Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: Sesquipedalian on December 18, 2002, 06:22:12 pm

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sesquipedalian on December 18, 2002, 06:22:12 pm

Screenshot from the Scroll of Atankharzim:
(http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/scroll/rasalgethibg.jpg)

Composed of four images: the planet itself, and three sections for the rings (the entire expanse doesn't fit into a single screen).

The planet itself was easy.  I just generated a nice fractal fill in Corel PhotoPaint, and applied it to a sphere in Max.

The rings are made of many, many thousands of particles.  I would have liked to have used instanced geometry for the particles, but the sheer numbers prohibited it.  I zoomed in close and took renders at three different angles in order to get the whole PCloud in.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: mikhael on December 18, 2002, 06:26:05 pm

Nice.

:yes:

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Deepblue on December 18, 2002, 07:05:26 pm

r those going to be in game?

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Knight Templar on December 18, 2002, 08:05:21 pm

Sa-weet :D

We love you Ses. :)

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sesquipedalian on December 18, 2002, 08:09:55 pm

They are in game. :) That's a screenshot from fs2_open, not a render.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Anaz on December 18, 2002, 08:31:30 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian
They are in game. :) That's a screenshot from fs2_open, not a render.

you're joking......right.....?

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sesquipedalian on December 18, 2002, 08:44:44 pm

No.  Fs2_open has a cool little Toggle Hud option.  Press a button to clear it, then take a screenshot.  Easy as pie.

Click my avatar and go to the Screenshots section.  You can see another of the cool backgrounds for SA there too (but only one of them ;)), and some other fun screenies, too.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sandwich on December 19, 2002, 04:32:58 am

Ok, hold on here - I don't get it. Are all those asteroid particles/rings actualy in-game objects, or are they part of a background planet you made elsewhere and stuck in there?

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Nico on December 19, 2002, 05:36:30 am

that's a background pic :p the meshes aren't in game, be sensible :lol:

edit: unless he found a way to convert particles to a single mesh, I never tried. anyway, would need some seriously powerful computer for that to run fine ingame, so nope, I stick with what I said.

Title: Re: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sesquipedalian on December 19, 2002, 02:55:31 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian
Composed of four images: the planet itself, and three sections for the rings.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sandwich on December 19, 2002, 04:14:14 pm

Bah! You know perfectly well that no-one pays any attention to the first post in a thread - especially if that post has an image in it! :p

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Anaz on December 19, 2002, 05:26:56 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Sandwich
Bah! You know perfectly well that no-one pays any attention to the first post in a thread - especially if that post has an image in it! :p

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: mikhael on December 19, 2002, 05:38:24 pm

Sesq, this pic is out on the outskirts of a planetary ring system, correct?

I've been thinking about it, and I think you need to add a fourth layer of debris close into the planet, much denser than the previous layers. This would make the rings  appear more solid as they get closer into the planet The farther you are from any given point in a ring system, the more solid that point will seem due to perspective the inability to distinguish the individual particles of the system.

Just a suggestion.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Sesquipedalian on December 19, 2002, 06:35:53 pm

Mmm.  Sounds reasonable.  Perhaps I shall, mik.

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Black Wolf on December 20, 2002, 08:17:55 am

Very nice!

Title: Fun with PCloud
Post by: Setekh on December 25, 2002, 11:49:03 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian
They are in game. :) That's a screenshot from fs2_open, not a render.

Flip! Gee, talk about appreciable gains... :D