My wishes list for Celestia 1.5

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Cham M
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My wishes list for Celestia 1.5

Post #1by Cham » 11.09.2006, 20:05

Here are some extra features that I would be very happy to see implemented in the next release of Celestia. I'm just giving my personal "wishes list" here, with the confession that I hope that some of the items presented here could really become part of version 1.5. Maybe I'm asking too much. If it's the case, I apologise :oops: . So here are my wishes, in random order :

1- Better date and time format in upper-right corner. The date is actually hard to read and a bit cryptic.

2- More markers options (asterisks, circles). I know that there are some developments about arrows, but I think that a simple asterisk and a circle could be a good thing too.

3- More "classes" of objects : one to three custom classes that could be activated with a keyboard shortcut (using numbers with a modifier key ?), especially to use coordinate grids on the fly (graticules). We need graticules to help the user, when it comes to orientation in space.

4- Better resolution of the celestial grid. Actually, spacing is too large on that spherical grid. The equatorial coordinates grid isn't precise enough to be really usefull.

5- More info in the upper-left corner (Ultraverbose mode ?) : kilopsc and Megapsc distances also in LY. SemiMajorAxis and revolution period, if relevant for the selected object.

6- The ability to fix a model's orientation toward any SSC or STC declared object, using a simple command line in the model's SSC, something like : OrientationLockedTo "object name".

7- Periodic motions with .xyz files, declared in SSC file with a command like "PeriodicMotion true". Of course, that option should be set to false by default.

8- The ability to change the Precession axis. Adding a command line like "PrecessionAxis [x y z]" after the usual command "PrecessionRate". Of course, values by default should be [0 0 0] (present state of the precession axis).

9- Star textures. Since the latest version of Celestia, stars lost their "individuality". By default, they are using only one texture. Stars are then very dull to watch. The atmosphere's color doesn't even match that texture in many cases. In some previous version, stars were using four base textures (astar, bstar, gstar and mstar). I want those textures to be back, without having to add a custom texture to all the stars in the database.

10- A compass to oriente ourselves on a planet's surface, the kind of things that was recently suggested by ElChristou : a simple and discrete compass at bottom-center of screen. That compass should be visible only when the user is cruising on a planet's surface.

11- A scripts menu. Lets remove the "D" binding to the demo, so we could use it for another thing. Lets add a menu called "scripts", associated to a "scripts" folder inside the CelestiaRessources directory. All scripts located in that folder would be listed in the scripts menu. The usual Demo could be the first script in this menu, separated from the others with a separator.
Last edited by Cham on 16.09.2006, 23:10, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #2by MKruer » 12.09.2006, 05:11

I would like the ability to assign objects to other object and then hid those object from being selectable and listed.

Perfect example would be pulsars, in order to create he pulsar you need a small white star plus 2 comets orbiting very fast around the star. This give you three object when it should all be one.

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Post #3by Cham » 12.09.2006, 05:18

MKruer wrote:Perfect example would be pulsars, in order to create he pulsar you need a small white star plus 2 comets orbiting very fast around the star. This give you three object when it should all be one.


Comets !?? Have you tried my pulsars addon ?
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Post #4by MKruer » 13.09.2006, 03:14

I don?€™t think I have, I just remember early development where everyone was using other various classes to create a new class of object.

Can you post a link or tell me where to get it.

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Post #5by Cham » 13.09.2006, 03:18

Just check the pulsars topic in the "addons" forum.
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Post #6by MKruer » 13.09.2006, 03:24

Ok I did see that add on, but never downloaded it. I will check it out.

For those who want the link here it is
http://celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10022

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Post #7by Cham » 16.09.2006, 22:13

I have edited my wishes list : 11-th element added (scripts menu).
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Re: My wishes list for Celestia 1.5

Post #8by ElChristou » 16.09.2006, 23:02

Cham wrote:11- A scripts menu. Lets remove the "D" binding to the demo, so we could use it for another thing. Lets add a menu called "scripts", associated to a "scripts" folder inside the CelestiaRessources directory. All scripts located in that folder would be listed in the scripts menu. The usual Demo could be the first script in this menu, separated from the others with a separator.


Agree, a kind of script browser (listing the content of a script folder) would be welcome...
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Re: My wishes list for Celestia 1.5

Post #9by Christophe » 17.09.2006, 12:20

Cham wrote:1- Better date and time format in upper-right corner. The date is actually hard to read and a bit cryptic.

The main advantage of the current format is that it is an international format (ISO 8601), which is unambiguous (unlike the DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY formats) and doesn't require localization.

Cham wrote:2- More markers options (asterisks, circles). I know that there are some developments about arrows, but I think that a simple asterisk and a circle could be a good thing too.

There are already five choices available: diamond, triangle, square, plus, x. The problem is that only one is available on the Windows interface.

Cham wrote:11- A scripts menu. Lets remove the "D" binding to the demo, so we could use it for another thing. Lets add a menu called "scripts", associated to a "scripts" folder inside the CelestiaRessources directory. All scripts located in that folder would be listed in the scripts menu. The usual Demo could be the first script in this menu, separated from the others with a separator.


I agree that given the current "shortage" of keys for new functions, D could have a better use and Demo could be available only as a menu entry. But I don't really see the point of a generic script menu, what's wrong with the 'Open' dialog?
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Re: My wishes list for Celestia 1.5

Post #10by ElChristou » 17.09.2006, 12:37

Christophe wrote:...what's wrong with the 'Open' dialog?


Perso I would prefer using an integrate solution (menu or submenu or window) than using the system browser...
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Post #11by Vincent » 17.09.2006, 12:41

Cham,

Just for information, the demo script is already accessible (at least on the Win version) via the Help Menu : Help > Run Demo.

Don't you already have this menu entry on the OS-X version ?
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Post #12by dirkpitt » 17.09.2006, 13:17

Cham wants all his scripts listed in a menu, not just the Demo script.
This is not an unreasonable request; the concept of a "Script" menu is a fairly common one among Mac programs for example. But I would be more interested in prioritizing other tasks, such as adding color matching to Celestia and better feature parity for the OS X version.

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Post #13by Imy » 13.10.2006, 09:40

The date format shouldn't be a user's parameter that he can change whatever his feelings?

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Post #14by Christophe » 13.10.2006, 10:13

There is another advantage to the current format: it makes it clear that the calendar used is the Gregorian calendar, or proleptic Gregorian calendar for dates preceding 1582, as it is the ISO 8601 convention. Otherwise there is no way to know to what actual day 25-DEC-800 refers to for example.
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Post #15by Imy » 13.10.2006, 12:41

Sorry, I didn't understand why 25DEC800 can't be refering?

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Post #16by Cham » 13.10.2006, 14:20

The hour and the date are too close together. It's confusing and hard to read. The hour should be listed BELOW the date.
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Post #17by Christophe » 13.10.2006, 14:22

Because it can either be the Julian date (used in history books, Charlemagne's coronation) or the proleptic Gregorian date (used in astronomy).

Whereas 800-12-25 is, by convention, the Gregorian date (3 days before Charlemagne's coronation).
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Animation!

Post #18by chrisr » 19.10.2006, 21:24

Are we far off from animating models and particle effects. Imagine seeing a comet near a star and then seeing its second tale develop as the ice began to sublimate!! Drool.

Dyamic terrain? Height maps instead of bump maps so we can really get a feel of how large of a mountain olympus mons is!.

Walking! I know this is subtle. But it will make a big difference towards the immersion one feels when s/he uses celesita. Imagine waling along the shore and looking up at the sky as the sun set.
There is in tune with my idea with adding the human mode/perspective to celestia.
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Post #19by cartrite » 19.10.2006, 21:54

chrisr wrote:
Dyamic terrain? Height maps instead of bump maps so we can really get a feel of how large of a mountain olympus mons is!.

That can sort of be done now with even older versions of celestia.
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10005
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9577
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9872
All you got to do is learn how to build planetary models. I'ts not that difficult. Toti wrote a script that works with Blender. http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic ... 9715#39715
All you do is edit the values for radius and height range. The heightmaps are available from NASA in binary 16bit signed integer format. They need to be converted though. I used 3DEM and Wilbur.exe to do that.
http://www.ridgenet.net/%7Ejslayton/software.html
http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem.html

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Post #20by Cham » 13.12.2006, 18:29

After all the recent developments on Celestia 1.5.0, here's an update to my "wish list". In random order :

1- Better date and time format in upper-right corner. The date and time are actually hard to read and a bit cryptic. The problem is the hour. It's too close from the date and I think it should be printed BELOW the date.

2- More "classes" of objects : three or more custom classes that could be activated with a keyboard shortcut (using numbers with a modifier key ?), especially to use coordinate grids on the fly (graticules) or other informational "layers" (magnetic field lines, for example). We need graticules to help the user, when it comes to orientation in space.

3- More info in the upper-left corner (Ultraverbose mode ?) : kilopsc and Megapsc distances also in LY. SemiMajorAxis and revolution period, if relevant for the selected object. RA and DEC as standard (and not just with LUA)

4- Periodic motions with .xyz files, declared in SSC file with a command like "PeriodicMotion true". Of course, that option should be set to false by default.

5- The ability to change the Precession axis. Adding a command line like "PrecessionAxis [x y z]" after the usual command "PrecessionRate". Of course, values by default should be [0 0 0] (present state of the precession axis).

6- Star textures. Since the latest version of Celestia, stars lost their "individuality". By default, they are using only one texture. Stars are then very dull to watch. The atmosphere's color doesn't even match that texture in many cases. In some previous version, stars were using four base textures (astar, bstar, gstar and mstar). I want those textures to be back, without having to add a custom texture to all the stars in the database.

7- A scripts menu. Lets remove the "D" binding to the demo, so we could use it for another thing. Lets add a menu called "scripts", associated to a "scripts" folder inside the CelestiaRessources directory. All scripts located in that folder would be listed in the scripts menu. The usual Demo could be the first script in this menu, separated from the others with a separator.

8- Better celestial grid. The celestial grid has been updated (more graduations) for 1.5.0. But it's still hard to see the coordinate numbers, since they are placed on two circles only. Could it be possible to duplicate those numbers, and set in red the reference circles ?
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