[Mobius]

Check your PMs...

[lostllama]

Please don't hit me if this has been posted already but I found this link: http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html . High-res versions don't come free though.

It might be of interest, there's some tutorial stuff too for Cinema 4D, Photoshop and Illustrator.

[Rodo]

Please don't hit me if this has been posted already but I found this link: http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html . High-res versions don't come free though.

It might be of interest, there's some tutorial stuff too for Cinema 4D, Photoshop and Illustrator.

nice!

[shiv]

It's so dead

[Rodo]

  indeed.. sorry for that but I like this thread also so..

Well here something I worked on last night... I'm still having some issues with concealing the bumpmap elevations on the sides of the planet... as a result I get weird artifacts on the sides, mountain like.. but well those do not look that natural.
I'll work on that in the coming week, so here's a little screeny, what do you think?? an arsenic (?) planet with a lonely sathanas for company.

[TopAce]

The atmosphere is weird, but apart from that, it's .

[Rodo]

yeah.. I noticed the orange glow on the dark side, I was practicing to get a good effect of a full shadowed planet on that one but then I changed it to semi at the final step and it looked great so I forgot to darken that part.

anyways here's another I did just moments ago, I would have posted it before but the forums where off line for some reason.
on this one the Iceni near a cold water planet (don't actually like the new clouds effect I used but well..)

[Angelus]

The planets are great!

Do you take requests?

[Rodo]

The planets are great!

Do you take requests?

I don't know about that... those planets are like 30~50 MB heavy right now.

If you want I can try to make a portable one, just send me the details on a pm and I'll give it a shot.

[eliex]

Beautiful backgrounds Rodo! 

[Rodo]

tnks.

I'm trying to make earth like planets with continental masses and everything, but so far I've failed miserably.. I'll get around it sooner or later anyway.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Habitable planets are just practice. Eventually, you'll find out Your planets are quite impressive already.

[Rodo]

this is the best one I got after like 4 attempts, I will try to get another one with city lights for the next pic if I can get a decent effect.

an Aeolus patrolling near an earth like planet.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Hmm, very nice. Seems you have talent What size do you make them in?

[Rodo]

canvas size is 3000x3000 but then I resize it to 2997x2997 so that it works in-game on dds format, for some strange reason, when GIMP compresses the file it doesn't show in game (that would cut the actual files from 35 M to a mere 8 M file).

I still can't get a good surface effect, I bumped the earth zones but as you can see I get elevation on the shores which does not look very realistic.

[Herra Tohtori]

canvas size is 3000x3000 but then I resize it to 2997x2997 so that it works in-game on dds format, for some strange reason, when GIMP compresses the file it doesn't show in game (that would cut the actual files from 35 M to a mere 8 M file).

I still can get a good surface effect, I bumped the earth but as you can see... I get elevation on the shores which does not look realistic.

2997^2 is not any more valid resolution for DDS files than 3000^2. If you need a massive texture, use 2048^2 or, if you need absolutely gargantuan texture, work in 4096^2 canvas size to begin with.

Most of the time 1024^2 is of sufficient resolution for the end result though. Skybox planets are the only thing where bigger planets are justifiable.

[Rodo]

2997^2 is not any more valid resolution for DDS files than 3000^2. If you need a massive texture, use 2048^2 or, if you need absolutely gargantuan texture, work in 4096^2 canvas size to begin with.

Most of the time 1024^2 is of sufficient resolution for the end result though. Skybox planets are the only thing where bigger planets are justifiable.

So I should use 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 and the planet will show in game even if it is compressed?... I remember having this problem even with namplates on the past and all of the times the smaller file was not working but the bigger one was showing ok.

[Droid803]

Those are very nice.

[Rodo]

well what do you know... on 2048 and 1024 images work just fine.. I wonder why gimp compresses the files on other resolutions and they don't work.

Those are very nice.

tnks, I still have to improve those a little more.

[Herra Tohtori]

So I should use 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 and the planet will show in game even if it is compressed?... I remember having this problem even with namplates on the past and all of the times the smaller file was not working but the bigger one was showing ok.

Yes, although based on the MediaVP beam issues, some older GPU's have problems with too small compressed DDS files.

Also, you need to decide the compression on case-by-case basis. Some planets compress well without visible quality loss, while some (mainly those with a prevalent atmospheric gradient) can develope nasty artefacts.

If you want to try compression for planets with atmospheric glow around them, you should probably use dxt5 compression. If there's no atmosphere (like Moon or other barren rocks), dxt3 might be better. If compression doesn't work, you can use uncompressed u8888 format, which is huge but has no quality loss at all. On the topic of mipmapping, it is usually better to make the planets have just one layer of correct size, but on the other hand mipmapped planets can be used bigger and smaller so they are easier for mission designers to apply without making them shimmer in the game.

What utility do you use to convert the images to DDS (and which compression format have you tried)? I'm relatively sure