Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Flipside on November 14, 2003, 06:52:52 pm

Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 14, 2003, 06:52:52 pm
Ok, heres one of the backgrounds I am working on for use while in Nebula environments for Twisted Infinities. I'm hoping to eventually do a background pack and put it on Sectorgame, but I thought I'd treat you to one of them now :)

Unzip the files into your Data/Models directory.
Your card must be running the JPG supporting version of the SCP and your card must support 1600 resolution textures (most do).

You need to set the background in the newest version of Fred if you want to see a new mission, and there seems to be a small bug when you target things at the moment, though I am sure this will be fixed soon :)

Link for Zip File (http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Ships/NebBack1.zip)

Enjoy! Comments welcome :)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Fineus on November 15, 2003, 05:40:42 am
Wow, very impressive - I like it!
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 07:03:11 am
Thanks :)

And heres a quick shot of one of the other ones with Bobb's new 'steamed' Nebula FX.

(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/NebFX.jpg)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: diamondgeezer on November 15, 2003, 09:29:38 am
:eek2:

Blimey. I really don't know what to say. Except that that rules.

Do you think you might link the appropriate build for us? There's so many I'll only go and get the wrong one otherwise.
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 09:40:58 am
http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/blackwater/fs2_open.zip

The FS2 Build I use.

http://www.swooh.com/peon/phreak/fs2_open_r.zip

Phreaks latest standard build, use the Fred2 from in here and use the Background editor to enter the name of the POF e.g. NebulaBack1.pof etc :)

There is a bug when you target things that make the background pof appear to centre on that ship, but the SCP guys are aware of it :)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: diamondgeezer on November 15, 2003, 09:44:50 am
Cheers for that

*tests*
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: FreeTerran on November 15, 2003, 10:01:43 am
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Thanks :)

And heres a quick shot of one of the other ones with Bobb's new 'steamed' Nebula FX.

(http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/images/NebFX.jpg)

Flipside :D

X
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: TopAce on November 15, 2003, 10:02:08 am
The first background is weird, and abnormal. In my opinion. The one on the second picture is far better, but it is a bit blurry.
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Fineus on November 15, 2003, 10:06:47 am
I agree, it still looks cool though.. say Flipside, wanna link to the other one as well? ;)
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: TopAce on November 15, 2003, 10:11:54 am
Yeah, yeah, it is cool. Doesn't it decrease the FPS sufficently?
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 10:22:28 am
Yes, the first one I tried does look a bit 'odd' now, but practice makes perfect. The Blurriness of the second one is because it is being used in a Nebula, a lot of Skyboxes will look 'odd' at the poles due to Sphere mapping, so Nebulas cover this up a bit ;)

Ok, heres another one.....

http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Ships/NebBack5.zip

This one is a little more noticeable at the poles, if anyone wants to tweak the image so it works for them can feel free, I'll get round to it myself eventually :)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: FreeTerran on November 15, 2003, 10:41:21 am
woho now it works looks awesome good job :yes:
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Fineus on November 15, 2003, 10:46:02 am
I can see what you mean about the edges - it's very cool color wise but theres some banding and problems with the model:
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Fineus on November 15, 2003, 10:46:24 am
And the other...
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 10:48:19 am
Yep, this is why I'm sort of hanging on Bobboau getting the environment mapping up, once they've finished the debug of the HT&L. Any sphere using any amount of maps is going to be a pain around the poles without it. Not quite sure where that banding came from, could be the 3 layer linear dodge thing I did with Photoshop, even 32Bit colour can get confused if you try hard enough ;)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: phreak on November 15, 2003, 11:07:04 am
my brother made a seamless nebula backgound.  he's reading Greg Martin's tutorials when he's not doing his homework
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: TheCelestialOne on November 15, 2003, 11:07:31 am
owww... psychedelic! :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Black Wolf on November 15, 2003, 11:08:41 am
Could Polar problems be resolved by using a sufficiently high poly Geosphere?
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: StratComm on November 15, 2003, 11:13:09 am
It's a problem with the maps rather than the models.  However, to reduce the formation of seams around the poles, the model really should be bigger than 6-sided.
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 11:29:48 am
Ok, I'll give it a go with a higher Resolution POF.

Oh and try this one....

http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Ships/NebBack6.zip

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: phreak on November 15, 2003, 11:29:50 am
ok i talked to my brother and he said to use

effects->geometic effects->circle and then fade the edges to black.  he's using PSP
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 12:09:40 pm
Ok, I've upped the polys on the SkySphere and done a bit to the mapping, once these are up to a level people like, I'll start putting some more BGrounds together :)

Flipside :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Ashrak on November 15, 2003, 02:00:15 pm
you guys need to learn to do seemless textures :D
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: mikhael on November 15, 2003, 02:08:22 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Black Wolf
Could Polar problems be resolved by using a sufficiently high poly Geosphere?


BW is absolutely right. Use different geometry for the skybox to eliminate "poles". Particle Systems actually used a cube for the skybox in IWar2. You have to look damn hard to find the corners because their mapping job was excellent.
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Nifelheim on November 15, 2003, 02:10:56 pm
The first may be abnormal, but I like it a lot. Now, it may bring some odd feeling, but it's an eye kandy without getting disturbing. Somehow it reminds me of Homeworld 1/2's backgorunds. Nice job!
Title: Nebula Background POF
Post by: Flipside on November 15, 2003, 02:18:27 pm
I'm going to try flattening the poles of the sphere, so that they are in-line with the points on the next  'layer' down, and see if that cut outs the 'lines' effect. The POF is already too many polys to load into Modelview (see latest model).

I could do the poles as a planar mapped seperate material, but it would be a pain getting the scaling right on the images.

As for Seamless, the 'seams' are created by the polys at the pole of the skybox, yes it is possible to fix this with gradient fills etc, and when I have the time I will, but right now I'm just bashing ideas around :)

Flipside :D