Uniview Mod File Conversion

As an example on the Tesla in space module

1. Starting with tesla.mod file

2. Creating tesla.asset

   1. Specifying local files we later need. By specifying with resource, we put them in the same folder as the asset file and don’t need to put them on a server anywhere

      local kernel = asset.resource("tesla.bsp")
      local model = asset.resource("tesla.obj")
      local texture = asset.resource("white.jpg")
      

3. Converting

   coord
   {
     name tesla
     parent SolarSystem
   
     unit 1000000.0
     unitname 1000 Km
     entrydist 10
     positionfile modules/tesla/teslapos.conf
     orbitfile modules/tesla/teslaorbit.conf
     positionhook tesla
   }
   

   1. teslapos.conf mentions the spice information which is converted into

   2. teslaOrbit.conf contains information about the orbit

   3. First we create a coordinate system for the Tesla (this can be merged with the model as well)

   4. Then a *Trail object. In this case, because we have a start and end time, we use a RenderableTrailTrajectory rather than RenderableTrailOrbit

      local TeslaPosition = {
        -- Name is arbitrary
        Name = "Tesla Position",
        -- Parent uses the asset.require to retrieve the name from another asset file
        Parent = transforms.SolarSystemBarycenter.Name,
        -- Values for this come from the original file
        Transform = {
          Translation = {
            Type = "SpiceTranslation",
            Target = "-143205",
            Observer = "SUN",
            Kernels = kernel
          }
        },
        -- GuiPath is an arbitrary string that is only used in the user interface to build a tree
        GuiPath = "/Solar System/Tesla"
      }
      
      local TeslaTrail = {
        Name = "Tesla Trail",
        Parent = transforms.SolarSystemBarycenter.Name,
        Renderable = {
          Type = "RenderableTrailTrajectory",
          Translation = {
            Type = "SpiceTranslation",
            Target = "-143205",
            Observer = "SUN",
            Kernels = kernel
          },
          Color = { 1.0, 0.6, 0.2 },
          StartTime = "2018 02 07 02:46:00",
          EndTime = "2030 01 01 23:59:59",
          SampleInterval = 60 * 60 * 24 -- One sample every day
        },
        GuiPath = "/Solar System/Tesla"
      }
      

   5. Ignoring (not sure why it is needed for Uniview

      coord
      {
       name teslasmC
       parent tesla
      
       unit 1.0
       unitname 1 m
       entrydist 500
      
      }
      

   6. Converting

      object tesla sgOrbitalObject
      {
        coord teslasmC
        geometry SG_USES teslaMesh.conf
      
        cameraradius 0.40
        targetradius 140
        scale 0.33
        lsize 1000000
        align earth 1 0 0
      
        off
      
        guiName /Solar System/Satellites/Tesla
      }
      

      into

      local TeslaModel = {
        Name = "Tesla",
        Parent = TeslaPosition.Name,
        Renderable = {
          Type = "RenderableModel",
          Geometry = {
            Type = "MultiModelGeometry",
            GeometryFile = model
          },
          ColorTexture = texture
        },
        GuiPath = "/Solar System/Tesla"
      }
      

      Unfortunately, we don’t support multiple textures or MTL files yet (or at least I don’t know how to use the latter), so we have to use a pure white texture.

   7. Exporting assets to the outside world:

      local objects = { TeslaPosition, TeslaTrail, TeslaModel }
      assetHelper.registerSceneGraphNodesAndExport(asset, objects)