strangelet:
use a 3d program to procedurally generate them onto a sphere and then bake the texture to an image
Tried to do that with 3dsmax. But when I attempt to render the generated maps, they end up being broken up into smaller pieces. It seems totally inane, when it seems easier to generate sphere maps in squares. Tried setting angke threshold higher, tried applying it to flat surfaces, nothing works. I end up with a map that is usable only if the planet it is applied to is treated like a unit.
Since planets are randomly generated, that IS a problem. However it may do for custom planets.
maybe..
Anyway, does anyone know how to generate a square map from procedurally generated materials?
I use 3dsmax. unnh.. don't think anyone does. hehe
Here are the planets I created with 3dsmax's material editors. I used a lot of materials: mix, perlin marble, cellular, planet, etc. And it ends up quite nice. Plus I recolored or integrated the wraparound maps of mars and the moon which came free with 3dsmax.
If Vega Strike wishes to retain the random/procedural generation of planets, I would vote for creating a way for the engine to generate the planetary textures themselves. Since I'm hopelessly ignorant,
, could GIMP's fractal and perlin generators be used? There could be a database of standard bitmaps that will be mixed and matched using the engine itself. Sorry, I really don;t know if that's even possible.
Here are planets I created and intended to submit, prior to the render-to-texture problems.
Rocky with oceans of some sort of liquid, shallow continental shelves with massive orange reef-building lifeforms. (
Actually just my interpretation.hehe) Outpost status (No large colonies).
Oceanic. Outpost status.
Young molten planet with thick atmosphere. Uninhabited of course.
Archipelagic. Or as VS would say, Caribbean. Shallow planetary seas dotted with small islands. Inhabited, minor colony status.
PS...and a problem with the VS engine generating random textures for planets is: how would we classify a planet then? The textures should match planetary type and description. So we could do it by:
...Creating a separate database for each planetary type which holds the textures that could be used when generating random versions of the planet. For example Oceanic planets (I think that name is wrong.
If oceanic means water-rich, why not say ummm.. Hydropelagic. haha) would have one database containing maps with Watery tileable textures, that could be used in combination with other textures inside the Oceanic planet folder to generate a planet's texture...
which leads to another problem:
How do we texture data from generated planets? Because if the info is not saved, each planet will look different everytime you lose sight of it... so Atlantis could be deep blue a moment before docking, then swirly cyan on time of departure.
..hehe. long post. Just ravings really.