1. Simulation Curriculum Corp.
  2. Community
  3. Starry Night 6 | User Support
New post
0

Changes in scripts/snf files between Starry Night Small Dome v6.0.4 and v6.3.5

Originally from ticket #5629.

We have been using Starry Night Small Dome with a digital Starlab since 2007, and I am finally getting around to installing a newish version of the software (v. 6.3.5 versus the original version we had, v. 6.0.4) on a new MacBook. I have gotten the new software up and running and driving the projector correctly. However, we had a whole bunch of custom scripts and snf files that we wrote that no longer seem to work on the new machine. I have managed to figure out where to put the scripts in the new software version so that they come up in the SkyGuide, but as I said many of the scripts simply don't work. One of the main problems seems to be some reorganization of the handling of user-supplied images and movies. 1) If one want to have a .snf file that displays an image or a quicktime movie on the screen, in what folders should one put those things? Or, to ask another way, what is the appropriate way to handle both of these things in scripts/.snf files? 2) Also, what other changes in scripting/snf files occurred between these two versions of the software, as my problems don't all seem to stem from this one issue?

3) Finally, is there anywhere I can obtain some current documentation on scripting and commands with the starry night files? I received some very useful information 4 years ago when I attended what was then the Starlab Digital Institute, but some of that material must be out of date (since most of my .snf files don't work anymore). I cannot find anywhere on the Starry Night web site any reference material for meaningfully editing .snf files. We extensively use custom scripts for generating our own lesson plans and displaying our own time-lapse night-sky aurora footage.

Thanks for any information you can provide,
Robbie Herrick

Date Votes

4 comments

  • 0
    Avatar
    Dave Whipps

    Robbie,

    If you'd like to zip up and attach your existing files (or at least a few illustrative examples) I'll have a look at what you're trying to do, and see if I can fix them for you.

    In general, any images or other data that you would like to display via an SNF should be located in the "Slides" folder inside "Sky Data." 

    Also, Starry Night files are edited by Starry Night itself. You open, edit, and save them using the application, so you really shouldn't need any additional documentation, except for adding "Slides".

     

    - Dave

  • 0
    Avatar
    Rherrick

    Dave,

    Thank you for the info on the "Slides" folder.  However, I don't seem to be able to call up quicktime movies from that folder (but images do work).  The following snf file used to work, where there was a single folder we dumped images and movies to and an snf file could find it:

    <html>
    <body>
    <SN_VALUE name="Scene_Reset" value="No">
    <SN_VALUE name="TreatValueListAsCommands" value="Yes">
    <SN_VALUE name="Slide_Command" value="Yes">
    <SN_VALUE name="Slide_TransitionTime" value="0.0">
    <SN_VALUE name="Slide_TransferMode" value="5">
    <SN_VALUE name="Slide_ProjectionMode" value="fullscreen">
    <SN_VALUE name="Slide_FileName" value="aurora.mov">
    </body>
    </html>

    We do a fair amount of writing our own "SkyGuide" scripts, and we call some commands directly from the html.  Apparently there has been a slight change in syntax for calling commands, from:

    <a href="<sn_href_selectobj=Jupiter>">mytext</a> was acceptable in the old software,

    to

    <a href="sn_href_selectobj=Jupiter">mytext</a> in the new version.  (I had Pedro Braganca's email from before this forum existed, and emailed him directly to get this info).  Anyway, I think finding a movie with an snf file is the only remaining problem I have.

    Robbie

  • 0
    Avatar
    Dave Whipps

    Movie files can be added to any of these folders in Sky Data:

    "Movies"

    "Media"

    "Go"

    (Not Slides as I alluded to above).

    Note that if you want to refer to a movie in a subfolder of one of these, you should include it in the Slide_FileName value.

    e.g. <SN_VALUE name="Slide_FileName" value="SomeSubfolder/aurora.mov">

  • 0
    Avatar
    Rherrick

    Creating "Media" in Sky Data worked, and it seems that I can refer to it with or without the subfolder name.

    Thanks,

    Robbie

Please sign in to leave a comment.