Include all Major Bodies in the Default Config

[JonasGilg]

I think it would be great, if we could include all major bodies in the default config. I consider major bodies, bodies that are well known and of scientific interest, but the list can be debatable.

Current status:

• Mercury
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
• Venus
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Note: Texture is of clouds, not of surface.
• Earth
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Luna
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Mars
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Phobos
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Deimos
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Ceres
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
• Vesta
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
• Jupiter
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Io
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Europa
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Ganymede
      • Global Coverage
      • Color (only partial)
    • Callisto
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Saturn
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Mimas
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Enceladus
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Tethys
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Dione
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Rhea
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Titan
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Hyperion
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
      • Note: SPICE is missing orientation data, since Hyperions orientation is unpredictable. CSVR doesn't support that.
    • Iapetus
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Uranus
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Miranda
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Ariel
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Umbriel
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
    • Titania
      • Global Coverage
    • Oberon
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Neptune
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Triton
      • Global Coverage
      • Color
• Pluto
  • Global Coverage
  • Color
  • Moons:
    • Charon
      • Global Coverage
      • Color

[Schneegans]

They are all in the SPICE kernels. It's just a matter of finding good textures (with a permissive license).

[JonasGilg]

I have found a good ressource for getting global mosaics for all major bodies: https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/
They are mostly published under public domain or without a license.

Do you think, that we should include bodies, that have gaps in their data, like Callisto and Pluto?:

[Schneegans]

I think partial data is totally fine. I am not sure about no data, though.

[Schneegans]

We could fill the gaps with a solid color which matches the rest of the image. Else it may look a bit too weird :D

[JonasGilg]

I updated the issue, to track the state of each bodies texture. This should help us improve the textures over time as new data is collected or made available.

[JonasGilg]

I have found some textures for Uranian moons: https://repository.hou.usra.edu/handle/20.500.11753/1687

It is not clear under which license they are available, but I send a request to clarify the license.

[TheLostProbe]

i would HIGHLY recommend checking out Askaniy's work:
https://www.deviantart.com/askaniy/gallery/66224990/space-texture-maps
most of his stuff should be CC-BY-SA, but if not then just contact him and ask him if you can use it, most of the time he says yes
edit: i would also recommend Astra and FarGetaNik's work:
https://www.deviantart.com/astra-planetshine/art/Charon-Map-2015-Nov-07-546620055
https://www.deviantart.com/astra-planetshine/art/Pluto-Map-2015-Nov-10-546286799
https://www.deviantart.com/fargetanik/gallery/all
(FGN's 32K true-colour Earth texture, it's better than the one on his dA because it has less artifacting (the reason why there are transparent spots is because it was made for celestia and celestia uses the alpha channel as a specular map, you should disable the visibility of the alpha channel and then export it before using it in cosmoscout; this will remove the transparency and make the landmasses visible)):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BZAzQbSGrxhj4D-jwf-oYceyURqI8QdC?usp=sharing

[JonasGilg]

i would HIGHLY recommend checking out Askaniy's work: https://www.deviantart.com/askaniy/gallery/66224990/space-texture-maps most of his stuff should be CC-BY-SA, but if not then just contact him and ask him if you can use it, most of the time he says yes edit: i would also recommend Astra and FarGetaNik's work: https://www.deviantart.com/astra-planetshine/art/Charon-Map-2015-Nov-07-546620055 https://www.deviantart.com/astra-planetshine/art/Pluto-Map-2015-Nov-10-546286799 https://www.deviantart.com/fargetanik/gallery/all

Thank you very much! Those are some great sources. If I find some time, I will definetly go through them and improve on our current textures.

(FGN's 32K true-colour Earth texture, it's better than the one on his dA because it has less artifacting (the reason why there are transparent spots is because it was made for celestia and celestia uses the alpha channel as a specular map, you should disable the visibility of the alpha channel and then export it before using it in cosmoscout; this will remove the transparency and make the landmasses visible)): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BZAzQbSGrxhj4D-jwf-oYceyURqI8QdC

We actually limit the resolution for our default config, so the loading times aren't too long. For high resolution data we have the csp-lod-bodies plugin, which requires a map server.

[TheLostProbe]

We actually limit the resolution for our default config, so the loading times aren't too long.

theres 1k, 4k, and 8k downscaled variants in there as well

and by the way, this is related to the earth texture, what image editing program do you have installed? is it photoshop, GIMP, krita, or something else? if its GIMP then i can walk you through the alpha channel stuff :p