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FreeSpace Releases => Asset Releases => Topic started by: Gamma39er on July 15, 2022, 05:56:21 pm

Title: Delta Serpentis Skybox with Custom Nebula Bitmaps
Post by: Gamma39er on July 15, 2022, 05:56:21 pm

Here is the Delta Serpentis skybox I made:

Delta Serpentis Skybox (https://www.mediafire.com/file/puntlkbnb09uuje/delta_serpentis.zip/file)

Below is a zip file containing the bitmaps I used to make it:

Delta Serpentis Bitmaps (https://www.mediafire.com/file/hz7a2m4afsc1nss/ds_bitmaps.zip/file)

My goal in designing these bitmaps was to be able to combine them and give the impression that the skybox nebula was a contiguous nebula as opposed to a bunch of bitmaps. Each bitmaps is a .png at 3072x3072 resolution, and each one has an alpha channel. For a single nebula, there are three bitmap components. I combined these in blender. Having each light rendered as a separate bitmap allowed me control over each nebula's appearance as I combined them, which is why I did it this way.

In order to combine them, each bitmaps has a separate material that looks like this.

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5bf2/ps554ajgtukwgdu9g.jpg)

This material is applied to a basic plane object in blender. I used the constraint "damped track" to track the plane to an empty located at the origin. I then used the subdivision modifier set to "simple" to subdivide the plane at 4 subdivisions. Next I used the "cast" modifier with the target set to the empty. This made each plane spherical with it's center where the empty is. This allows me to make sure that the bitmaps don't intersect and are always facing the camera at the origin.

Here's a couple of screenshots of the skybox in game:

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/efb0/tpxzuaijlubimtrzg.jpg)

(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2ded/vnmek9gc0yszagw9g.jpg)

Title: Re: Delta Serpentis Skybox with Custom Nebula Bitmaps
Post by: Iain Baker on July 15, 2022, 06:45:03 pm

Stunning 👍

Title: Re: Delta Serpentis Skybox with Custom Nebula Bitmaps
Post by: Nyctaeus on July 21, 2022, 05:43:42 pm

I thought that fractals will remain the crowning achievement of celestial art in FS... Then you proved me wrong.

So please, keep doing so! I can hardly imagine backgrounds in FS to look any better then this. This is absolutely ****ing jawdropping quality work and we certainly need more of this.

Title: Re: Delta Serpentis Skybox with Custom Nebula Bitmaps
Post by: simfreek on July 23, 2022, 01:56:18 pm

Absolutely breathtaking, incredible and gorgeous to behold!! Congratulations on making an incredible game even more incredible. 

Title: Re: Delta Serpentis Skybox with Custom Nebula Bitmaps
Post by: skdKitsune on October 11, 2022, 07:54:56 am

Absolutely stunning work! Hope you'll do some other systems, too. This is probably peak skybox design