Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Lightspeed on December 26, 2003, 10:37:14 am

Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lightspeed on December 26, 2003, 10:37:14 am
The wait is over. I can officially release my Planets zipfiles :)
Thanks to all the people who helped me along with their comments on suggestions, without you it would have taken a lot longer to get here. Thanks!

You will find all links and files on the updated Milliways site (http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed)

Be sure to check out the Preview Gallery ! (http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/FS2Web_planets.html)

Direct downloads:

HIRES VERSIONS: Download here! (http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/Hires_Planets_FS2_v1.0.zip)

LOWSPEC VERSIONS: Download here! (http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/Lowspec_Planets_FS2_v1.0.zip)

The lowspec versions can help you if you get too much slowdown using the hires versions. Once properly implemented they willl be converted to DDS to help speed up things. The image size is limited to 800x800 on the lowspec versions.


Use this thread to:


Feedback needed if you want to see a version 1.1 :)
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: diamondgeezer on December 26, 2003, 10:59:50 am
Item for discussion - Lightspeed pwnz
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lightspeed on December 26, 2003, 11:03:44 am
(http://www.thx.com/img/design/thx.gif)

Thx :)
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Starks on December 26, 2003, 11:07:26 am
DIGITALLY MASTERED INDEED!
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lt.Cannonfodder on December 26, 2003, 11:11:45 am
Fantastic work, Lightspeed! :yes:
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: diamondgeezer on December 31, 2003, 11:27:16 pm
Okay, so I got that planet that's a reworking of Mars scaled right up in a mission. Like, 6 by 6 or something. While the resolution is fantastic, it does look a little... flat. When the code monkies get around to implementing bump-mapping (hint hint) might it be possibly to make greyscale maps for planets? You know, so the little ridges and craters and whatnot look 3D. That would be the height (pun intended) of pwnage.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: nucas on January 02, 2004, 01:55:50 am
i gather these can be used in conjunction with the original campaign? must they be used with fs2_open, or would they run under the original exe?
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: karajorma on January 02, 2004, 03:03:43 am
You need FS2_open cause FS2 will only use 8 bit pcx files. If FS2_open won't run for you you could always convert them but you'd lose a lot of picture quailty (They'd still be better than the originals most likely though).
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Bobboau on January 02, 2004, 03:48:50 am
you wouldn't loose that much
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: karajorma on January 02, 2004, 05:19:53 am
Depends on how well you converted them. :D If you used bright you probably would get away with it.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lightspeed on January 02, 2004, 11:11:18 am
not really. They look really crappy in 8-bit :)
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: phreak on January 02, 2004, 11:55:06 am
2500x2500? that may not work on some gfx cards (like my Radeon9k).  not to mention it saves it in texture memory as 4096x4096.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lightspeed on January 02, 2004, 02:12:20 pm
if your card does not support it, use the Lowspec versions :)

Or actually get around to implementing DDS properly with alpha channel support, so I can finally fix the boxy bug and improve the performance :nod:

-edit: oh, and can some admin change the highlight to link here, instead of the old thread?
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: phreak on January 02, 2004, 06:24:46 pm
well the texture size needs to be powers of 2 for DDS to work.  it would be a good idea just to limit everything to 2048x2048
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Nico on January 02, 2004, 06:48:37 pm
They really look cool, but sadly I think you've really overdone the atmosphere layers...
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Taristin on January 02, 2004, 07:00:36 pm
Does every single planet need an atmosphere? Not every chunk of rock out there has one...
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Woolie Wool on January 02, 2004, 07:50:47 pm
Colonized worlds need an atmosphere.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: RandomTiger on January 02, 2004, 08:24:47 pm
Quote
Originally posted by PhReAk
2500x2500? that may not work on some gfx cards (like my Radeon9k).  not to mention it saves it in texture memory as 4096x4096.


This is an important point, 2048x2048 would be a much better size. Please read this doc I made on the subject:

http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/fsdoc/index.php/Choosing%20dimensions
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Lightspeed on January 02, 2004, 08:35:02 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Raa Tor'h
Does every single planet need an atmosphere? Not every chunk of rock out there has one...


I completely agree. Yet when you look at FS2's planets you'll see -gas giants -colonized worlds and very few -chunk of rocks

:doubt:
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: nucas on January 02, 2004, 09:52:58 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Raa Tor'h
Does every single planet need an atmosphere? Not every chunk of rock out there has one...

as the atmospere effect tends to look cool, i would say yes. i also believe this property applies to reality, and am very disappointed in our solar system.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Woolie Wool on January 02, 2004, 09:58:30 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Lightspeed


I completely agree. Yet when you look at FS2's planets you'll see -gas giants -colonized worlds and very few -chunk of rocks

:doubt:


I like it the way it is.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Carl on January 03, 2004, 12:12:26 am
Quote
Originally posted by diamondgeezer
When the code monkies get around to implementing bump-mapping (hint hint) might it be possibly to make greyscale maps for planets? You know, so the little ridges and craters and whatnot look 3D. That would be the height (pun intended) of pwnage.


the planets are not models, they are pictures. they are not being rendered in real time by game's engine. bump mapping wouldn't make any sense, an it would in fact make them look more like disks than spheres, and there is no point to bump maps since they can be made bumpy or smooth to begin with, since they are, after all, pictures.
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: diamondgeezer on January 03, 2004, 04:48:00 am
I'd take offense to that if you hadn't just increased my understanding of game graphics by about 800%. Moving on...
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Bobboau on January 03, 2004, 10:00:39 am
actualy, if the bump map had a spherical orientation it would help to make them more sphereical, I've seen a demo of this were a bump map is used to make a flat plae look like a sphere
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Nico on January 03, 2004, 11:24:15 am
Quote
Originally posted by Carl


the planets are not models, they are pictures. they are not being rendered in real time by game's engine. bump mapping wouldn't make any sense, an it would in fact make them look more like disks than spheres, and there is no point to bump maps since they can be made bumpy or smooth to begin with, since they are, after all, pictures.


yeah, as Bob says, this is not true, bump can work on a 2D map ( coz after all, it's a 2D effect applied to a 2D texture, think about it :p ), and you can kind of simulate  a sphere with bump maps.
Tho, after being wrong you're right ( :p ) the effect can be rendered directly on the planet image, so there's little point using that.
Bump is interesting only on moving objects, coz it's processed using lighting data. if the light source around it doesn't move, bump is useless, having the relief directly drawn is better ( that's the case on a background image ).
Title: Freespace 2 Hires Planets Release and Discussion Thread
Post by: Setekh on January 05, 2004, 12:56:59 am
Much, much, much excellentness. :)