Title:
	Celestial Sphere, Quake 2 Sky Graphic
File Names:	CELEST.zip which includes:
	celestbk.tga	celestbk.pcx
	celestdn.tga	celestdn.pcx
	celestft.tga	celestft.pcx
	celestlf.tga	celestlf.pcx
	celestrt.tga	celestrt.pcx
	celestup.tga	celestup.pcx
Author:
	Roger Ritenour
e-mail:
	ritenour@rlc.net

 

Description:
	Custom Sky Texture. A star sky featuring all of the
	visible stars, 9,111 total stars. The sky is authentic
	stars as visible from Earth, plotted and rendered from
	data obtained from the Bright Star Catalog, version 4
	from National Space Science Data Center/World Data 
	Center A for Rockets and Satellites of NASA. The
	orientation is equivelant to 30 degrees N latitude with
	the North Star located in Quake's North (above the 
	y-axis). The Vernal Equinox is located on the Eastern
	horizon (Quake x-axis). The brightness and color of the 
	stars are calculated from the star's magnetude and 
	spectral class as published in the Bright Star Catalog.
	The plotting, rendering, and creation of the 6 bitmap 
	files for Quake was done with author written code.
	There are a total of 12 files. The 6 with the .tga 
	extension are used with openGL 3D accelerator cards
	and the 6 files with the .pcx extension are used by
	Quake2's software drivers.

	The rendering code written for this project is capable
	of rendering the stars into any orientation desired to
	reflect any location on Earth at any time. So if there 
	is interest in a sky in another orientation, please 
	contact the author via e-mail. The star catalog used 
	for this project includes parallax data from which 
	distances to the stars can be calculated. With this,
	the author is expanding the code to be able to render
	authentic alien skies as viewed from some of the
	nearby stars such as Siris or Alpha Centauri

Setup and use:	
	Place all 12 files into the ENV directory as follows:		

	QUAKE2 (quake2 executables are found here)
	  BASEQ2 (pak0.pak is found here)
	    ENV (the 6 .tga and 6 .pcx
	         files are placed here)

	The QUAKE2 and and its subdirectory, BASEQ2 will 
	already exist from the installation of Quake 2. The
	ENV directory may already exist if you are running 
	custom levels, if not, create it as a subdirectory
	of BASEQ2.

	Running this sky in Quake 2 can be accomplished in
	2 ways:
	   1.	In Quake 2, it can be invoked in any level
		from the pull-down console (~ key) with the
		command:  sky celest (press ~ to get the 
		console; enter the command, sky celest; press
		the enter key; then press ~ again to close 
		the console and the current sky will be 
		replaced with the stars) Note: This will not 
		alter any of your game or level files. The 
		next time Quake 2 loads that particular
		level, the original sky will be restored.

	   2.	You can make it part of a custom level you
		are creating. To do this, you set the sky 
		attribute of the worldspawn entity to celest
		(Most, if not all, editors allow access to 
		the attributes of the worldspawn entity to 
		accomplish this, however the editors differ on 
		how to exactly accomplish this, consult your
		editor documentation on specifics)

	Note: There are a total of 12 graphic files in the zip,
	6 with the .pcx extension and 6 with the .tga extension
	Quake 2 uses only 6 of them, which 6 depends on the
	Quake 2 video drivers being used. Quake 2 will load 
	the correct 6 files without any input directing it.
	If you use this sky on a custom level and later 
	distribute it, it is highly recommended to include
	all 12 files with your level to accommodate all users
	of Quake2.

 

Credits:
	National Space Science Data Center/World Data 
	Center A for Rockets and Satellites of NASA for 
	the Bright Star Catalog, version 4.

Editors used:
 	Star Render (Author written software application)
	Corel Photopaint 8 (to convert bitmap formats)

 
 
**** Legal Stuff ****

* Copyright / Permissions *

Generally I have no objections if you modify or use it as a
sky for building levels, but please cite credit appropriately.
If you do use this sky, please drop me a line as I would be
most interested in any level built under this sky.
You may distribute these files through any electronic network
(internet, FIDO, local BBS etc.), provided you include this 
text file and leave the archive intact. You may include this 
file on a cdrom where the purpose of the cdrom is a means of
distributing Quake levels and the price remains modest, with 
the primary purpose of the proceeds being for publishing the
cdrom and maintaining the internet sites. Commercial 
exploitation where these files may become the object of 
considerable commercial gain must have my written permission.