NEW Voyager model...

[selden]

You may be right about Locations following the surfaces of Meshes. This would be necessary for labelling locations on the surfaces of irregular moons, for example.

I think my confusion is because I've had enough problems with Locations that I define objects at the points of interest, usually declaring them to be moons so the lettering is green. A transparent cmod point can be used as its Mesh.

For example, if you're very close, Location labels on the Earth jitter: they don't stay in the same place all the time. Also, if you try to define several Locations vertically above one another, with identical long and lat but with different altitudes, they are placed at slightly different long/lat locations. Objects don't have these problems. I suspect that Locations are positiioned using lower precision arithmetic than is used for the positions of objects.

[selden]

Here's an invisible point .CMOD model.

Code: Select all

#celmodel__ascii

material
diffuse 1 1 1 specular 1 1 1 specpower 128 opacity 0
end_material

mesh
vertexdesc position f3 end_vertexdesc

vertices 1 0 0 0

points 1 1 0

end_mesh


[ElChristou]

Tx Selden, but as the whole probe jitter on it's orbit, using your trick in this case is useless...

In all case, if Celestia is able to detect a point on a surface, then I suppose collision detection could be implemented to simulate meteor impact or other collisions...

[selden]

I'm not sure what you mean by "useless".

Objects and their names are placed exactly on their defined orbits. If the xyz orbit of the initial object causes it to seem to be jittering, then the names of objects that are placed at LongLat values relative to that jittering object jitter in exactly the same way. Locations might not jitter in exactly the same way, however. It's the names of Locations which do not seem to be placed with as good resolution as the names of objects.

Also, don't forget that LongLat places things (objects or Locations) relative to the surface of the object. Most of the components that you want to label are inside that surface. I find it easiest to define a tiny object with exactly the same parameters as the initial object except that it has a very small radius. Then I place component objects (and thus their labels) relative to that tiny object. They are above the surface of the tiny object but inside the surface of the large object.

[ElChristou]

I'm not sure what you mean by "useless".

Objects and their names are placed exactly on their defined orbits. If the xyz orbit of the initial object causes it to seem to be jittering, then the names of objects that are placed at LongLat values relative to that jittering object jitter in exactly the same way. Locations might not jitter in exactly the same way, however. It's the names of Locations which do not seem to be placed with as good resolution as the names of objects.

I understand your points; by useless I mean one jittering or another don't make much difference... in practice in this case, the labels seems to jitter like the model...
What I find a bit surealist is that we (users) have to speculate (trying to find the most extravagant solutions) so much on... a bug!! (or a bug like)
What a waste of time...

Also, don't forget that LongLat places things (objects or Locations) relative to the surface of the object. Most of the components that you want to label are inside that surface. I find it easiest to define a tiny object with exactly the same parameters as the initial object except that it has a very small radius. Then I place component objects (and thus their labels) relative to that tiny object. They are above the surface of the tiny object but inside the surface of the large object.

Again, I understand your trick, but I want to keep it simple (.ssc are not my best ). I have no problem (apart trying 10 times) in placing a Loc exactly where I want; it's not necessary inside the model, I prefer a few centimeters on a side of the instrument to avoid the overlap of the label on the zone of interest... Also I find pretty cool to active/desactive the labels via the Locations settings (only the green is not exactly to my taste for this case... but...)

[fsgregs]

Chris et al:



OK, I have gone to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and have taken 139 photos of spacecraft. The spacecraft are all real and were either the actual craft or a full-scale mockup. Collectively, they total 43 MB. However, they are obviously divided up into different craft. All photos are taken from whatever angles I could manage. I had only a modest digital camera with a modest flash, and it did not have a telephoto lens, but the photos turned out reasonably well. You can always edit them to resize them or boost their brightness, etc. All photos are in jpg format.

I have 27 photos of Voyager (mockup)
14 photos of Pioneer 10 (mockup)
2 photos of Mercury Friendship 7 (actual craft)
2 photos of Gemini 4 (actual craft)
15 photos of Viking Mars Lander (mockup)
4 photos of Spirit and Opportunity (mockup)
20 photos of a full-scale lunar module (LEM) (mockup)
7 photos of Lunar Surveyor (mockup)
11 photos of Apollo-Soyuz (mockup)
8 photos of the Hubble Space Telescope (without solar panels) - full scale mockup
3 photos of Rutan's Spaceship One (actual ship)
3 photos of Mariner 2 (mockup)
6 photos of GEOS (full scale mockup)
4 photos of a Saturn V rocket (scale model)
10 photos of Skylab (full scale mockup)
1 photo of a lunar buggy (full scale mockup)

One of the Pioneer photos also includes full scale mockups of Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1 (they are hanging nearby).

I don't have an FTP site to post these to, but I am willing to email zip files of whatever you want to any of you who want them. I have to zip things up separately, since my email account has a 10 MB limit, but I don't mind.

Please do not request the photos unless you intend to use them for model development.

Enjoy!

Frank

P.S. I will also post this on the other thread involving Pioneer.

[fsgregs]

Ok everyone. Here are the photos. They are posted on this location on the Motherlode site.

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/creators/fsgregs/spacecraft_photos

Enjoy and good modeling

Frank

[Jeam Tag]

I tell about your packs to Linuxman : this also may help him to complete his work-and-progress model for Apollo-Soyouz Test Project ! (In the "Back in USSR" addon pack)

Hello, this is not totally optimized, but Linuxman is on the way to redo the ASTP models, with your great documention:

Jeam

[ElChristou]

Quick info on Voyager model:

As I'm busy those days the work goes slow, but Tx to Franck the model gains some very nice details; I'll have to redo some elements so I'm now entering a phase of adjustements which is a bit annoying... but... no way to avoid that...

A bit later some shots because for now nothing new is really impacting...

[ElChristou]

Star trackers; on the left we can see a sort of cover over them, I'm wondering if those were removed before take off (could they be for protection in the lab?)... any opinion?

Middle, Franck shot in the Smithsonian, right my interpretation...

Should I keep them like this? (seems more logical without this white cover to me...)

[selden]

I'm sure the white covers are to keep dust out while in the lab.

[ElChristou]

Yes, it's what I was thinking...

Tx Selden!

[selden]

Of course this is way late, and the scans aren't the best, but some diagrams of Voyager are available at
http://www.cloudster.com/RealHardware/V ... oyager.htm

[ElChristou]

Hey, cool! indeed the scans are not the best, but a few points are still helpfull (RTG's cables for example)

Tx!

[ElChristou]

I haven't found anything about... this...



Any idea of what it is?

[buggs_moran]

I can't resist Chris, I know it's pedantic, but... it's an octagon...

Seriously, I will look around...

[ElChristou]

I can't resist Chris, I know it's pedantic, but... it's an octagon...

Seriously, I will look around...

... well ok, let's go for "unknown octagon" for the labelling!

Indeed I haven't found anything... after all, I suppose it's not very important ...

[ElChristou]

Hi guys,



I'm really sorry for the veerryyy looong delai of my models, but lately I got really too much work...
For Info, the Vostok is ready but will be released at CM opening; the Pioneer still need a bit of work.

In any case, here is a prerelease of the new Voyager at 95% over; despite it's 123743 poly I think it run pretty well on my poor system (any FPS feedback is welcome). A few meshes are missing (rtgs support), there is no textures (golden record) and the spec lights need some adjustement. As soon as I get a few more hours I'll end all this.
No ssc, just the cmod; you can use Jack's one in the meantime but a MeshCenter [ -40 0 -30 ] can be added for better viewing.

DOWNLOAD HERE (2,2Mo)

[bh]

Very nice indeed. Thank you.

[CurlSnout]

Thank you VERY MUCH for the new Voyager prerelease model; it looks OUTSTANDING.

I am especially looking forward to the new Vostok model. Please excuse my ignorance, but what (and when) is "CM opening"?

Hi-Ho,

CS