Does your look like this?

[ANDREA]

Hi Andrea, The square brackets represent multiple optional arguments. They are "normal" for programming command syntax descriptions -- which means other programmers understand them.

Hello Don, I understand, but nothing for "non programmers"?
I'll check your CelxCommands RTF file, I'm sure that there I'll find useful information

I had this doubt, but I don't understand the reason of this. ... Can we hope that in the future this function will be implemented, or it's absolutely impossible?

This is just the way Toti wrote the script -- so that it would be usable by folks who do not know how to program in Celx/Lua. ... If you knew how to program in Celx, then you could change the code he wrote and create a different print text location. However, this is a bit of a complex script to "learn" celx with.

Obviously I'm unable to do it, otherwise I would have done, be sure!

I'm asking to look for a longer time the object, even if the text physical length is short.

Did you try adding spaces? Sometimes, experimentation can prove very useful. My guess is that adding spaces would do what you want

Yes, I made some testing, and here are the results:
the use of spacebar in the text, in order to stay for a longer time on the object, works OK!
The use of \n\n after the first """ locates the single line text in a lower position, graphically more comfortable, and a single \n works if the text is on two lines.
Here is an example.
"\n Mars,\n the fourth planet",
"\n\n of the Solar System",The use of spaces after the first """, moves the text horizontally, so it can be placed in the lower center of the screen.
I was hoping that the use of \n AFTER the text could rise the text vertically, but it doesn't work, at least not as in the example:
"\n\n Pavonis,\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"},
Someone (Don, Toti?) has ideas on this?
Moreover, neither the spacebar worksect in the posts, nor the tab. Is it normal, or only my problem?

about the print command, what are the "special characters encoded in UTF-8"?

Hopefully some else can answer this, as I don't know anything about UTF-8 things. Sorry

Thank you anyhow, I hope Harald will explain this.
By

Andrea

[Toti]

Hello Toti, first of all thank you very much for your Tour, it gives a very nice and interesting new way of looking at astronomical objects, and I'm sure that my "clients" will be very happy to see it.

I hope so! Thanks for your comments

I see that Don answered many of your questions. I recommend you his Celx_Commands.rtf document, that you can download from his site. I find this manual very useful and accessible. It includes a very brief introduction to objects, and each method is described with an example (keep in mind that it is a work-in-progress, so it might lack s few)

You can add spaces (as many as you want) at the end of the text. The viewer will stay more time at the current location. (I did this in the original script)
You can also add two points with the same exact coordinates and text. Both hacks give different results.
A piece of advice: don't look at the exact center of the planet: it will confuse Celestia (this is related to the way the camera's Up vector is defined)
For example, adding several entries of this form will result in unpleasant effects:

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        { 120,  30,  5,    120, 30, 1,   "Marte: il Pianeta Rosso." },

That won't happen here:

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        { 120,  30,  5,    121, 30, 1,   "Marte: il Pianeta Rosso." },

The text is always printed at the bottom of the screen. If you want the text to be displayed in other position (let's say in the middle), you only have to replace the line:

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celestia:flash (string.format("%s", FEATURES[math.floor(pos[7])][7]), DELAY)

near the end of the script, by the line:

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celestia:print (string.format("%s", FEATURES[math.floor(pos[7])][7]), DELAY, 0, 0, -20, 0)

(note that we use the print() method now)

If you want to print some lines at the bottom and some at the center, then further coding is needed.

An important thing: in order to modify the tour, you only need to change the FEATURES table:

Code: Select all

FEATURES = {       
{ 180,  50, 15,    134, 205, 1,   "Ed eccoci pronti per partecipare ad un impressionante\n viaggio sul quarto pianeta partendo dal Sole" },
{ 120,  30,  5,    140, 100, 1,   "Marte: il Pianeta Rosso." },
...
...
...
{ 340, 450,  5,    230, 450, 1,   "Il viaggio ? finito." }       
}


The current code only allows you to tour a single celestial body at a time. It is selected by the line:

Code: Select all

BODY      = "Sol/Mars"

So if you want to tour Earth, just change it to

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BODY      = "Sol/Earth"

Expanding the program so it can tour several bodies one after the other is simple, but a few (visual) issues arise.

I saved it in Rich Text Format.The other options was in text,text format,text format DOS or unicode

Sorry for the confusion: it's not MS-Word format as I said, but RTF: it gave me the "{" error. You must save the script as anyname.celx with the text option.

Bye

[don]

Moreover, neither the spacebar worksect in the posts, nor the tab. Is it normal, or only my problem?

Hi Andrea,

This is the way the forum software works. You need to use the Code button (after highlighting the text). Then spaces will appear normally.

Looks like Toti answered your other questions.

Have fun Andrea!

[ANDREA]

I see that Don answered many of your questions. I recommend you his Celx_Commands.rtf document,You can add spaces (as many as you want) at the end of the text. The viewer will stay more time at the current location. (I did this in the original script)
You can also add two points with the same exact coordinates and text. Both hacks give different results.
A piece of advice: don't look at the exact center of the planet: it will confuse Celestia (this is related to the way the camera's Up vector is defined)

Hello Toti, I have given a look at Don's document and, YES, I agree with you, it is very clear and the examples help a lot to understand what to do.
I beg your pardon for my many questions, but I'm deeply involved in Astronomy training of students 10 to 18 years old, in our Frasso Sabino Astronomy Museum, and I find that .celx scripts are extraordinary in order to keep the student's (or visitor's) attention locked on the screen.
For this reason, but I don't know if it's possible, and if the answer is YES I'm anyhow unable to do it myself, I would like to have in .celx tours some capabilities that I find in .cel scripts which, even if exceptionally beautiful, don't have the dinamicity of .celx.

E.g. the text, that I'm used to put in the various zones of the screen, where it can be clearly visible (i.e. where the background is dark, due to the white color of text).

The current code only allows you to tour a single celestial body at a time. It is selected by the line:

Code: Select all

BODY      = "Sol/Mars"

Expanding the program so it can tour several bodies one after the other is simple, but a few (visual) issues arise. Bye

This is another very important improvement that I would like to see in .celx, because in your Mars tour the impossibility to give a look to Phobos and Deimos is a bit frustrating.
It's neither a criticism nor a request, it's only a hope to see it in the future!
I'm trying changes and additions, and doing it I found another problem (probably for me only!):
the text appears ONLY if the Render - View Options - Information Text
is set on "Terse" or "Verbose", while it disappears if "None" is checked.
Another little doubt: you say that the positions must be given in pixel positions, using an image editor.
Well, this should make things different with different size textures, but as I'm using the Mars-Shaded-16K.dds texture, instead of the default one, things work equally well.
Perhaps the program uses a proportional change, depending on the texture dimensions (i.e. if the original program is defaulted for a 2kx1k texture, when it finds a texture 8 times bigger it multiplies the x-y values for the same amount (8x)?
I'm curious on the matter.

By and thank you again

Andrea

[ANDREA]

Moreover, neither the spacebar worksect in the posts, nor the tab. Is it normal, or only my problem?

Hi Andrea, This is the way the forum software works. You need to use the Code button (after highlighting the text). Then spaces will appear normally. Have fun Andrea!

Hello Don, I missed at all this information, though it was in front of me.
Thank you.
And yes, I'm having a lot of fun with .celx scripts, many thanks to all the people involved on the matter, Toti, Harald, and obviously you.
I enjoyed reading your Celx_Commands.rtf, it's very clear.
By

Andrea

[Toti]

I'm trying changes and additions, and doing it I found another problem (probably for me only!):
the text appears ONLY if the Render - View Options - Information Text
is set on "Terse" or "Verbose", while it disappears if "None" is checked.

Mr. Hegwood already commented on this. To correct it, just change the flash() method with print() as described in my previous post. (Sorry, I was not aware of this difference in behaviour)

Another little doubt: you say that the positions must be given in pixel positions, using an image editor.
Well, this should make things different with different size textures, but as I'm using the Mars-Shaded-16K.dds texture, instead of the default one, things work equally well.
Perhaps the program uses a proportional change, depending on the texture dimensions (i.e. if the original program is defaulted for a 2kx1k texture, when it finds a texture 8 times bigger it multiplies the x-y values for the same amount (8x)?
I'm curious on the matter.

When declaring your tour path you need to specify the size of the texture that you are using as a template.
Example: I defined my tour points using default Mars.jpg located in the \medres folder. It's a 1024*512 map.
The lines:

Code: Select all

IM_WIDTH   = 1024               -- texture dimensions used as input for the Control Points
IM_HEIGHT   = 512

at the beginning inform the script of this texture's dimensions.
But I don't use such a low resolution image when I run Celestia. Instead I use a 8K VT. This doesn't bring any problem, since all positions have already been converted to planetographic rectangular coordinates, that don't depend on Celestia's texture mapping.
So there is no need for any proportional factor, etc. All this is done by the buildControlPoints() function

The current code only allows you to tour a single celestial body at a time. It is selected by the line:

Code: Select all

BODY      = "Sol/Mars"

Expanding the program so it can tour several bodies one after the other is simple, but a few (visual) issues arise. Bye

This is another very important improvement that I would like to see in .celx, because in your Mars tour the impossibility to give a look to Phobos and Deimos is a bit frustrating.
It's neither a criticism nor a request, it's only a hope to see it in the future!

I agree. I will add this functionality. Unfortunately I am quite short of time now

Bye

[ANDREA]

I'm trying changes and additions, and doing it I found another problem (probably for me only!):
the text appears ONLY if the Render - View Options - Information Text
is set on "Terse" or "Verbose", while it disappears if "None" is checked.

Mr. Hegwood already commented on this. To correct it, just change the flash() method with print() as described in my previous post. (Sorry, I was not aware of this difference in behaviour)

Another little doubt: you say that the positions must be given in pixel positions, using an image editor.
Well, this should make things different with different size textures, but as I'm using the Mars-Shaded-16K.dds texture, instead of the default one, things work equally well.
Perhaps the program uses a proportional change, depending on the texture dimensions (i.e. if the original program is defaulted for a 2kx1k texture, when it finds a texture 8 times bigger it multiplies the x-y values for the same amount (8x)?
I'm curious on the matter.

When declaring your tour path you need to specify the size of the texture that you are using as a template.
Example: I defined my tour points using default Mars.jpg located in the \medres folder. It's a 1024*512 map.
The lines:

Code: Select all

IM_WIDTH   = 1024               -- texture dimensions used as input for the Control Points
IM_HEIGHT   = 512

at the beginning inform the script of this texture's dimensions.
But I don't use such a low resolution image when I run Celestia. Instead I use a 8K VT. This doesn't bring any problem, since all positions have already been converted to planetographic rectangular coordinates, that don't depend on Celestia's texture mapping.
So there is no need for any proportional factor, etc. All this is done by the buildControlPoints() function

The current code only allows you to tour a single celestial body at a time. It is selected by the line:

Code: Select all

BODY      = "Sol/Mars"

Expanding the program so it can tour several bodies one after the other is simple, but a few (visual) issues arise. Bye

This is another very important improvement that I would like to see in .celx, because in your Mars tour the impossibility to give a look to Phobos and Deimos is a bit frustrating.
It's neither a criticism nor a request, it's only a hope to see it in the future!

I agree. I will add this functionality. Unfortunately I am quite short of time now
Bye

Toti, as they say in Naples (Italy) "you are a bab?" (the bab? is a tasteful and very good Italian cake), and this means that you are a very good man.
Thank you very much, both for clarification and for the announce of the future availability of multiple obiects tours.
Very very nice indeed!
Take your time, we are not in a hurry, it's only a joke, isn't it?
By

Andrea

[Guest]

And now I put another question: about the print command, what are the "special characters encoded in UTF-8" and where can I find some information on them?

The "special characters" are characters not available in pure ASCII text, like accented or greek characters. There are many different ways to encode such characters, and Celestia uses the "UTF-8" encoding (but not all possible characters can be displayed).

If you are using non-standard characters, use a text-editor which supports saving as UTF-8 (and use this feature), and everything should work fine.

Harald

[ANDREA]

And now I put another question: about the print command, what are the "special characters encoded in UTF-8" and where can I find some information on them?

If you are using non-standard characters, use a text-editor which supports saving as UTF-8 (and use this feature), and everything should work fine. Harald

Hello Harald, can you please give me the name of sone of these softwares, or give me the UTF-8 files extension?
I have some "not-MS" text editors, but I need to know the extension.
Thank you very much.
By

Andrea

[Harry]

Hello Harald, can you please give me the name of sone of these softwares, or give me the UTF-8 files extension?
I have some "not-MS" text editors, but I need to know the extension.
Thank you very much.

The file-extension doesn't have anything to do with the encoding. I can't check this, but maybe even the good old notepad has UTF-8 support (I think you can save files as "unicode", this may be UTF-8 ). I know for sure that jedit has UTF-8 support, but it's probably overkill to install it just for UTF-8. Other editors should have it too, I just can't check and tell you how you can activate it. Hopefully a windows user can comment on this.
Harald

[don]

Hello Harald, can you please give me the name of sone of these softwares, or give me the UTF-8 files extension?

Windows notepad and wordpad both can save as UTF-8 or Unicode. UTF stands for Unicode Transformation Format or something similar. When you select File / Save As, pick the proper encoding format in the Save as Type or Encoding section.

Hope this helps.

[ANDREA]

Hello Harald, can you please give me the name of sone of these softwares, or give me the UTF-8 files extension? Andrea

The file-extension doesn't have anything to do with the encoding. I can't check this, but maybe even the good old notepad has UTF-8 support (I think you can save files as "unicode", this may be UTF-8 ). Hopefully a windows user can comment on this. Harald

Windows notepad and wordpad both can save as UTF-8 or Unicode. UTF stands for Unicode Transformation Format or something similar. When you select File / Save As, pick the proper encoding format in the Save as Type or Encoding section. Hope this helps.

Hello Harald and Don, you are both right.
The Notepad HAS the UTF-8 savings option, but my problem is that I searched in the "Save as" box only, and not in the "Encoding box", where this option is.
Thanks a lot, again and again.
By

Andrea

[danielj]

Why no one answer my last post?I saved the script in RFT and it still don?t work.When I click the script,a message appeared like "...unexpected symbol near {?"
What can I do?

[chris]

Why no one answer my last post?I saved the script in RFT and it still don?t work.When I click the script,a message appeared like "...unexpected symbol near {?"
What can I do?

Try downloading it here:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~claurel/celest ... light.celx

If that doesn't work, just give up . . .

--Chris