Replace the flat billboard-disc planets with real 3D EllipsoidGraphics
spheres textured with self-hosted high-res NASA/JPL + Solar System Scope
maps (hd_*.jpg, 2048x1024), plus a PlaneGraphics Saturn ring (top-down
annulus, transparent centre, depth-tested occlusion). Constant axial tilts
(Venus upside-down, Uranus on its side).
Cesium gotchas handled: constant orientation (time-varying orientation
drops image materials -> blank white); DirectionalLight intensity 0.42
(no HDR -> higher clamps bright maps to white); camera.flyTo is dead in
this mode so enter/travel run a manual eased setView tween (flyCamera);
ellipsoid+ring gated by distanceDisplayCondition(r*30) so the orrery
overview stays clean colored dots and the textured sphere takes over
up close.
Drop 9 now-unused 2k_ maps; textures/ is 3.3MB.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New '◉ Solar System' mode: leaves the Earth OSINT globe and renders a
heliocentric orrery — Sun + 8 planets as spheres textured with real (CC BY 4.0,
self-hosted) imagery, at their TRUE current positions (Schlyter series, incl.
Uranus/Neptune), with orbits. A 'Travel to…' panel flies the camera to any body;
'Return to Earth' restores the full OSINT view (globe, all layers, clock, camera,
frustum, lighting — all saved/restored). Planets exaggerated + distances
compressed for a readable orrery; Saturn ring; camera headlight for even lighting;
far plane widened to 8e9 (default 5e8 would clip the whole system).
Textures harvested from Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0), self-hosted in textures/
(WebGL taints cross-origin), credited in-app + README + textures/TEXTURES_CREDIT.md.
Components verified in-browser (ellipsoids render, positions correct, mode
enter/exit, UI, textures). Full-orrery screenshot pending a real GPU frame — the
headless preview can't complete async worker geometry (backgrounded tab clamps).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
