Astroblog: Pluto Surface Texture for Celestia

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Pluto Surface Texture for Celestia

Pluto simulated in Celestia with the Pluto Global Map used to generate the Pluto texture. Click to embiggen

The Pluto Global Map has just been released, so I resized it (1024x512) and conveyed it to a 71 DPI png to use as a texture for Celestia.

You need to copy the texture file pluto_surface1.png to the textures/medres folder in the Celestia directory, then edit the solarsys.ssc file in the data folder (make a backup copy first) to replace the texture name in the Pluto definition section with that of the new texture, save it and you are good to go.

"Pluto:134340 Pluto" "Sol"
{
    Class "dwarfplanet"
    Texture "pluto_surface1.*"
    SpecularTexture "pluto-lok-spec.*"
    SpecularColor            [ 0.135 0.12 0.08 ]
    SpecularPower             9.5

Now waiting for the Charon map. Then I have to learn how to do XYZ or SPICE orbits to add in the New Horizons flyby.

Labels: celestia, Dwarf Planet, Pluto