Mira

[buggs_moran]

Well, I've been working on this for some time now and I know it still needs a ton more, but I figured I'd post a pic of what I have so far. What you are seeing is Mira (Omicron Ceti) a red giant and its companion Mira B (VZ Ceti) a white dwarf with an accretion disk. I hope to finish it for release in mid to late October.

[ElChristou]

Hehe... this remind me something

Seems cool buggs, want to see the final result...

[Cham]

Very nice, buggs_moran. Please, sends more pictures of this, more close-ups !

In my opinion, the staar's atmosphere is much tooo yellow. It should be red.

[buggs_moran]

Very nice, buggs_moran. Please, sends more pictures of this, more close-ups !

In my opinion, the staar's atmosphere is much tooo yellow. It should be red.

I will soon, I know the atmosphere is too yellow. It is still early in design (the close ups need LOTS of work) and Runar was kind enough to let me use his textures from his sun addon. His original atmosphere is still on the star.

Still have lots to do...

[Dollan]

VERY nice...

Any idea of how big the file will be? Not that something big and un-runable (by my system) would keep me from downloading and saving it for later!

...John...

[buggs_moran]

Spent far too much time on this tonite, made some headway. Disk is better, still some seams. Really want to work on transfer stream more.

[NoXion]

That looks awesome. I wonder how well it will mesh together with the Mira planets addon? Might have to tweak it a bit but it could turn out interesting.

[Malenfant]

I missed this first time around, it looks awesome! Are you still making this, buggs?

[buggs_moran]

Yes and no, I got so frustrated at the gas bridge that I started to redesign. I am trying my best to stay true to the astronomical data, but linking the main star to the binary and the gas disk is a, well, it's a pain in the you know where. I got rid of eccentricity (.16) but that did not solve the bridge going above and below the star. Damn 3 dimensional orbital mechanics. I am shooting for November now, but I will not be able to be true to the orbital parameters the way I wanted. Two things are really lacking, one, motion in the gas bridge, and two the bridge maintaining a connection to Mira and VZ Ceti (the white dwarf). My main and bigger problem is concurrent projects. I am working on an active galaxy core, mira and beta pictoris all at once... Silly.

[NoXion]

What's wrong with what you've got now? I realise you might want to iron out a few kinks, but unless I'm mistaken I see a good addon ready for release right in front of me

[buggs_moran]

Well, I am trying to maintain some semblence of reality with orbital/rotational speeds, orientation, etc. I did quite a bit of research to get the data. (i.e. Mira's companion orbital parameters) and come to a happy medium. Once it was all together it looked pretty, but let time pass and things start to fall apart. So I am working with it.

[Cham]

I already tried to do what buggs_moran is trying to do. It's VERY hard (probably impossible) to do it right, unfortunately, with the current version of Celestia. I already made a black hole and a star orbiting each other, and tried to make a bridge between them. Well, it seems to be impossible (I never found a way, with the current version of Celestia). First : the bridge will look static and very artificial once live in Celestia. Second : there's a clipping problem on the star's surface : the bridge appears to blink in an annoying way. Third : the bridge model looks like a simple curved sheet and there's no volumetric effect. This is not a real problem for an accretion disk, but it's a real problem for a thick bridge. It will look very artificial and unconvincing. I've tried various 3D tricks and several transparent layers, like an onion, but the sorting depth problem (with transparent layers) is kicking in. And too much curved layers will slow down Celestia and reduce the FPS, which isn't good for that kind of addon. Too few polygons isn't good too, because of all the curved surfaces which needs to feel natural.

[NoXion]

It's a terrible shame that getting it right is such a hard task

Nevertheless, I hope it's completed soon. It looks very good.

[buggs_moran]

First : the bridge will look static and very artificial once live in Celestia.

Exactly. There is no linear (well not exactly linear) repetitious motion in celestia other than to give numerous xyz files with start and stop dates. The only thing I could conceive of is a static system, but the motion of VZ Ceti around variable (another really cool possibility for Celestia) Mira is what causes the system to look the way it does...but I haven't given up yet. Just need to dig deeper in my bag of tricks. My inexperience (this is only my second model) with 3d and textures (long learning curve) isn't helping.

[Cham]

We need periodic motion, defined with some XYZ file. And blurry models.

[Tech Sgt. Chen]

That is an AWESOME model! I've been patiently waiting for a download. Couldn't you just give the two stars fixed positions and work the accretion bridge between them? Knowing the limitations for Celestia here, I think everyone will understand. You have to find a workable medium. This is just, too good to let go of.

[buggs_moran]

Thanks for your shout of support Chen. I will try to release a static (with disk movement) model within a week or two...

[buggs_moran]

Hey all. I've posted my beta work on Mira. http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8580&highlight= I hope that the lack of replies was due to the proximity of the release to Christmas. Hopefully posting here will hit all of you that were watching this topic.

Buggs