Celestia: A Space Simulation Programme.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2002-09-20 01:17am

Earlier this week, I downloaded a programme called Celestia. It's a really cool free space simulator that runs pretty smoothly. It's open source, and there are quite a few add ons that you can get for it; like extra space craft, satelites, extra-solar planets, enhanced textures, and fictional systems.

Here's the link for it:
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html

Note: If a mod thinks this is in the wrong forum, they can move it.

EDIT: If you do download it, I'd suggest selecting "Stars as points" under "Render>View Options".

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2002-09-20 02:07am

Celestia isn't a real space simulator per say, it's more of a 3D planetarium along the lines of the old Dance of the Planets. For a real space simulator, go download Orbiter and have a try flying the Space Shuttle--or take one of several fictional craft to Mars.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2002-09-20 02:15am

Yeah, that's what I meant.

It's still pretty neat, though.

Solid Snake · Post by **Solid Snake** » 2002-09-20 09:39am

Orbiter looks pretty cool. I wonder if someone could MOD the original Enterprise, or a Star Destroyer. That would be quite awesome!

Hendrake · Post by **Hendrake** » 2002-09-20 10:49am

SolidSnake wrote:Orbiter looks pretty cool. I wonder if someone could MOD the original Enterprise, or a Star Destroyer. That would be quite awesome! :D

It can be done!

http://users.swing.be/~vinka/ has a 3ds converter for Orbiter and there are lots of ST and SW meshes on line.

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2002-09-20 01:18pm

Hendrake wrote: http://users.swing.be/~vinka/ has a 3ds converter for Orbiter and there are lots of ST and SW meshes on line.

Most of the ST and SW meshes out there, however, are designed for non-realtime rendering and are too polygon heavy to work in any kind of realtime application. Plugging Ed Giddings' quarter million poly Soverign mesh into Oribter will not yield any useful results, for instance. There are a few realtime capable low poly meshes out there but they are few and far between and quite difficult to find.

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2002-09-20 11:13pm

Celestia has download problems on my comp, my computer lists the download files as only 11 kbs instead of 11 megs.....

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2002-09-21 04:48am

Check the Orbiter forums or AVSim, you will be able to find the original Enterprise there. There was also a ST spacestation in the making, and Voyager has made a Runabout some time ago. And if everything else fails, you can always make your own model. http://www.anim8or.com - try this one. It takes about 1.5 megabytes and is really quite powerful. Most of Orbiter addons were made in Anim8or, and they don't look bad one bit.
As an example of the program's power, you can see this:

http://karzuk.osowa.gda.osk.pl/torment/3dgallery/truck/

It's been made by a friend of mine, and I posted the pictures on my server for all the world to see.
I was once a total Orbiter nut, but I don't have the necessary patience now. Their forums are very newbie-friendly, though, as long as your read the fine manual and don't irritate them with questions like "How to take off"
Anyways, enjoy the sim. It's worth it.

Hendrake · Post by **Hendrake** » 2002-09-21 06:41am

[quote="Enlightenment]Most of the ST and SW meshes out there, however, are designed for non-realtime rendering and are too polygon heavy to work in any kind of realtime application. Plugging Ed Giddings' quarter million poly Soverign mesh into Oribter will not yield any useful results, for instance. There are a few realtime capable low poly meshes out there but they are few and far between and quite difficult to find.[/quote]
I see... Found out the hard way. Oh, well, I wanted to make an ISD in Anim8or anyway.

Shaka[Zulu] · Post by **Shaka[Zulu]** » 2002-09-21 11:42pm

I was wondering when someone would mention Orbiter... Ive been thinking about using it to prove some of my theorems about the near total lack of the Death Star's sublight mobility, and how it relates to the depictions in ANH and ROTJ... remember, I came up with the idea -- long ago -- that in ANH the DS1 wasnt bothering to orbit Yavin, and instead was just waiting patiently at a Libration point for Yavin 4 to swing around thru perigee and come into view... could even simulate the rebel strike force on the outbound leg from Y4 to the DS in that scenario. It shouldnt be difficult, but would be time-consuming to set up.