[Celestia-developers] DeepSkyObjects

[Fridger S. <t0...@ma...>]

Second thought's about DeepSkyObjects:
--------------------------------------

On the one hand, I find Chris' plans of attacking the galaxy/nebulae
rendering issue most challenging and worth considerable effort from
all of us. On the other hand, thinking about possibilities for
an actual realization of this challenge myself, confronts me with all
sorts of doubts, warnings etc...

Some thoughts that came up, might be useful to other minds as well;):

1) Introducing a new DepSky Object superclass etc in Celestia may involve
   big changes but this is nothing breathtaking. It simply can be done
   and makes a lot of sense in the long run.

2) 1st Warning: 
   ------------
   So far, deep sky objects led an "unspectacular life"
   in Celestia to the dismay of many;-). But looked at differently,
   this in a way was a very clever compromise, not unlike certain paintings,
   where faces of people are merely sketched rather than painted with a
   sophisticated expression and including many details. Have you ever
   looked at paintings with completely "rendered" faces? Very
   delicate, indeed! One touch to much may destroy the whole
   picture... The idea in this deep sky project is clearly to
   render deep sky objects in much more detail. Again: one touch to much
   might well destroy the professional overall impression of Celestia!

   The Orbit program for me is a good illustration of how things might
   go wrong along these lines. Some graphics is certainly comparable
   to Celestia. But certain things like buildings, airports etc. look
   like from a "Kindergarden" kit. That does it, at least for me...

   These remarks are NOT meant as discouragement, but I would be very
eager      to hear something that has a chance of bypassing/overcoming this
danger.


3) Individually "handicrafted" deepsky objects along the lines of the various
   space vehicles we have in Celestiam, are clearly NOT what is required.
   In order to retain the necessary degree of "professionalism", we should
   think about a scheme allowing "mass production";-) of such objects
   from catalogs and/or image data bases!

   I have not read so far /any ideas/ from Chris in this context!? Am I
   dreaming or is the answer merely trivial?;-). Since my letters to
Chris       often end in "Nirwana", I rarely know....

4) I do have a number of ideas myself, but since Chris has started off
   this topic, I would very much like to hear his ideas first.


...possibly to be continued...


Bye Fridger