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* LUA EDU TOOLS FOR CELESTIA 1.5.0
* (c) 2006
* Vincent Giangiulio - contact:
vince.gian@free.fr* Hank Ramsey
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WHAT ARE THE LUA EDU TOOLS ?
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The 'Lua Edu Tools' are an addon that provides :
- A Graphical Interface that simplifies access to the main commands in order to allow all users to quickly enjoy Celestia in complete autonomy.
- New features that are not available (yet) in the official distribution:
compass, InfoText/Image, display of more astronomical measures (Ra/Dec), etc...
The Graphical Interface includes the following components :
> Simulation Date and Time in local format, Timescale slider, Time/Date setting buttons;
> Ambient Light slider;
> Navigation buttons: Go to Sun; Go to Selection; Follow Selection; Sync Orbit; Track Selection;
> FOV slider;
> Information Text overlay (infoText);
> Image overlay with diaporama (infoImage);
> Astronomical measures : Right Ascension (RA), Declination (Dec), Distance to Earth;
> Planetarium/Navigation mode buttons;
> Goto To Fit command accessible by [Shift]+[G] or the 'Navigation Mode' button
(move to a certain distance from the current selection to make it fit the screen);
> Compass in Planetarium Mode (click on the compass to change its position on screen);
> Longitude/Latitude or Azimuth/Elevation (click to switch).
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HOW TO INSTALL THE LUA EDU TOOLS ?
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1- Unzip and paste the 'lua_edu_tools' folder in your 'extras' folder.
2- Paste the 'luahookinit.lua' file in your Celestia root folder.
3- Add this line to your celestia.cfg file :
Configuration
{
LuaHook "luahookinit.lua" # <-- Line to add
...
Important : The 'Lua Edu Tools' need Celestia 1.5 version.
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HOW TO USE THE LUA EDU TOOLS ?
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- Once the 'Lua Edu Tools' are installed, the Graphical Interface is automatically displayed each time your run Celestia.
- You can enable/disable the display of the Graphical Interface using [Shift]+[i].
- All the standard features of Celestia, like the keyboard controls, remain active even when the Graphical Interface is on.
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HOW TO CUSTOMIZE / LOCALIZE THE LUA EDU TOOLS ?
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- The Lua Edu Tools are easily customizable using the the 'config.lua file'. There you can
define your own set of elements that you want to include in the Tool Box, and choose whether
the Lua Edu Tools are displayed or not each time Celestia starts. You can also set your
own parameters such as local language, local time zone, colors of elements of the Graphical
Interface, default position of the compass...
- The Graphical Interface is already available in several languages.
On Windows and Linux, the system locale language (lang) is automatically detected.
On Mac, you can set your local language by editing the 'config.lua' file.
A translated version of this readme.text file can be found in each 'lang' folder
present in the 'locale' folder.
- To add your own Information text, edit the 'infos/infoText.lua' file, or the
'locale/lang/infoText_lang.lua' file that corresponds to your language.
> Simply add the following line(s) for each object:
Name_of_object = [[ infoText ]];
Note: Use ["Name of object"] if the name contains any spaces.
- To add your own Information images, edit the 'infos/infoImage.lua' file.
Several image files can be used for the same object (diaporama).
> Simply add the following line(s) for each object:
Name_of_object_followed_by_image_index = "image_filename";
Note: Use ["Name of object followed by image index"] if the name contains any spaces.
Then, place your image files into the 'images' folder.
- If you want to contribute to the localization of the Lua Edu Tools, just create your own
'locale/lang/lang.lua', 'locale/lang/infoText_lang.lua' and 'locale/lang/images/compass_lang.png' files.
You can use the 'locale/fr/fr.lua', 'locale/fr/infoText_fr.lua', and 'locale/fr/images/compass_fr.png' files
as examples. A 'compass.psd file' containing all the layers is provided in the 'images' folder.
Please, don't forget to translate this 'readme.txt' file too.
Then, please send your translated files to
vince.gian@free.fr so that they can be included into the
official release of the Lua Edu Tools. Thanks !
Note: You can edit any of the .lua files using your favorite text editor (Notepad, ...).
You can use Notepad2 if you need to add text with accentuated characters,
or characters from Russian, Green, Cyrillic, ... alphabets:
1- Download Notepad2 at:
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html 2- Open the .lua file within Notepad2: File > Open...
3- Choose UTF-8 encoding: File > Encoding > UTF-8
4- Edit the file by adding your own text, and save it: File > Save
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CREDITS
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- The Lua Edu Tools can be freely used/copied/modified/distributed for non-commercial activities.
Just keep a copy of the original version of this 'readme.txt' file within your 'lua_edu_tools' folder.
- You must contact the author [vince.gian@free.fr] if you want to use the original or a modified version
of the Lua Edu Tools for any commercial activity.
- All images except compass.png and compass_lang.png are courtesy of NASA [www.nasa.gov]
@+
Vincent
(though I have not tested in details). But Version 1 seems to have problems in loading images and does not work when compass is set in Azimuth mode.
