Re: [Celestia-developers] 1.6.0 TODO list

[Chris L. <cl...@gm...>]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 2:37 AM, Fridger Schrempp
<fri...@de...>wrote:

> Chris,
>
>  * Globular cluster catalog
>>  - Fridger has made very good progress on this; need to wait until he's
>>    back from vacation.
>>
>
>
> I am a bit surprised about your listing of my entire large globular cluster
> project merely under "catalogs" in your section about *** Data files ***
> ;-):


I know that there's both code and data file work required, and I didn't want
to list it in two places. In any case, there was certainly no 'merely'
implied . . . :)

>
>
> My globular cluster /catalog/ is of course ready and essentially unchanged
> since > 1/2 year! That was an almost routine job in Perl...
>
> Here is my "boiler plate" as of May 08
>
>  # "Catalog of Parameters for Milky Way Globular Clusters",
>> # 2003 Update, by William E. Harris.
>> # http://physwww.physics.mcmaster.ca/~harris/mwgc.dat
>> # Bibliography: http://physwww.mcmaster.ca/%7Eharris/mwgc.ref
>> # supplemented by diameters <=> 25mu isophote from
>> # Brian A. Skiff/Lowell Observatory, NGCIC project,
>> # http://www.ngcic.org/data_archive/gc.txt
>> # supplemented by diameters <=> 25mu isophote from
>> # the SEDS 2007 catalog (H. Frommert)
>> # http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/MWGC/mwgc.html
>> # Adapted for Celestia with Perl script: globulars.pl Revision: 1.0.0
>> # Processed 2008-5-10 6 130 0 11:33:33 UTC
>> #
>> # by Dr. Fridger Schrempp, fri...@de...
>> # ------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
>
> The non-trivial part of my globular cluster project is rather quite a lot
> of /new code/ for rendering and integrating globular clusters in Celestia.
> For example, it implements King's theory & parametrization  for globulars
> via a new Globular class. The data catalog correspondingly includes a number
> of parameters that work only with my new code based on King. That code is
> also finished and working in my version of Celestia since a number of
> months. It also implements standard features, of course, like globular label
> fading, activation via celx commands, manual brightness adjustments etc.
>
> However, as we both realize, there is still the awkward, remaining issue of
> central core brightness ... Quite recently, I have addressed it once more at
> large distance from the cluster (small apparent cluster size). As was
> discussed at length previously, in any OGL blending attempt, the main
> difficulty is retaining 2d-3d compatibility with King's parametrization,
> such that the parameters from the data file still apply! I hope I can report
> some progress on this issue quite soon.
>
> Moreover there is work to be done concerning the /detailed/ spectral
> distributions of globulars, including the horizontal branch, blue strugglers
> etc. The required parameters are already part of my catalog file. Up to now,
> my code does include Red Giants within the globular star distribution.
>
> Since I am back from vacations (Aug. 10), I now have implemented my code at
> latest Rev. level 4404 and generated a corresponding patch.
>

Good to hear; I hope that there weren't too many difficulties involved in
merging. Let me know if there's anything I can do on the OpenGL side of
things to help with globulars (shader work, etc.)

--Chris


>
> Fridger
>
>
> Chris Laurel wrote:
>
>> I'm trying get a better handle on the 1.6.0 release of Celestia. The
>> following list contains all of the issues I could think of that *may* need
>> to be addressed before releasing 1.6.0. <http://1.6.0.> I've added
>> clarifying comments for most of the items.
>>
>> This list is just a starting point. I'm sure that there are some
>> omissions, and a text list is certainly not the ideal way to track progress.
>> What I'd like from everyone on the dev list is the following:
>>
>> - Read through the list completely
>> - Add any items that you think have been omitted.
>> - Add your comments to the items on the list, including:
>>  - How important do you think the item to add/fix for Celestia 1.6.0?
>>  - Whether it's something that you'd be interested and have time to work
>> on over the next month
>>  - If you're already working on it, note this and give a rough estimate of
>> a completion time.
>>
>> After an initial round of comments, I'll add the items to the SourceForge
>> bug and feature trackers (some are already listed there) and assign
>> priorities and developers. We can then try and set a feature freeze date and
>> estimate a release time for 1.6.0. <http://1.6.0.> There's no critical
>> deadline for 1.6.0; hopefully we can make a realistic estimate of the
>> release time, but I'm ok with it slipping a bit. Mostly, I just want to
>> establish the scope of the next Celestia version and put a little bit of
>> process in place so that we can track progress toward it. This will
>> hopefully make it easier for potential contributors to figure out what
>> remains to be worked on. The SourceForge trackers are far from the best tool
>> for this, but feel that it would be best to wait until after 1.6.0 to start
>> discussing a switch to some other project management system. Anyhow, the
>> trackers are certainly a better option than my mental list of features of
>> bugs.
>>
>> Project management is unfortunately (and obviously) not my forte. So while
>> I think I've proposed a reasonable path toward releasing Celestia 1.6.0, I'd
>> love to hear suggestions from others on the release process.
>>
>> --Chris
>>
>> *** Features ***
>>
>> * Simplified placement of surface objects
>>  - Based on forum discussion here:
>> http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12487 <
>> http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12487>
>>  - This amounts to an ssc parser change and nothing more. The proposal
>> doesn't
>>    add new capabilities to Celestia; it just presents a simplified
>> 'front-end'
>>    for Celestia's two vector frames (which many find to be too complex.)
>>
>> * Improved mesh positioning
>>  - Based on forum discussion here:
>> http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12520 <
>> http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12520>
>>
>>
>> * Coordinate display
>>  - Currently, only RA/Dec shown for stars/DSOs, and only when camera is
>> near
>>    Earth
>>
>> * Change HUD text
>>  - Already added phase angle
>>  - Change 'day length' -> 'sidereal rotation period' (or remove it)
>>  - Recommend postponing to 1.7.0, new UI
>>
>> * Compass
>>  - Recommend postponing to 1.7.0
>>
>> * Make modify work for stars
>>  - Requires changes to star database handling; currently the star index is
>>    only built after all stars are loaded. Thus, looking up a star while
>>    loading requires a potentially expensive linear scan of all currently
>>    loaded stars.
>>
>> * Cel URL v3
>>  - Switch from v2 to v3 URLs
>>  - What about compatibility? 1.6.0 can read old cel URLs, but does there
>>    need to be a compatibility switch to let Celestia create cel URLs that
>>    can be understood by older versions of the program?
>>  - Very simple changes required to each front-end; compatibility switch
>>  - Critical to do this for 1.6.0, otherwise we'll continue to have trouble
>>    with cel URLs getting out of date every time an orbit is updated
>>
>> * Selectable markers
>>  - Recommend postponing to 1.7.0
>>
>>
>> *** UI ***
>>
>> * Make sure list of location type checkboxes is complete
>>  - Volcanoes missing from list on Mac; what else?
>>
>> * Re-assign 'D' key to something other than demo
>>  - What? Martin would like it D, Shift+D, Ctrl+D, and Shift+Ctrl+D to
>>    toggle coordinate grids.
>>
>> * Assign keys for the new grid types: horizon, galactic, ecliptic
>>  - ;, Shift+;, Ctrl+; ?
>>  - or D key?
>>
>> * (Possibly) re-assign r and R keys
>>  - Current situation is potentially confusing for people who accidentally
>>    hit r, get stuck with low resolution textures, and don't know that they
>>    need to hit Shift+R to get medium/high resolution textures back.
>>  - Changing texture resolution is done infrequently enough that it
>> shouldn't
>>    require a keyboard command; GUI only should be adequate.
>>
>> * Ctrl+number keys bindable via script
>>  - Works on Mac, Qt4 versions, simple change for Windows; what about
>> Linux?
>>
>>
>>
>> *** Bugs ***
>>
>> * Missing label for Pluto-Charon
>>  - Lots of complaints about this
>>
>> * Untranslated name shown for solar system bodies
>>  - Bug introduced when support for multiple names added for solar system
>>    bodies; very simple fix.
>>
>> * Ring labels not showing (2020938)
>>  - Bug introduced when depth sorting for location labels was added; fix
>>    shouldn't be too hard.
>>
>> * Planet grid not smooth enough (2042174)
>>  - Lots of work to fix, and planet grids work pretty well right now;
>>    recommend waiting until after 1.6.0. <http://1.6.0.>
>>
>>
>> * Oblateness not accounted for when calculating location positions
>>  - Need a function to calculate the nearest point on an ellipsoid; finding
>>    the closest point on an ellipsoid involves solving a 6th degree
>> polynomial.
>>    Easy to solve with Newton's method; however, the iteration blows up for
>>    points near the coordinate axes and planes. Coding these special cases
>>    seems non-trivial.
>>  - Lack of point to ellipsoid distance function is also why distances from
>>    the viewer to gas giant planets (which are significantly non-spherical)
>>    aren't correct.
>>  - Recommend that we wait until 1.7.0 to address this. Oblateness for
>>    terrestrial planets is currently set to zero. Also ikely to be some
>> issues
>>    with texture maps when we switch to correct non-zero oblateness. It all
>>    seems like a big can of worms that can wait until a future release.
>>
>> * Planetographic grid is actually planetocentric, not planetographic
>>  - Recommend waiting until after 1.6.0; see above.
>>
>> * Planetshine problems with multiple stars (+ efficiency)
>>  - Shadows shouldn't be calculated for planetshine light sources; it makes
>>    pixel shaders more complex, and the shadows are either too faint or too
>>    diffuse to be visible.
>>  - Needs to be addressed in 1.6.0
>>  * Non-local celx variable collide (shared namespace between modules)
>> (2010622)
>>  - Current behavior might be ok; if so, we should document it so that celx
>>    script authors aren't surprised by it.
>>
>> * Partial sphere drawn with model (2000718)
>>  - Haven't looked at it yet.
>>
>> * Goto class "invisible" object doesn't get there (1970733)
>>  - I'm ok with the current behavior; need to understand why it's a bad
>> thing
>>
>> * Small objects not drawn (1970702)
>>  - Haven't looked at it yet
>>
>> * Celestia fails to compile with libtool-2.2.x (1953340)
>>  - Need help from a Linux user with this one
>>
>> * Missing header file includes for gcc-4.3 (1905327)
>>  - Need help from a Linux user with this one; bug report seems to give
>>    required patches.
>>
>> * Readonly code management requires system access (1906990)
>>  - Lua 'require' statement should be available regardless of script system
>>    access policy.
>>
>> * Localization bug in 1.5.0 (??? instead of letters) (1894243)
>>  - Not looked at yet.
>>
>> * Label hidden by parent, at right part of screen (1885953)
>>
>> * Star glare clipping problem on labels, Mac (1882282)
>>
>> * Children of class invisible objects not in solar system browser
>> (1888463)
>>  - Windows-only, I think; should be easy to fix
>>  - Bug report recommends a 'Browsable false' attribute to prevent an
>> object
>>    from showing up in the browser; I'm not so enthusiastic about this, and
>>    it can wait until after 1.6.0. <http://1.6.0.>
>>
>>
>> * "Cor Hydrae" and "Cor Leonis" names are unusable (1872363)
>>  - Need some fixes for star name lookup; I think that keeping Bayer,
>>    Flamsteed, and variable star designations in separate lists would fix
>> the
>>    problem.
>>  * No way to assign/reassign HD and SAO numbers (1872357)
>>  - Not looke at yet.
>>
>> * Unfamiliar names shown for stars (1868779)
>>  - Another issue that could be by separating star names/designation lists:
>>    common proper names, rare proper names, Bayer, Flamsteed, variable.
>>  - User might be allowed (eventually) to set a priority for name display.
>>    For now, could be hardcoded to: common proper, Bayer, Flamsteed,
>> variable,
>>    uncommon proper names.
>>
>> * Name resolution problems for stars in multiple systems (1865513)
>>
>> * No Bayer superscripts for numbers above 3 (1865160)
>>  - Superscript 1, 2, and 3 glyphs are common in most fonts; glyphs for
>> other
>>    numbers are not. Some other method of rendering the superscripts (e.g.
>>    rich text) is required for numbers >= 4. Doesn't seem worth the effort.
>>
>> * Ambient light may look incorrect in legacy ARB shaders (1864979)
>>  - Not looked at yet.
>>
>> * Planet temperature not calculated correctly in circumbinary systems
>> (1864716)
>>  - Recommend punting to post-1.6.0
>>  - I'd prefer that we not show the equilibrium temperature at all in the
>>    overlay text.
>>
>> * "Clean" fonts lack degree symbol (1864643)
>>  - Clean fonts probably need to be rebuilt with a more complete glyph set;
>> do
>>    we care?
>>
>> * Comet tail fading uses visual luminosity (1864557)
>>  - Should be an easy fix
>>
>> * Atmospheres appear to dark at zenith (1847027)
>> * Atmospheric scattering shaders should handle multiple lights (1845867)
>> * Thick atmospheres not rendered properly (1833392)
>> * Tesselation artifacts visible in planetary atmospheres (1833388)
>>  - Scattering atmosphere code needs an upgrade. It's a lot of work, but
>>    important for the appearance of bodies with atmospheres. We understand
>>    theoretically what needs to be done, but cramming the scattering
>> integral
>>    into a shader that runs at a respectable speed is a very research-y
>>    problem. I don't think it's a pragmatic to tie 1.6.0 (or any release)
>>    to implementing new scattering code.
>>
>> * Impossible to set time to a leap second with GUI (1844999)
>>  - Recommend that we wait until we have a unified UI before tackling this
>>
>> * Improve rendering of cloud shadows (1833699)
>>  - Requires using a cube map for a cloud texture
>>  - Recommend we wait until after 1.6.0
>>
>> * VT tiles show seams (1830209)
>>  - Not looked at yet
>>
>> * Reference points are not fully functioning SSC objects (1824592)
>>  - Refers to the fact that reference points didn't have a body
>> frame/rotation
>>    model (since they're points.)  But this isn't true any more: reference
>>    points should behave exactly like invisible objects. In other words,
>>    the bug should be fixed already.
>>
>> * Scripted position fails with large values (1820619)
>>  - Only occurs with huge values (on the order of kiloparsecs); seems
>>    low-priority.
>>
>> * Click selection should ignore extremely faint objects (1809581)
>>  - Not looked at yet
>>
>> * Eclipse shadows are displaced (1781690)
>>  - Problem occurs with oblate planets
>>  - Would be nice to fix, not critical for 1.6.0
>>
>>
>>
>> *** Data files ***
>>
>> * Titan SAR map
>>  - Use Jason Perry (aka volcanopele) map, alternate surface
>>
>> * High resolution Dione
>>  - Use Guillermo Abramson's map
>>
>> * Improved Eros model
>>  - The high resolution model is very nice, but we need to decide how much
>>    we're willing to bloat the package in order to get a better looking
>>    asteroid.
>>  - Also, it would be nice to use the normal mapped model, but people
>>    without OpenGL 2.0 will just see an untextured model. I'm of the
>> opinion
>>    that OpenGL 2.0 hardware is common enough now that we should use the
>>    normal mapped model.
>>
>> * Itokawa model
>>  - Same issue as with Eros: how much detail for the model?
>>
>> * New Cassini tracjectory
>>  - Critical; current trajectory doesn't cover the extended mission
>>  - I'm about 95% done with this; only thing left is matching orientation
>>    of Huygens.
>>
>> * New ISS model
>>  - Critical: current model is very poor; z-fighting problems, missing
>>  triangles, out of date. A much improved model is available; with the
>>    new planetshine code in 1.6.0, the new model is a real showpiece for
>>    Celestia.
>>  -  New model needs textures converted from BMP -> JPG
>>
>> * High resolution textures for Galileans
>>  - Would be nice, but can probably wait until post-1.6.0
>>  - Not sure which textures to include; Jason Perry's Galileo SPICE add-on
>>   has a nice collection of textures.
>>
>> * Add Andrew's CHARM stellar radii catalog
>>  - Easy?
>>
>> * Add Selden's pulsar catalog
>>  - Selden says that his version of this is out of date
>>
>> * Globular cluster catalog
>>  - Fridger has made very good progress on this; need to wait until he's
>>    back from vacation.
>>
>>
>> *** Documentation ***
>> (Some already available on Wikibook)
>>
>> * Timeline
>> * New SSC fields
>>  - Visible
>>  - Clickable
>>  - OrbitColor
>> * SpiceRotation
>> * SpiceOrbit modifications
>>  - Support for multiple kernel files
>> * CustomRotation
>> * SemiAxes
>> * xyzv files
>>  - spice2xyzv tool
>>
>>
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