New Celestia-1.4.0pre-FT1 (galaxies) for Testing

[symaski62]

Code: Select all

# Milky Way
Galaxy "Milky Way"
{
        Type  "SBc"  => image   :/
        RA           17.7500
        Dec         -28.9300
        Distance   2.772e+04
        Radius         5e+04
        AbsMag         -20.5
        Axis    [  0.8660   0.4910   0.0910]
        Angle    176.0000
}

_____________________________________________

version 1.4 => CVS celestia
||
\/

Code: Select all

Galaxy "Milky Way"
{
        Type "SBa"
        RA 17.75
        Dec -28.93
        Distance 28000
        Radius 50000
        Axis [ 0.866 0.491 0.091 ]
        Angle 176
}

zut ! t00fri SBc ou SBa

[t00fri]

Code: Select all

# Milky Way
Galaxy "Milky Way"
{
        Type  "SBc"  => image   :/
        RA           17.7500
        Dec         -28.9300
        Distance   2.772e+04
        Radius         5e+04
        AbsMag         -20.5
        Axis    [  0.8660   0.4910   0.0910]
        Angle    176.0000
}

_____________________________________________

version 1.4 => CVS celestia
||
\/

Code: Select all

Galaxy "Milky Way"
{
        Type "SBa"
        RA 17.75
        Dec -28.93
        Distance 28000
        Radius 50000
        Axis [ 0.866 0.491 0.091 ]
        Angle 176
}

zut ! t00fri SBc ou SBa

The Milky Way is acording to the most reliable recent information a SBc barred spiral. That's why I changed it in my update of deepsky.dsc relative to CVS. The information comes both from Sptzer and from 2Mass etc...

But this change does not at all solve the /Windows/ problem that the MilkyWay remains invisible from Earth. As soon as one is outside the MilkyWay it is nicely rendered (as in your image).

Bye Fridger

[rthorvald]

Fridger and Toti: thanks a lot for sharing your great work, and deciding to do so before hearing from Chris (I assume)! I hope he will be pleased with the progress too. The galaxies look awesome!

I??ll just have to say the same; the screenshots look marvelous, can??t wait to explore this myself...

- rthorvald

[selden]

Fridger,

Unfortunately, when I copy Windows Celestia.exe (built from CVS just now) into the directory where FT1 works, I can't get it to display any Spiral galaxies at all, only Ellipticals.



Celestia-cvs is on the left. Celestia-ft1 is on the right.
Both are looking at M31, both run from the same directory.

*sigh*

[abramson]

Hi all,

I came home and tested the FT1 release again. The setup is very similar to the one at work, where I tested this morning:

celestia 1.4.0 pre6
celestia 1.4.0 preFT1
1GB P4, XP Home SP2, GeForce FX 5200 128MB (PCI), v77.77

Three observations:

1. I have been flying around the Local Group and other places, and I am again impressed by Toti's and Fridger's work.

2. The Ctrl-V crash is exactly as in my other machine.

3. I don't see galaxy labels, neither by pressing E nor by activating them through the menus. I do see them in pre6.

Now I leave, I have to eat some "asado."

Cheers,

Guillermo

[danielj]

Which folder of cvs I have to look for to find a compiler?

[BrainDead]

I??m no programmer and while in cvs,can??t find where can I get a Celestia compiler.Why didn??t you tell that this test version was exclusively to programmers and not to general users?Now I have to reinstall the program.

Uh, excuse me, but do the words "Test Version" mean nothing to you?

Oh brother... I thought *I* was Brain-Dead.

[t00fri]

Fridger,

Unfortunately, when I copy Windows Celestia.exe (built from CVS just now) into the directory where FT1 works, I can't get it to display any Spiral galaxies at all, only Ellipticals.



Celestia-cvs is on the left. Celestia-ft1 is on the right.
Both are looking at M31, both run from the same directory.

*sigh*

Selden,

that is easy: The CVS version wants to see the templates in the Celestia-root directory while FT1 has them all placed in the 'models' dir. So all you got to do is copy your *.pts files in 'models' one level up

It's also easy to understand, why CVS shows only ellipticals: these are generated inline in CVS (unlike FT1, where a pancake shaped S0 template is rescaled to become a shperical E0 to save space)

Could you repeat once again clearly whether you get that CTRL-v crash already in the CVS version???

[selden]

For those who'd like to play with the CVS version of Celestia.exe for Windows, it's now available in

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/selden/celestia_wincvs_20aug05.zip

This zip file contains only celestia.exe. It is *not* a full installation kit. If you have FT1 working, you can put this executable in that same directory. Be sure to give it a different name, though, so it doesn't overwrite whatever celestia.exe you have now.

Although this particular copy was built on August 20, it produces exactly the same results as an executable that was built today.

It was built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 under Windows XP Pro, SP2, and using Chris' makerelease.bat compilation script.

[fsgregs]

Fridger and Toti:

Thank you for releasing the new changes as a beta test. We are all very grateful.

I can confirm the Celestia crash and failure to see the Milky Way from inside. I have an Win XP machine with a new GeForce 6600 GT Nvidia card.

The crash is not due to your latest changes. I reported the problem using a Windows build of the cvs on a separate thread on August 24. See here:
http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7857

Cycling through Ctrl + V when viewing Earth or Mars causes the crash.

Assuming the cause can be figured out and fixed soon, the other major issue for me is the inactivation of dsc objects in the extras folder. I use extensive add-ons in my educational work and cannot afford to lose all nebula and dsc objects. Do you anticipate how long it might take to re-activate dsc objects in the new code?

Frank

[selden]

Fridger,

Yes, Celestia built from CVS crashes when looking at the Earth and a Ctrl-V is typed so that it tries to use Render Path "Nvidia GeForce FX". Render Path "OpenGL 2.0" seems to be OK. As I recall, Chris was planning to eliminate the FX render path, anyhow.

Thanks for reminding me of where the pts files need to be!

Here's what the Milky Way looks like with the CVS version of Celestia:


It's rather ugly

[t00fri]

Which folder of cvs I have to look for to find a compiler?

Daniel,

a compiler is a software package that generates the executable program (celestia.exe) from many so-called source files that are human readable and written in a certain programming language. In our case this language is called C++.

The executable program is NOT human readable anymore but by the computer, instead.

You will not find this compiler in CVS, which only hosts the source files. The compiler has to be bought in case of Windows and is quite expensive. It's called VC++.net. In case of Linux it is part of the standard software equipment and free of charge. Here it's called gcc (or specifically g++) That's why many more Linux users know how to compile a program.

Bye Fridger

[t00fri]

Fridger,

Yes, Celestia built from CVS crashes when looking at the Earth and a Ctrl-V is typed so that it tries to use Render Path "Nvidia GeForce FX". Render Path "OpenGL 2.0" seems to be OK. As I recall, Chris was planning to eliminate the FX render path, anyhow.

Thanks for reminding me of where the pts files need to be!

Here's what the Milky Way looks like with the CVS version of Celestia:


It's rather ugly

Thanks for your CVS program. I agree with your findings! Actually it turned out my earlier own CVS compilation also had the MilkyWay rendered, but in this general hurry, and given the dimness of its display, I am ashamed to say that I overlooked it

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
So now it seems finally that we have to look in FT1 what went wrong. At least we came this far tonight...

So we know now also that the CTRL-V crash is NOT our glass of beer (for now at least )
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bye Fridger

[t00fri]

3. I don't see galaxy labels, neither by pressing E nor by activating them through the menus. I do see them in pre6.

This is Note2 in our introductory text at the beginning of this thread. Will be restored ASAP.

The CTRL-V was NOT from us but a leftover bug in the CVS from which we started. This has now been cleared up (see posts above)

We are working on the fixes....

Cheers,
Bye Fridger

[BrainDead]

Doctor Schrempp,

Just to show you why MY PC might be an exception to the rules, I can
happily switch between render paths using CTRL-V with absolutely NO
problems whatsoever while viewing Earth or Mars on my machine. Of
course, I only have BASIC and MULTI-TEXTURE to choose from too.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks again for the superb views of the galaxies too. These views are
simply incredible - even on MY machine.

[Toti]

3. I don't see galaxy labels, neither by pressing E nor by activating them through the menus. I do see them in pre6.

Deep sky object labels aren't enabled in this version. There's still some fairly significant work to do in this front.

I can confirm the Celestia crash and failure to see the Milky Way from inside. I have an Win XP machine with a new GeForce 6600 GT Nvidia card.

The crash is not due to your latest changes. I reported the problem using a Windows build of the cvs on a separate thread on August 24. See here:
http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7857

Cycling through Ctrl + V when viewing Earth or Mars causes the crash.

Well, that settles the issue.

Assuming the cause can be figured out and fixed soon, the other major issue for me is the inactivation of dsc objects in the extras folder. I use extensive add-ons in my educational work and cannot afford to lose all nebula and dsc objects. Do you anticipate how long it might take to re-activate dsc objects in the new code?

I'll fix those ASAP.

Bye

[selden]

The compiler has to be bought in case of Windows and is quite expensive.

Fortunately for some, this is not entirely correct. A free version of the compiler is available, but quite a lot of work needs to be done to make it work. The details are in the thread in the Celestia Development Forum at Sticky: Free Windows-based compiling for Celestia.

[t00fri]

Doctor Schrempp,

Just to show you why MY PC might be an exception to the rules, I can
happily switch between render paths using CTRL-V with absolutely NO
problems whatsoever while viewing Earth or Mars on my machine. Of
course, I only have BASIC and MULTI-TEXTURE to choose from too.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks again for the superb views of the galaxies too. These views are
simply incredible - even on MY machine.

Many thanks Bob!

but it's even more strange, since I, too, cannot provoke that crash. And I tried with my notebock (that also has only 2) and with my high-tech card that has ALL render paths. NO CRASH.

One idea that came to my mind: do the people who get the crashes perhaps have add-ons in extras? I dont have ANY...

Cheers,
Fridger

Bob did your problem with FireFox go away?

[t00fri]

The compiler has to be bought in case of Windows and is quite expensive.

Fortunately for some, this is not entirely correct. A free version of the compiler is available, but quite a lot of work needs to be done to make it work. The details are in the thread in the Celestia Development Forum at Sticky: Free Windows-based compiling for Celestia.

I certainly know, Selden, but I wanted to make it sufficiently simple for once

[BrainDead]

One idea that came to my mind: do the people who get the crashes perhaps have add-ons in extras? I dont have ANY...

I have a whole boat-load of add-ons, and once again I say "No Crashes"
due to CTRL-V using the TEST version.

Bob did your problem with FireFox go away?

Strangely, my FireFox problem just did go away... I tried to visit a
URL after I installed Grant's/Pascal's new 2 million stars database, and lo...

It works! Can't imagine why it works now, but indeed it does. In fact, I'm
busily adding/modifying InfoURL statements to all of my spacecraft.

Thanks for making me look at it again. I suppose I could simply have
not waited long enough the first time I tried it, but it's working just
fine now.

Thanks again.