1.5.0 changes

[Chuft-Captain]

Don't forget that InfoURL can also be a CelURL.

CC

[rra]

I am getting jealous here,
someone care to build and publish the latest CVS version
for windows

Phoenix ??


Thanks in advance ,

Ren?©

[phoenix]

although not much has changed since friday the latest build was uploaded 1 min ago

[rra]

Sorry to say Phoenix, but your "latest" build seems to include the EXE from september 8 eventhough the ZIP is from sept 10.

Also I presume the Fridgers' latest galaxy code is included,
I guess I have to download the templates my self .
Do I have to download anything else to make things work ??


Ren?©

[phoenix]

Sorry to say Phoenix, but your "latest" build seems to include the EXE from september 8 eventhough the ZIP is from sept 10.

hmm I'm 100% sure the new zip includes the build from today but I'll recheck that.

Also I presume the Fridgers' latest galaxy code is included,

no its not yet in cvs, you have to wait just a bit more

[rra]

hmm I'm 100% sure the new zip includes the build from today but I'll recheck that.

No need for that ,
for some reason my "latest" firefox smart download manager kept
showing your older ZIP file which has the same name.
With Internet Exporer there was no problem ,

Thanks anyway ,

Ren?©

[t00fri]

Sorry to say Phoenix, but your "latest" build seems to include the EXE from september 8 eventhough the ZIP is from sept 10.

Also I presume the Fridgers' latest galaxy code is included,
I guess I have to download the templates my self .
Do I have to download anything else to make things work ??


Ren?©

Still doing the last checks. I'll commit the galaxy stuff later today to CVS.

Bye Fridger

[rthorvald]

Don't forget that InfoURL can also be a CelURL

Exactly what i meant. Or a script, or... Anything, really. So, "web info" is somewhat limiting.

- rthorvald

[chris]

For those curious about progress on the 1.5.0 release of Celestia, I'm posting the current ChangeLog. This is not final; there are more improvements coming for 1.5.0.
--Chris
---------
*Rewrote orbit path rendering; orbits are now properly depth sorted
.....

Wow, Chris, a lot of improvements and more to come!
Regarding the above change, this means that I can see now all the orbits I switch ON, up to at a chosen distance from the central object (barycenter, star, planet, moon), as asked in this thread
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic ... =ptolemaic

So the disappearing of orbits with distance will be avoided, choosing a bigger distance limit?
I truly hope so.
Thanks a lot anyhow for the enormous improvements.

None of the current changes affect orbit culling. However, I will make the minimum orbit size a celestia.cfg parameter. At the moment, it's just hardcoded in render.cpp:

Code: Select all

// The minimum apparent size of an objects orbit in pixels before we display
// a label for it.  This minimizes label clutter.
static const float MinOrbitSizeForLabel = 20.0f;


--Chris

[hank]

The new orbit depth sorting seems to have the effect that when an object is so far away as to be displayed as a point source, it sometimes disappears behind its own orbit. I noticed this with Phobos orbiting Mars.

- Hank

[ANDREA]

So the disappearing of orbits with distance will be avoided, choosing a bigger distance limit?

None of the current changes affect orbit culling. However, I will make the minimum orbit size a celestia.cfg parameter. At the moment, it's just hardcoded in render.cpp: ....--Chris

OK Chris, thank you for the reply.
Bye

Andrea

[dirkpitt]

The new orbit depth sorting seems to have the effect that when an object is so far away as to be displayed as a point source, it sometimes disappears behind its own orbit. I noticed this with Phobos orbiting Mars.

I can confirm this. Actually I'm not sure if this is the same problem, but what appears to be happening is that orbits are being partly obscured by the glare texture billboards of objects that are appearing as points.

[chris]

Lots of improvements indeed!
The new depth-sorting algorithm is a breakthrough: way faster and better rendering throughout.

It's very good to hear that you can notice the speed difference. Mostly what I get are bug reports--I certainly appreciate those, but the occasional 'It's working better' comment is very reassuring

--Chris

[chris]

The new orbit depth sorting seems to have the effect that when an object is so far away as to be displayed as a point source, it sometimes disappears behind its own orbit. I noticed this with Phobos orbiting Mars.

I can confirm this. Actually I'm not sure if this is the same problem, but what appears to be happening is that orbits are being partly obscured by the glare texture billboards of objects that are appearing as points.

I checked in another change for depth sorting. Opaque and transparent objects are now rendered in separate passes: opaque first, then transparent. This fixes a few more depth sorting problems involving transparent objects. Notably, Cham's magnetic Earth addon now works. Point objects are considered as transparent and rendered during the second pass. Since the second pass happens *after* orbit paths are rendered, point objects should no long get occluded by orbit paths.

--Chris

[Cham]

**wonderfull** !

Can't wait to test all this !

[danielj]

I searched here http://celestia.cvs.sourceforge.net/celestia/celestia/ and didn??t found the Celestia 1.5.1 build for Windows.Where is it?Is it a pre version already?

although not much has changed since friday the latest build was uploaded 1 min ago

[phoenix]

there is no official 1.5.0 prerelease.
for a current cvs-build have a look 1 line below at my signature ...

[danielj]

"Error reading configuration file"
Do the CVS can only be used if compiled?
So,it??s NOT for final product users!

there is no official 1.5.0 prerelease.
for a current cvs-build have a look 1 line below at my signature ...

[Malenfant]

"Error reading configuration file"
Do the CVS can only be used if compiled?
So,it??s NOT for final product users!

That's the point. It's where the code is made available for developers to compile. Some parts of it (like SSCs in the data directory) can be downloaded and added to folders on installed Celestia programs, but most of it can't without being compiled.

Basically, this board is specifically for Developers to discuss things. It's OK for other people to get involved if they're up to speed on how development works or know enough to be able to keep up with or to contribute something useful to the discussion, but if you're purely an end-user or have no clue how development works then you should just stay off this board and wait for things to be made public elsewhere here, because you're not going to find anything useful or usable by you here at this stage.

[Cham]

The new depth sorting code appears to be working VERY well, until now ! I just made a new built of 1.5.0 one hour ago, and I'm testing my Magnetic-Field addon. It's looking really GREAT ! Walking into those field lines, with particles paths all around with a real 3D effect, geez, it's impressive !

This is a huge improvement !