Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: TopAce on April 16, 2010, 01:37:06 pm

Title: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: TopAce on April 16, 2010, 01:37:06 pm
(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6610/oldrednebula.jpg)

I made some random background bitmaps (in red and blue colors) and I wanted to use them in the final release of Descendants of Sol, but as I browsed through the Celebration of FreeSpace thread and the Wiki's featured screenshots, I realized everyone's using Lightspeed's nebulae (yes, they're excellent). So I figured I would eventually switch to LS's nebulae at some point.

However, I haven't received much feedback about the nebula pack that I made. There was one guy at ModDB who said "it looked weird," and nothing else. I figured I would request your input, too.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Nyctaeus on April 16, 2010, 01:51:22 pm
I don't like it. Too smudgy and unshapely. Looks like a retail FS2 nebulas.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Shade on April 16, 2010, 02:20:34 pm
I'd say it needs to fade out more at the edges as it seems to cut off rather suddenly, and the central areas need to be brighter and probably more yellow-ish than they are now to properly convey that those are in fact really dense star clusters.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Scourge of Ages on April 16, 2010, 09:49:52 pm
It's hard to tell without more screenshots, but from that one the nebula does look weird. I'd call it blobby, and fractal-y. Like you took one big nebula and rotated/scaled it to make all the nebulous details. But what do I know.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Qent on April 16, 2010, 10:53:31 pm
It reminds me of retail too, but in a good way. :nervous:
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 17, 2010, 12:56:34 am
just going by that one screenshot, I'd say you're varying the size too much. If you've got nebulae with noticeably similar features, you should try to keep the bitmaps the same size (that is, don't vary by more than ~20%). Thing is, I can tell by looking at the screenshot that those are four seperate bitmaps, and I can differentiate them- I shouldn't be able to. The two on the bottom are alright, since they seem to be roughly the same size.

About the nebulae themselves- can't say I don't like them. Maybe you should make them a bit lighter in the middle, maybe give it some kind of effect so it looks like a 3d cloud.

Lightspeed's nebulae are great, but they shouldn't be the only ones people use. Look at the Earth Defense ones for example (at least, I think they're the ones using fractals)- those are really good.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Scourge of Ages on April 17, 2010, 01:06:28 am
What Sivan Hunter just said.
Yes! That's what I meant.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: TopAce on April 17, 2010, 04:22:31 am
Quote
Lightspeed's nebulae are great, but they shouldn't be the only ones people use. Look at the Earth Defense ones for example (at least, I think they're the ones using fractals)- those are really good.

That's why I drew these nebulae.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Rodo on April 17, 2010, 11:38:05 am
needs sharpness, might work if you mix with another layer with some fire or fractal effects.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Whitelight on April 17, 2010, 11:31:01 pm
(1) It is different, but its hard to make a good assumption off just one picture.

(2) Are all of them of the same variety, shape?

Looking at it from the minds eye, it does look sweet.  :D
But you must also have to know, that i`m easy to please. 
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: TopAce on April 18, 2010, 04:30:06 am
Quote
(2) Are all of them of the same variety, shape?

There are 9 bitmaps altogether. I don't know how many of them are in the picture. They're the same size (512x512), but the mission varies its scale from 3:3 till 5:5.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Aardwolf on April 20, 2010, 07:40:47 pm
I don't know how you did it, but you've somehow managed to be both "too noisy" and "too fuzzy" at the same time. Just IMHO.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Cobra on April 20, 2010, 09:38:08 pm
I like it.
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Sushi on April 21, 2010, 09:36:52 am
They need some work, IMO, but not so much that they aren't worth keeping. The ones on the bottom definitely look better than the ones on the top.

Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Spoon on April 21, 2010, 04:26:35 pm
It kinda looks like they are in the foreground instead of the background, like some giant plant like monster attempting to grab the levy/fenrir out of the sky... erh... space... something.
The one in the right bottom corner looks the best out of the bunch imo
Title: Re: I need your honest opinion about some background bitmaps (nebula)
Post by: Wobble73 on April 21, 2010, 04:37:16 pm
A foreground, the outer edges of a more denser nebula. That's how I'd see it, if you could get wisps of cloud against fighters and bigger ships.