Greetings all.
I am in need of some programming help.!
We all know how fantastic Celestia is and each of us has their own list of wants and needs but I have one that will help not just this community but a broader community, visitors to planetaria worldwide. Currently we have, at least that I am aware of, a method of generating properly distorted images for spherical projection beyond 120 degrees. Since most full dome projection systems in planetaria are 140 degrees and better, the 120 degree limit prevents use of Celestia in what should be a natural, fully immersive dome spaces.
Now some great work has been done in Brazil on enabling Celestia to be run on multiple projector systems for caves or domes like the Hayden or Denver, ones that have many projectors but to date there is no way to use Celestia with a single projector using a fisheye lens configuration. Several projects I am currently working on have such a need. Unfortunately I am no programmer thus lacking the skills to make this happen. I have however, found an API that will allow this to work. The SPI api developed by Elumens, enables realtime applications like Celestia to be projected, without distortion, into a dome. The SPI API is free and can be plumed into Celestia, I just don’t have the skill.
Anyone out there willing to tackle this? I can provide documentation, software, support and Elumens Director of Technology will happily assist as well. He feels it is best for someone, (Chris is the most likely candidate but he is busy I am assuming) whom already knows the software and how it works to get the job done. In his experience he feels that the task should take the better part of a day (with his help) but no more, providing the developer has the “inside” knowledge of the software. Getting this done would be, I believe, really big for Celestia, giving it a path into Planetariums worldwide.
Anyone up for a crack at this?