Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: LoneKnight on July 19, 2011, 11:44:39 am

Title: Custom Planets
Post by: LoneKnight on July 19, 2011, 11:44:39 am
I was looking into some cool user-made planets, and stumbled upon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hd9qYEMuvs&feature=player_detailpage#t=63s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hd9qYEMuvs&feature=player_detailpage#t=63s). This video contains several spiffy looking planets and I was wondering where they came from? The FS Wiki has a section dedicated to custom nebula backgrounds, but unfortunately nothing for custom planets. Can anyone shed any light as to where these planet files are from and how could one acquire them?

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: headdie on July 19, 2011, 12:18:41 pm
I cant comment on the link because my bandwidth is ridiculously low but a trawl through the old Celestial Objects Thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=41939.0) might yield some useful results
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: LoneKnight on July 19, 2011, 12:33:51 pm
47 pages woot. Combing through them, but most are in image format. I'm assuming I'd have to process them myself, unless there are any actual planet mods.
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Snail on July 19, 2011, 12:44:03 pm
47 pages woot. Combing through them, but most are in image format. I'm assuming I'd have to process them myself, unless there are any actual planet mods.
I'd ask the original artist for the original source image, which is likely to have an alpha channel and stuff to make it easier. That is of course if the artist still comes to the forum.
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Droid803 on July 19, 2011, 12:48:57 pm
turning image into planet bitmap is EZ
just make alpha channel drag circle fill white w/ some feather = profit
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Snail on July 19, 2011, 12:51:26 pm
turning image into planet bitmap is EZ
just make alpha channel drag circle fill white w/ some feather = profit
Doesn't really work for atmo glows and stuff though (well yeah feather but not really)
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Droid803 on July 19, 2011, 12:51:53 pm
yes it does that is why you add feather
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Snail on July 19, 2011, 12:59:09 pm
yes it does that is why you add feather
you suck
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Droid803 on July 19, 2011, 03:40:50 pm
it takes some playing around to get it to line up perfectly but it does work
also sometimes you get transparent pngs in which case they convert perfectly
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Aardwolf on July 19, 2011, 04:04:28 pm
[/lurk]

Most of my planets had alpha channels :D

[lurk]
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Jeff Vader on July 19, 2011, 04:22:35 pm
[/lurk]

Most of my planets had alpha channels :D

[lurk]

[/lurk]

Sweet.

[lurk]
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: The E on July 19, 2011, 05:02:42 pm
[/lurk]

*words*

[lurk]

You're really not fooling anyone, you know that right?
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Deadly in a Shadow on July 20, 2011, 01:41:02 pm
turning image into planet bitmap is EZ
Well, I didn't found any tuts out there. How do I turn an image into a planet bitmap? With GIMP? How do I implement it into a mod?
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Rodo on July 20, 2011, 01:51:01 pm
turning image into planet bitmap is EZ
Well, I didn't found any tuts out there. How do I turn an image into a planet bitmap? With GIMP? How do I implement it into a mod?


What I used to do is grab the original, cut the outer part and paste the planet onto a transparent layer, then delete the other layers and save as .dds with the dds pluggin for Gimp, format depends on what are you expecting from the image, I use DTX3 for alpha images and DTX1 for plain images (with no alpha channel).

check: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=64769.0
and check this, I found it really usefull in it's time: http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: headdie on July 20, 2011, 01:52:42 pm
turning image into planet bitmap is EZ
Well, I didn't found any tuts out there. How do I turn an image into a planet bitmap? With GIMP? How do I implement it into a mod?

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/.DDS
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Stars.tbl
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: LoneKnight on July 20, 2011, 01:58:21 pm
1. Get VPView
2. Explore .vp files
3. ????
4. Profit/Know how things are done
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: headdie on July 20, 2011, 02:14:32 pm
1. Get VPView
2. Explore .vp files
3. ????
4. Profit/Know how things are done

problem is there is more to backgrounds than just placing the image in the correct folder because the stars.tbl needs updating to reference the file
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: LoneKnight on July 20, 2011, 02:25:10 pm
Right. Extract stars.tbl, add new fields for your new materials, put the background image files in the effects folder, put the stars.tbl in the tables folder, or just .vp them.
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Deadly in a Shadow on July 20, 2011, 02:42:19 pm
Ah, figured it out. Thank you people.
BTW: Shouldn't the dds files go into the maps folder?
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Rodo on July 20, 2011, 02:42:42 pm
Ok for the first time, but if you are planning on releasing your work in a mod somewhere down the line you'll need to learn how to use tbm's, using stars.tbl is not ideal.

BTW: Shouldn't the dds files go into the maps folder?

I think they go into effects folder, maps is for model textures IIRC.

If you have doubts you can open up a vp file and on the right left of the list you'll see the name of the folder where the file is supposed to be placed.

edit'd
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Dragon on July 20, 2011, 02:43:44 pm
Background bitmaps go into effects folder, skybox maps go into maps folder. Your planet will go to effects unless used on a skybox (which is not the case).
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Deadly in a Shadow on July 20, 2011, 02:44:39 pm
Ok for the first time, but if you are planning on releasing your work in a mod somewhere down the line you'll need to learn how to use tbm's, using stars.tbl is not ideal.

BTW: Shouldn't the dds files go into the maps folder?

I think they go into effects folder, maps is for model textures IIRC.
I already use an str-tbm. I want to implement them into a campaign.
Title: Re: Custom Planets
Post by: Rodo on July 20, 2011, 02:47:28 pm
I already use an str-tbm. I want to implement them into a campaign.

then you are on the right track  :yes: