Planet backgrounds

[Shadowstar]

I noticed that the uninhabited volcanic planets don't have a dedicated background screen for landing, so i decided to whip one up to see if i could do it. Here's what I came up with:


http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/VegaS/volcanic.jpg

It's a jpeg, but this is just a preview. I have the high-quality bitmap on my HD. Its 512x512, which is the same size as the generic planet pic that's being used now.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

[hurleybird]

Looks nice. I think that the new base art is 1024 resolution though

[Shadowstar]

1024 x 1024 or 1024 x 768?

[hurleybird]

1024 squared

[Space Pirate]

Nice... maybe you could do some work for rocky planets, gas giants, and oceanic ammonia planets. (All uninhabitable)

[jackS]

Nice... maybe you could do some work for rocky planets, gas giants, and oceanic ammonia planets. (All uninhabitable)

Don't be too anthro-centric - an oceanic ammonia planet may well be inhabitable if you're a Rlaan (depending on atmospheric makeup)

[dandandaman]

The images are *stored* in a square (ie 1024x1024) format, but are then stretched/compressed to the normal display ratio (ie 1024x768)

Dan.a

[Shadowstar]

Ok, I did a new render of the volcanic planet with day, night, and sunset variations. It's not quite as pretty as the first one (I accidentally lost my heightmap for that one), but it works for now. I'm going to see if I can redraw a new heightmap with the diversity of the first one and then do day, night, and sunset renders of it when i finish it. For now, here's the ones I have so far:

http://www.inficad.com/~shadowstar/Vega ... nic_bg.zip (1.5 MB)

[dandandaman]

That's pretty good ... but I do have a suggestion

How about some lava? ATM it looks like a hot, yet rocky planet ... some lava (particularly glowing in the night image) would go really well

Dan.a

[Shadowstar]

Yeah, I was going to do that in the next one. Lava isn't quite as easy to do, but I had some in the first pic. The only trouble i seem to have with it is that the dense, sulfur-choked atmosphere limits the visibility so much that the lava tends to look a little dull unless I have it in the foreground. But I'm also thinking about using some glows to make it shine through fog... Not sure if it should, though, after all its sulfur... Well I'm sure I'll come up with something

[smbarbour]

Not to step on anyone's toes, but I have created another Lava landing image.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/galle ... d-Art/lava

1024x1024
Created using Terragen, edited with Photoshop.

Please let me know if this is what we are aiming for or if we are looking for some other style.

EDIT: I know it doesn't look all that great, but I was wondering if I was on the right track. I really don't like how the sky rendered. It's too plain.

[smbarbour]

I know there have been plenty of regulars online today. Doesn't anyone want to comment?

[Halleck]

I'm not too keen on it. There's no atmosphere to speak of (it would be much moodier with lots of volcanic ash in the air), and the textures look a bit dodgy.

As you mentioned, the sky is nothing to write home about.

Needs improvement.

[dandandaman]

Ya, the textures are a bit uniform, and you need to get same haze happening....but it *is* on the right track

Dan.a

[klauss]

....but it *is* on the right track

I'm not sure. There's nowhere to place your ship, or a BBS terminal (or any explanation as to its presence). I think it was an attempt to beautify the current default background, which is not a bad thing, but a new background alltogether would be much more useful. Actually, using the same mesh, he could render an ad-hoc outpost in the surface, sort of like you grabbed an EVA suit, and intalled a transmitter of some kind, or something like that, I don't know. Anyway, a complete background, not just a landscape, which is why the default background looks so much out of place from the start.

[Halleck]

Klauss: that's an excellent idea. It would explain how all these planets marked 'uninhabitable' all have a base computer in pristine condition.

Also, we should modify the type of repair that's available on an uninhabitable world. I'm thinking that since a basic repair is available currently (which doesn't make all that much sense) we could instead have a less effective "self-repair" option. You can patch up your ship enough to fly and not leak plasma or whatever all over the place, but not enough that you can take a series of beatings and not have to reach a populated area with professional mechanics.

[smbarbour]

Well, Lava planets import (and produce ) Robotics and Bionics, so they logically would have a base computer.

[Spiner]

Lighting lighting lighting, I cannot stress how important that is if you want a decent to good looking background.

Even the best models and textures look flat and plain with bad lighting.

[smbarbour]

Here's another one with most of the comments used. It's still not great, but I think it's better. We can superimpose structures if needed. I can't add objects to Terragen and modelling programs run like a dog at work.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/galle ... -Art/lava2

[Spiner]

Yeah that is much better, still needs lighting. Not familiar to terragen so I don't know if that's possible, however it is a improvment.

[smbarbour]

Terragen is limited to only one light source (the sun). It is overhead and to the right of the camera. You can see a little bit of the shadow it is causing to the left of the platform. At the same time, the light that would be reaching the surface is limited by the smoky atmosphere. If an artificial platform was added, it could have lights on it. Otherwise, the only light comes from the sun (and the glow from the lava)

[Accu-Accelerated]

Well done. We really need more planet backgrounds.

The sky/atmosphere looks good. The rocks look good in shape but somehow they are a bit weird, like in some places the color.

Also, there could be more ripples/waves in the lava, as well as making the lava glow.

The flat rock outcropping is excellent for putting buildings, computers, landing pads, etc. on.

Small bug: in the upper right corner there's a black area.

[spiritplumber]

The default uninhabited planet background for WCU is a satellite in orbit, and your ship appears docked to it -- from there you can save your game and access the news. The idea is that you're in a parking orbit. (The blurb text says so, even).


I'm lazy like that

[Halleck]

The rock in the center is nearly a perfect rectangle! If you intended for it to have a "carved out of a rock" look, add more rough stuff... maybe replace it with a large, irregular protrusion and hew a flat surface into the side. Right now it looks like a perfect natural landing platform just happened to surface out of the lava for you.

As for the background... if you can't get terragen to do anything but variations on the default "blue sky and clouds", maybe try rendering it without a sky and adding a simple horizon gradient in the GIMP, and maybe layer it with some soot.

Although you know what this picture REALLY needs.... a volcano!

Something to consider... maybe you could export your landscape and use a 3D suite like blender to render it, since you'd have more control over light sources, haze, and stuff.

[tiny paintings]

Ohhh.. and particle effects to add some bubbling and sparks to the lava