64K/128K Blue Marble Next Generation VT PNG !

[Chuft-Captain]

Hello Jestr and Fightspit, thanks a lot for your help.
But I have a doubt still alive: I don't find where to put the NON-VT files like Don's land_ocean_ice_lights_aurora_8k.dds
that I've converted to .png.
After modifying the solarsys.ssc file, I put it in the medres folder in the Celestia main root, but I don't see it.
The same happens putting it in the addons texture directory.
Where am I making mistakes?
Thank you.
Bye

Andrea

Andrea,

As it's Oscar time, I am giving out awards. You have been crowned King Smiley
for your use of 6 emoticons in a single post.

[Fightspit]

Hi all

For people who haven't got a very fast computer,

T00fri has found a solution to improve the performance in Celestia with the 128K Blue Marble Next Generation using a script.

Please go here:

http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9018

[ANDREA]

Hello Jestr and Fightspit, thanks a lot for your help.
But I have a doubt still alive: I don't find where to put the NON-VT files like Don's land_ocean_ice_lights_aurora_8k.dds
that I've converted to .png.
After modifying the solarsys.ssc file, I put it in the medres folder in the Celestia main root, but I don't see it.
The same happens putting it in the addons texture directory.
Where am I making mistakes?
Thank you.
Bye Andrea

Andrea, As it's Oscar time, I am giving out awards. You have been crowned King Smiley
for your use of 6 emoticons in a single post.

Hello Chuft-Captain, thank you for your Smyley's Oscar assignment.
But, seriously speaking, I'm neither English nor American, so I need that my feeling and the sense of what I'm writing be absolutely unquestionable, and IMHO emoticons give a big help.
I have seen many rough and useless opinion exchanges in this list, mostly due to missing emoticons, so the intentions of the writer were at all misunderstood by the counterpart.
FYI.
Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!
BTW, besides counting emoticons in my messages, have you got any idea that can help me to solve the problem that's given on top?
Bye

Andrea

[selden]

Andrea,

"It works fine for me!"
It's a hires night texture so I installed the texture differently. There's no need to edit solarsys.ssc.

1. extract the .dds file into \textures\hires\
2. rename land_ocean_ice_lights_aurora_8k.dds to be earthnight.dds
3. run Celestia
4. make sure "Night Side Lights" is checked
5. Rotate Earth so you can see the night side
6. Type Ctrl-V so you are using Render Path Multitexture or better (Basic cannot show nightlights.)
7. type an R (capital-R) several times until you see High Res Textures (or the equivalent) flash on the screen
8. admire the view

[Chuft-Captain]

Hello Chuft-Captain, thank you for your Smyley's Oscar assignment.
But, seriously speaking, I'm neither English nor American, so I need that my feeling and the sense of what I'm writing be absolutely unquestionable, and IMHO emoticons give a big help.
I have seen many rough and useless opinion exchanges in this list, mostly due to missing emoticons, so the intentions of the writer were at all misunderstood by the counterpart.

This is the problem with forums and emails in general, but I do agree with you that emoticons help. The trouble also, is that the english language can be very ambiguous if it's not your first language (or even if it is!!) because the same word can mean completely different things depending on context. (or can be interpreted differently by different personalities)
I think however that your english is very good, and I hope you enjoyed my little joke, and didn't interpret it as criticism. I did use a

FYI.
Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!

?????

BTW, besides counting emoticons in my messages, have you got any idea that can help me to solve the problem that's given on top?

Wish I could help, but firstly: I haven't got a machine that's even capable of displaying the hires textures, and secondly: I don't really know enough about textures to help (which is why I'm watching this thread --- hoping to learn something from the experts for the day when I've got a better machine)

Anyway, looks like you've got the ultimate expert Selden's help now so that should solve your problems.

[ANDREA]

Andrea,

"It works fine for me!"
It's a hires night texture so I installed the texture differently. There's no need to edit solarsys.ssc........admire the view

Hello Selden, sorry for late reply, due to today's shatters.net unavailablity.
Thanks a lot, you were right, I modified my solarsys, and now that I have restored the original one, everything goes very well.
BTW, with 32k VT normal and specs, and Don's 8k nightlights-aurora, it's truly a pleasure, and this morning a bunch of students had the opportunity to see the Earth Tour with all these improvements, and they enjoyed it.
Thank you Fightspit!
And sorry for emoticons, but I'm very happy for results.
Bye

Andrea

[ANDREA]

This is the problem with forums and emails in general, but I do agree with you that emoticons help. The trouble also, is that the english language can be very ambiguous if it's not your first language (or even if it is!!) because the same word can mean completely different things depending on context. (or can be interpreted differently by different personalities)
I think however that your english is very good, and I hope you enjoyed my little joke, and didn't interpret it as criticism. I did use a .

Sure, Chuft-Captain, I understood you was joking, and I did the same, but with just a bit of serious speaking about emoticons need.
So, friends as before!
Regarding my English, thank you for your compliments, but do you know that in order to try to use an acceptable English language, I need almost half an hour to write and correct a message this size?

FYI.
Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!

?????

This is a classic example of the difficulty to communicate among different cultures, IMHO.
I wished to joke with you on my excessive use of emoticons, putting there another one, and adding a phrase (Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!) that in Italian is very used, meaning "Oh my God, I did it authomatically, without willing to do it", as sometimes happens when, handling a gun, a shot explodes accidentally.
Hope this will clarify my sentence.

BTW, besides counting emoticons in my messages, have you got any idea that can help me to solve the problem that's given on top?

Wish I could help, but firstly: I haven't got a machine that's even capable of displaying the hires textures, and secondly: I don't really know enough about textures to help (which is why I'm watching this thread --- hoping to learn something from the experts for the day when I've got a better machine). Anyway, looks like you've got the ultimate expert Selden's help now so that should solve your problems.

You are at my same level of knowledge, with the only difference due to the hardware.
Regarding my problem, yes, as usual Selden was present and solved it, and now it's truly a joy to explore our mother Earth with such a definition.
Wish you'll be able to do the same in a very very short time.
Bye

Andrea

[Chuft-Captain]

FYI.
Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!

?????

This is a classic example of the difficulty to communicate among different cultures, IMHO.
I wished to joke with you on my excessive use of emoticons, putting there another one, and adding a phrase (Ooops, didn't see it was loaded!) that in Italian is very used, meaning "Oh my God, I did it authomatically, without willing to do it", as sometimes happens when, handling a gun, a shot explodes accidentally.
Hope this will clarify my sentence.

Sorry, I was being a bit 'slow'.
(Once again demonstrating colloquial English language's propensity for ambiguity -- in this context 'slow' does not mean I was travelling at 1 m/s but that I was a bit 'slow' in the head...ie. stupid, dumb...etc)

...as sometimes happens when, handling a gun, a shot explodes accidentally.

Now you're scaring me!!

[ANDREA]

that I was a bit 'slow' in the head...ie. stupid, dumb...etc)

Don't worry, you are not alone, can I join the group?

...as sometimes happens when, handling a gun, a shot explodes accidentally.

Now you're scaring me!!

"Yeahaaaa, I'm Freeeddyyyyyy" (Kruger, obviously, as in Friday 13th)
Bye

Andrea

[Chuft-Captain]

I'm just hoping your surname isn't Gambino.

[abramson]

Hello, folks.

Excellent texture, Fightspit. I finally had some time to download to 64k resolution and have been playing a little with it, even converted it to dds to take advantage of nvidia graphics.

Fightspit, did you use the "flat" or the shaded version of the Blue Marble textures? I have seen in the NASA site that they have both. I presume that the flat one could be used with HScmidt 32K normalmap with good visual result.

Also, for everybody: what do you think of the color of the seas? I have searched the forum and read different attempts by some people, either to colorize them or to tweak using the .ssc settings. I tried both myself and am not satisfied. Why, do you think, the textures have oceans which are so so dark, while the Marbles as seen in the Eart Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/) have a lighter, nicer, blue tone? Why does the default Earth texture in Celestia has light blue oceans? I don't know if the question of what is the right color for the oceans can have a definitive answer, but I think that BMNG has set them too dark.

Related to this: should we attempt to make 128k textures for every month? It would be nice, wouldn't it? We could divide the effort. I would do it myself, at least a medium resolution version. But the color of the oceans has taken me back.

What do you people think?

Regards,

Guillermo

[Fightspit]

A lot of questions, I try to answer you:

Fightspit, did you use the "flat" or the shaded version of the Blue Marble textures?

edit: I use shaded texture, of course.

Also, for everybody: what do you think of the color of the seas? I have searched the forum and read different attempts by some people, either to colorize them or to tweak using the .ssc settings. I tried both myself and am not satisfied. Why, do you think, the textures have oceans which are so so dark, while the Marbles as seen in the Eart Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/) have a lighter, nicer, blue tone? Why does the default Earth texture in Celestia has light blue oceans? I don't know if the question of what is the right color for the oceans can have a definitive answer, but I think that BMNG has set them too dark.

If you notice that some areas near the coast aren't the same color with the oceans where the dark blue is the background.

Related to this: should we attempt to make 128k textures for every month? It would be nice, wouldn't it? We could divide the effort. I would do it myself, at least a medium resolution version. But the color of the oceans has taken me back.

I don't if I have the time to do all months but imagine the total size of all months (3.4 Go x 12 ~ 41 Go fot the 128K ....).And imagine the time to download 41 Go , putting them in the extras folder in Celestia and the time to run Celestia
But you can download all months (4K PNG) here:
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catal ... don_id=893

And then, I am making a 64K/128K Specular Map to improve the 2 addons.
Bye!

[LoneHiker]

Why, do you think, the textures have oceans which are so so dark, while the Marbles as seen in the Eart Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/) have a lighter, nicer, blue tone?

They tried to simulate an atmosphere for that rendering of South America. Almost every feature in the image is lighter and more blue than in the source BMNG texture. The same effect can be achieved by simply adding a translucent blue layer over the texture in a paint program.

I don't know if the question of what is the right color for the oceans can have a definitive answer, but I think that BMNG has set them too dark.

You have to remember that BMNG is an attempt to show how the Earth's surface would look without any atmosphere. Ocean albedo is actually very very low. The difference in albedo between the oceans and fresh snow, for example, is tremendous. BMNG tries to preserve that relationship by utilizing the widest possible tonal range.

There are some fairly decent images of Earth taken from the Messenger platform during it's flyby that give an idea of the relative darkness of the oceans:

http://cps.earth.northwestern.edu/MESSE ... close.html

(But keep in mind there are camera sensor limitations that make it difficult to expose for such a wide dynamic range. That may affect how accurately tonal ranges are depicted.)

Be sure to check out the rest of the site:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

Lone

[Amerigo]

Hello everyone!

I am a celestia user for a long time, and i love it!
I managed to insert some add-ons, but I unable to install this blue marble texture of Fightspit. I downloaded and unzipped the level 5 from the Celestia Motherlode so now i have a BMNG named directory and plenty of pictures in it, but i don't know what to do with it. I have read this forum, and it seems i have to convert theese pictures to dds or ssc format. How? Unfortunately i don't know mutch about programing and codes. If someone gently explain me what to do, I whoud be very thankful.
I can't wait to see this great add-on on my screen!

[Fightspit]

To use the 128K (level5), you must download the 64K (level 0 to 4), you click right on earth in Celestia and select Alternate Surface -> "128K Blue Marble Next Generation".

I think all instructions of installing and using this addon are written in the "readme-first" ...
Don't forget that and it is the same thing for all addons that you want to download.

[Amerigo]

I looked everyvere, but I could't find that readme first. could you give me a link, or send me an email to the imcu_@Hotmail.com adress. One more thing. I made a mistake: I wrote that i downloaded the level 5 textures, but now i see that it was the level 4. Thank you for help, and for your hard work to make theese textures.

[Jeam Tag]

I looked everyvere, but I could't find that readme first.

It is in the '64k_BMNG_level0-2.zip' file you MUST install first (it contains all the files that install the addon correctely: later you can add upper levels by the same way)Jeam

[Amerigo]

It works, and awesome!
Thank you!

[backman]

Hi, guys!

I was away for a lot of time. I??m very pleased with the new Celestia 1.4.1.

But I don??t remember how I must install these VT (a long time ago I had Bluemarble 32k textures).

Thanks on advance and congrats by these BIIIIG textures

J.P. Backman, Madrid, Spain.

[backman]

UPS! I??ve encountered that readme first just now . I??m going to install it

Thnaks anyway.