What would be needed to go to a full 1.5.0 release?

[Fenerit]

Quite some time ago Chris asked that all bugs be reported using SourceForge, so that there's just one official list.
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=1 ... unc=browse
There's a long list of bugs there.

I see now, thanks. Very impressive list; although for me the:

- CMOD without the emissivity crash the whole computer;

is inexistent, since the Mantle model does't have emissivity, and in the case of Mercury's interior I ought assign manually to the ASCII model the relevant strings before to be fixed in binary; meanwhile the models were tested in 1.4.1 as well as in 1.5.0 pre3.

For the susseguent:

- New video resolution needed for movie capture;

one can capture in external by graphic card DVI. In fact it's better again.

[dirkpitt]

The sourceforge list is somewhat outdated. For example, the CMOD emissivity bug was fixed, so was the OGL2 crash with all textures enabled, normal-less models don't crash any more etc. Some bugs were found to be invalid (model seams, etc). I don't know if I have privileges to close these resolved bugs...?

Cham: Cloud shadows do not work on other platforms too. Well, actually they do work sometimes on all platforms but only if the cloud texture is of low resolution. This is due to a known (known to Chris) limitation in the current planet rendering code.

[danielj]

You forget to say that objects placed on the surface of planets or moons are buggy.Remember when I show the rocks in Titan light floating in the sky?And other objects like probes are inside the worlds or even not showing at all...

While better than Celestia 1.4.2, version 1.5.0 is still in a sorry state. I made a list of about 25 bugs and limitations in 1.5.0 :

List of bugs and problems, or things to be adjusted, in random order :

1- The markers are still shown on the foreground. There is no depth sorting of the markers, which is very confusing if there's an object on the foreground (planet, moon, spacecraft, etc...)

2- Moving closer to the sun, from the exterior part of the solar system, is laggy. Moving out doesn't show any lag.

3- "Dust" ring CMODs (points models) don't receive any shadow from their parent planet.

4- Sprites aren't working on the Mac (crashing bug).

5- Cloud shadows aren't working on the Mac (removed feature ?).

6- The demo "D" keyboard shortcut and its menu item should be removed. The demo script file should be placed in the scripts folder. I suggest to assign "N" to the nebulae rendering (instead of "^", which doesn't work on my keyboard), and use "D" for the spacecraft instead.

7- The asteroids and comets labels need some alpha effect, varying with distance and object size, as for the stars and galaxies.

8- The atmosphere code isn't working with multiple sources of light (vivid red atmosphere).

9- Black "holes" and "stripes" on the sky, while the observer is very close to a planet surface (with an atmosphere).

10- Stars rendering is extremelly dull and unrealistic without an atmosphere to smooth out the edge. And there's a single texture for all classes, which makes all stars too similar and boring.

11- I'm still experiencing moving "holes" on background orbital paths, on a Mac, if there's a model on the foreground (asteroid or spacecraft).

12- The comet tail is still very crude (poor paraboloid fixed resolution). Its mesh resolution should be variable (adaptable) with distance, like it is for the planets (celestia's spheres).

13- Some French translations omissions in the console.

14- The "spacecraft" labels aren't depth sorted if the object is close to a planet/moon. They should be hidden behind their parent planet or moon.

15- The star radius precision shown in the upper-left corner is ridiculous. It should be rounded. Currently, the precision shown is not credible.

16- The star radius given in the case of cool stars (red dwarfs and red giants) is inaccurate and unreliable. In many cases, Celestia gives very wrong values (example : according to Celestia, Proxima Cen is much smaller than Jupiter).

17- There's a bug which crashes Celestia when many close stars are each having a planetary object. Having 17 stars (or more) orbiting the same barycenter, each one with a planetary object, crashes Celestia. (limitation in the code)

18- Adding an URL to a star doesn't work (hard coded SIMBAD link), like it is for the planets and other objects. Adding an URL to a star STC definition should overide the default URL.

19- Too much stars in Celestia's database have an "?" as spectral class assignement. This may not be considered as a "bug" however, since it's related to the Hipparcos table and its limitations.

20- There are many double stars with the same name and doubles with different names (Fridger's binaries), and stars with inconsistent greek names (KHI, CHI, etc).

21- Celestia is only reading the first letter of the spectral class, which makes the scripted selection extremely limited.

22- We urgently need an "Clickable false" option at the SSC level, to make objects unclickable, while still visible.

23- The celestial grid is very crude and doesn't show properly all the coordinates labels (bug already identified in the code by me and acknowledged by Chris, who never corrected it, despite the fact that it's extremelly easy to do).

24- some memory leaks about textures and models loading, which may crash Celestia after a long use (many textures and models loaded into memory, without cleaning memory after a while).

25- Pluto/Charon's barycenter's orbit should be visible as an "asteroid".

I'm probably forgetting one or two more bugs I've identified.

[Fenerit]

...

I don't know if I have privileges to close these resolved bugs...?

...

Your fairplay about this question is remarkable, dirkpitt; being you an authorized person in matter of Celestia's development. And this is connect with other questions elsewhere previous discusses and dealing with the disappearance of Chris. I'm a bit curious on what will be the response and moreover from who will come it.

[dirkpitt]

I don't know about fairplay, but after I posted I did find out that I had privileges to close at least a couple of the outstanding bugs so I did that. I'd previously assumed only Chris could change the tracker status on bugs.

[fsgregs]

Hi everyone:

As someone who not only loves Celestia, but uses it on a daily basis in my teaching, all of this talk by our part-time developers of quitting the forum and quitting development work on Celestia if Chris does not come back soon, is very distressing. It is also confusing to me.

In numerous posts, folks have explained that Chris may hold the copyright on Celestia, but unless he comes back to the forum and advises us that he is pulling Celestia from Open Source and taking it private, we have the legal right to develop an alternative version of it and make it available for download (on SourceForge or a different website).

If that is true, then I beg all those folks who are angry at the situation and are planning to drop out, to please not do so. Celestia is more than a utility or tool, as Selden said above. It is a window ... a portal into space for the billions of people who will never get to fly in the Shuttle. It's 3D capabilities ... its accuracy ... its beauty ... far transcends the label of just a piece of software. Rather, Celestia is a place ... it IS space itself.

TO continue to make it better ... to improve on its realism, to make the journey through the cosmos for all of those people on Earth even more beautiful and exciting ... is worthy of us all. It is not a waste of our time. It is not something that should be stopped, because we are emotionally upset with Chris.

Cham, ElChristou, Fridger, Runar, Vincent, Dirk, Don ... plus dozens more ... all of you guys have amazing talents that have enriched all of our lives. I respectfully request and beseech you all to not only keep this portal open (until Chris chooses to close it), but to keep developing 1.5.0 until it is in a reasonable condition to be released. I realize Chris's knowledge of C++ and Astronomy is unparalleled here and may be needed for some of the bugs to be eliminated, but ...

Look at it this way. If Chris posted a message here to us saying he was dropping Celestia personally but was freely turning it over to us all ... would we be unable to move it forward satisfactorily without him ... or would we eventually work it all out and come out with a top quality 1.5.0 release?

If it is the latter case, then ....



Just my thoughts on the matter.

Frank

[Bluespace]

Hi everyone:

As someone who not only loves Celestia, but uses it on a daily basis in my teaching, all of this talk by our part-time developers of quitting the forum and quitting development work on Celestia if Chris does not come back soon, is very distressing. It is also confusing to me.

In numerous posts, folks have explained that Chris may hold the copyright on Celestia, but unless he comes back to the forum and advises us that he is pulling Celestia from Open Source and taking it private, we have the legal right to develop an alternative version of it and make it available for download (on SourceForge or a different website).

..........................................
...........................................................................
.........................................................................................

If it is the latter case, then ....



Just my thoughts on the matter.

Frank

Votes in Support Of This





.

[t00fri]

Frank,

there is a couple of SERIOUS issues here:

1) notably the long-time developers are upset that after 5-6 years of cooperation with Chris in Celestia-development, we don't seem to be even worth a single explanatory email from him during his ~ 3 months of absence!

2) Should he reappear one day, people will want to continue "as usual" under his guidance. We had this already once, ~ 2 years ago, after Chris had vanished for about one full year. Nobody of the people who potentially could take over the lead has any interest to play such games, I suppose...

I certainly have better things to do

I realize Chris's knowledge of C++ and Astronomy is unparalleled here and may be needed for some of the bugs to be eliminated, but ...

While you are right about C++, I guess you are joking as to Astronomy . Chris is a software engineer by profession and quit University with a bachelor in physics and math.


Bye Fridger

[Hungry4info]

I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, gloomy and such, and I certainly don't want to sound disrespectful, but are we sure Chris is still alive? I was thinking about the Extrasolar Visions forum, and remembered that it's admin died. Don't get me wrong, I very much hope Chris is alive, but I'm keeping my mind open.

Edit: Fsgregs, That was worded quite niecly. I, also, urge those who are considering leaving to rethink it.

[t00fri]

I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, gloomy and such, and I certainly don't want to sound disrespectful, but are we sure Chris is still alive? I was thinking about the Extrasolar Visions forum, and remembered that it's admin died. Don't get me wrong, I very much hope Chris is alive, but I'm keeping my mind open.

Well, I cannot make a statement about Chris today, but for extended periods during the last 3 months, his whereabouts are quite well documented through his public photo-albums and also through his brief logins in shatters.net and also his subscription to our Celestial Matters forum. His last submission of a photo of the almost finished remodeling of his appartment took place Sept 21.

He just did not feel it was worth dropping a line after 3 months... There is NO doubt about this ...

Also 2 years ago, the pattern was identical during his 1 year hiding. Then, he also did paid contracting work related to Celestia ...

Bye Fridger

[Fenerit]

But this apartment it's nice, at least? Where are the photos?

[t00fri]

But this apartment it's nice, at least? Where are the photos?

The url is listed publicly in Selden's resources:

http://cryophile.livejournal.com/

Just click on the bathroom image shown and you are in his remodeling album.

Bye Fridger

[Fenerit]

I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, gloomy and such, and I certainly don't want to sound disrespectful, but are we sure Chris is still alive? I was thinking about the Extrasolar Visions forum, and remembered that it's admin died. Don't get me wrong, I very much hope Chris is alive, but I'm keeping my mind open.

Edit: Fsgregs, That was worded quite niecly. I, also, urge those who are considering leaving to rethink it.

Whoa, Hungry4info; this do matter to think. Does exist a software which opportunely programmed by the user inform the community when one die? It seem a lack in the power of autarkic mass comunications.

[hank]

If I'm not mistaken, Chis approved a bugfix commit for Vincent just last week.

- Hank

[t00fri]

If I'm not mistaken, Chis approved a bugfix commit for Vincent just last week.

- Hank

Yes, that was one of his few "transient" appearances without any further comments about his long absence...

Bye Fridger

[hank]

If I'm not mistaken, Chis approved a bugfix commit for Vincent just last week.

- Hank

Yes, that was one of his few "transient" appearances without any further comments about his long absence...

Bye Fridger

My assumption is that Chris is just busy with other things. There's not much we can do about that.

But as long as he is receptive to contributions from others, there's no reason for people not to contribute bug fixes, data updates, and so on, if they're able to.

- Hank

[Fenerit]

As Cham say, I'm an optimist boy, so, after Chris has spent alot of time in the own bathtub in seeing the Seattle's bay, does it start up from water saying "eureka!" and we will be faced up to:

- all bugs fixed, even for OpenGL 10.0.

- Multiverse switching by right click;

- real black holes; in the sense in which the program crash when one find they (this is not a bug, as the information theory require);

- HDRI point sprites;

- new icons in the menu;

- realtime texture's update by space telescopes;

- support for the 3d printers;

- star class based on sound;

- new texture for Puck;

- new living-room.

[Bluespace]

Hungry4Info wrote

I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, gloomy and such, and I certainly don't want to sound disrespectful, but are we sure Chris is still alive? I was thinking about the Extrasolar Visions forum, and remembered that it's admin died. Don't get me wrong, I very much hope Chris is alive, but I'm keeping my mind open.

Edit: Fsgregs, That was worded quite niecly. I, also, urge those who are considering leaving to rethink it.

Yes when you are in a community (active), it's our responsibility to let them know we are still alive (even if there is no friendship) one forum where i am most active (verbots), I've said that, if not a single post came from me in a period of 2 months, then consider me as 'Dead" isn't that a cool way ? and things like that takes away the need of a " negative thought emerging" as hungry4info said

And what if no posts came within the period and later a post is made (when everybody know the person in question is DEAD ?
THEN EVERYBODY CAN CELEBRATE A HAPPY RE-BIRTH

[Fenerit]

Yeah! As Snake Plissken, who was given by dead from everyone.

[t00fri]

If I'm not mistaken, Chis approved a bugfix commit for Vincent just last week.

- Hank

Yes, that was one of his few "transient" appearances without any further comments about his long absence...

Bye Fridger

My assumption is that Chris is just busy with other things. There's not much we can do about that.

But as long as he is receptive to contributions from others, there's no reason for people not to contribute bug fixes, data updates, and so on, if they're able to.

- Hank

Yes, certainly, he's busy with other things. We even know a few... But as Christophe T. suggested, he might well work on Celestia full-time (for money) . After all, around July 1st, he announced precisely this (except that it will be paid work!). But privately, he wrote to me that such an option is in the air... The open question is just about the boundary conditions for such work.

Perhaps he has been hired to polish that Seeker product from Software Bisque a bit . Who could ever tell? That code nobody gets ever to see...

In the past 3 months, I have often asked myself, why Chris did never drop me a line just to explain, what's going on after we have been collaborating for so long (5.5 years!). One plausible possibility could be that there is something going on that is hard to explain to this community...


Bye Fridger