May/June 2011 Lite Challenge Entry - Guinevere II-G Survey

**walterful** · 05-30-2011, 09:49 PM

This is where I bow my head in shame and admit that I didn't make the textures of Bittersweet and Garland (land and clouds); the original 2D textures came from various Celestia downloads. I did, however, recolor, bump, spherize, and light them only in GIMP.

Although, now I'm starting to wonder if I did something bad contest-wise. I've been focusing on the data presentation as the focus of the contest, and that the world image (while pretty) was secondary to that. I thought I was within the rules, and to my knowledge, nothing used was copyrighted, but now I'm questioning the validity of my entry. I may have just pulled a Shepard Fairey (and not in the good way).

**tilt** · 05-31-2011, 02:24 AM

its is not against the rules to use textures - so don't worry

**Hai-Etlik** · 05-31-2011, 03:35 AM

I would be careful to check the Celestia data. The program itself is not Public Domain, it's covered by copyright and licensed to the public under the GNU GPL. The data may well be under the GPL or a similar Copyleft license as well. There is a big difference between Copyleft and Public Domain and you would do well not to confuse them. Just because both let you make and distribute derivative works, doesn't mean you can do so without restrictions.

**Greason Wolfe** · 05-31-2011, 02:01 PM

Not bad, not bad at all. I can't offer any advice in regards to the texture question, but I hope you get it worked out without having to give up those gorgeous colors.

GW

**walterful** · 06-01-2011, 02:33 AM

Whew! I'm just far more relieved to have not overstepped any forum mores. Legal Smeagol can take his precious domain lawyering and jump into Mount Doom, for all I care. Though, perhaps I mixed and stretched that metaphor a little too far.

Now I guess I need to give in to the peer pressure and provide at least some semblance of a story. With this competition heating up as it is, I kinda need to. Yes, that was a sideways compliment to my opponents; I've been so focused on working through my entry's issues that I've neglected to comment and praise your work as you have mine. But then again, I am a selfish bastard.

-----

Her duty shift over, Cass entered her quarters for the evening. As far as shakedown cruises go, this one has been a dream, she mused, only to winge at that thought a moment later. She rapped her knuckle on the bulkhead as she stepped over to the kitchenette, One of those carbon-filament molecules has to have been from a tree at some point. She grabbed a sealed mug, placed a Tea-Pearl(tm) in the chamber, and locked the mug into the hot water dispenser to fill it. There was a chime from her desk; likely another progress report request from Finance. She relaxed into her desk chair and took a moment to gaze at the starry expanse on the other side of the desk's viewport.

Breathe, she reminded herself.

Reaching across the workspace, she tapped on the viewport which darkened into display mode. Briefly, she admired the ease of the new ship's interface, though the design's alliance-deco influence was a bit too heavy for her taste. The message thumbnails cycled into the forefront: (!!!)Harris@HQ-Finance(!!!), Maxine@Home, (!)Aerin@HQ-Operations(!), (!!!)Harris@HQ-Finance(!!!), Danny@SSArdennes, (!!!)Harris@HQ-Finance(!!!). She selected Aerin's and smirked; it's very rare to hear from her. The video slid forward as it started.

"Hey Cass, since we've got you surveying NSD 86.75/3.09 in that brand new ship of ours, would you keep an eye out for the Barcelona? It seems your backup may be in need of assistance; communications with them went silent shortly after you shipped out. They were scouting some promising geological scans around the gas giant, Bittersweet. And yeah, we're looking into the AI's shorthand name choices; it almost seems like he's amusing himself. Oh, and Harris is waiting to hear from you. Sorry."

Damn.

Cass tapped on the system schematic and targeted the moons of the second planet. The screen changed into a live view of the gas giant's satellite system, focusing on each of the moons in turn with scan details overlaid. The survey stopped at the seventh moon, "Garland," and lit up with further details. She pressed the "Cockpit" button on the communications panel. "Marcus, set a course for 2-G, 'Garland.' Someone slipped up, and we've got trouble." As she walked out of her quarters, she glanced at the section of bulkhead she had knocked on only minutes before.

Damn.

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