Orbital planet surfaces

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:55 pm

I'm wondering if there is any great need for more planet surfaces (what you see from orbit). If so, I think I can do some really nice ones. Let me know if there are any requests and I'll see what I can put together. I think i can manage some good spheremaps like the ones included in the game folders.

Post by **hurleybird** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:36 pm

Yeah, the current planet bg's look kinda crappy. If you do make new ones 2048x1024 would be good, or even 4096x2048, since they can always be scaled down for lower end systems.

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:59 pm

cool, i'll give it a shot then

EDIT: what dimensions should i use for the surface maps?

EDIT: Nevermind, didn't see the other post

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:11 am

Ok, I think I've got something here that looks pretty good. here is a sample:

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/IcePlanets.zip (15mb)

The zip contains 3 textures for ice planets.

Lemme know what you think. Looks like I've filled up my webspace, so I'll have to remove that zip before I can upload anymore packages. 4096 x 2048 really eats up alot of diskspace.

Post by **dandandaman** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:21 am

Those're great

I have a copy now, so you can take it down if you want

Are you planning to be able to replace all of the ones we have? That would rock

Dan.a

Halleck · Post by **Halleck** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:48 am

The only surface that should be left alone is this one here, IMO.

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:00 am

I'm not sure I could actually do that. I'll make a few here and there when I have time, but I've been known to completely dissapear for months on end, so don't count on me being able to do loads of pictures. I also spend alot of time with other projects (I have a few dev projects of my own as hobbies), so it'll only be an occasional thing.

Post by **dandandaman** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:27 am

That's cool, anything is an improvement

Dan.a

Post by **dandandaman** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:47 am

What would be really nice though is if we could get specular maps with these dudes too .. if possible

Dan.a

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:25 pm

specular maps? i've never used those before, what would they be for and how would i go about making them?

strangelet · Post by **strangelet** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:32 pm

spec maps are channels in a shader which increase or decrease the reflectivity of a given pixel depending on brightness. spec maps are greyscale images therefore -

try making another version of your iceworld tex, but make all the ice a light grey, water white and cloud/land black. this will give the ice some reflectivity, water will sparkle and land will be matte

its a good idea if youre building these things in layers to keep useful elements for making spec maps.

also why not try a luma map?! add lights to your world by making another tex containing only black and city lights

Post by **hurleybird** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:03 pm

Oh, and cloud maps actually should be a different texture, as opposed to stuck on with the rest.

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:25 am

hmm, nice ideas, thanks i'll try some of these out.

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:41 am

I've got some new stuff for you all.

I took what you said about the different texture maps and tried some things out. This time I did a caribbean planet to try all the different things. Here it is:

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/caribe1.zip

THe textures use descriptive names so there should be no questions about which is what.

This is just enough for one planet, I didn't do 3 like before. Turns out it takes longer to do 4 textures for a planet than one...

EDIT: here's a thought: is it possible to have the engine dynamically black out parts of a citylights texture to represent the population of a planet? For instance, a small population would only have citylights in one spot, but a densely populated planet would use the full texture. Also, I'm not sure about the size of the icecaps. On the one hand, a caribbean planet is probably pretty warm and doesnt have big icecaps (accounts for the extra water), but on the other hand, smaller icecaps look funny when spheremapped... Well, I guess we won't know until we see them in play.

Post by **dandandaman** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 10:01 am

This looks great

Currently trying to relearn how to get it working in-game

Dan.a

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:42 pm

Got another one:

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/caribe2.zip

Post by **dandandaman** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:06 am

Cool, will look at the second one shortly.

The first one looks great btw, but I have one thing to say .... your light maps are too dark

I had to adjust the brightness/contrast of the first one you sent until I got something like:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jg/daniel/ ... _light.png

In game, it then looks like:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jg/daniel/ ... lights.png

Feel free to readjust the master if this isn't good

Dan.a

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:37 pm

That's good. I wasn't sure about the lightness since usually city lights are actually pretty dim when seen from orbit, but i also didnt have anything to compare it to, so i probably made them too dark. Anyway, whatever you need to do to it to make it look good is fine by me. Thanks for getting them in the game!

I'll see if I can make some more.

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:41 pm

I finished this one just a minute ago... Probably didnt get the lightness quite right on the citylights again, but at least its finished.

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/caribe3.zip

Post by **dandandaman** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:32 am

Shadowstar wrote:I finished this one just a minute ago... Probably didnt get the lightness quite right on the citylights again, but at least its finished.

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/caribe3.zip

ah ... you forgot the city lights in that one

Dan.a

Post by **dandandaman** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:33 am

Shadowstar wrote:Thanks for getting them in the game!

More like, thank *you* for giving something for me to put in game

Dan.a

Post by **dandandaman** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:49 am

*bump* lights for the third one?

Dan.a

unimatrix · Post by **unimatrix** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:59 pm

hurleybird wrote:Oh, and cloud maps actually should be a different texture, as opposed to stuck on with the rest.

Depends. If the planet is going to be in the background, having all the textures on a single map isn't bad. Being in game, I don't think anyone will noticed.

Now for close up animation and photorealism, different story.

NASA used to have some great 4096x4096 maps of earth inculding a luma map showing all the cities, but the server crashed and I haven't been able to relocate all the maps...

Shadowstar · Post by **Shadowstar** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:24 pm

I can get that light map together, but it will take some time... Kinda rushed this week so it might be a while. I've got a partially-completed forest planet too, but that stuff is all kinda on the back burner right now.

Post by **dandandaman** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:33 am

That's cool ... as long as you don't forget

Dan.a