Sorry if this has been posted before. I tried searching for it, but I didn't find anything, so here it is:
With all the new and cool modification being made to Freespace, I feel there is one area which is being neglected, although it is visually one of the most importnat Improvements here would likely produce a greatly improved and updated look.
I'm talking about the nebula backgrounds, and backgrounds in general. I feel that, by today's standard, FS2's backgrounds just don't cut it. This is both a technical issue as well as a design issue. The technical part is what could be fixed with the SCP. You see, limiting the backgrounds images to 8-bit colour depth is pretty ugly. You get the not-so-attractive compression look, with the gradients being made into lines etc.
You need only look at a game like EVE-Online to see what backgrounds should and could look like. I think that adding 24-bit colour support for background images (and all images while you're at it) would allow designers more freedom in designing nice backgrounds. Its about time we updated this feature, and I don't imagine thats its too difficult (maybe I'm wrong, could be). Backgrounds are always onscreen, and if they look bad then thats something thats always there. When I see the new screenshots, with spec maps and thruster glows, and then I see the backgrounds, still in their 8-bit glory, it just seems to me that we've got half of the game that looks new and shiny, and half of the game that doesn't.
Now the design issue, which I'm mentioning here because it seems relevant, is that I feel that FS2's backgrounds, and those being used in most mods, are too sparse and uninteresting. Again, I refer to EVE Online aswell as Greg Martin's stuff, to show you what I feel backgrounds should look like. The main difference I think is that the good (EVE etc) backgrounds never have a black area. Instead, the whole space is filled with colour, even if its just a low-saturation colour. This creates a much more vibrant look, as you can see in the likes of Homeworld 2. In FS2 however, you have mostly black, with a few spots of colour. This could be fixed with something as simple as making the starfield use an image, which could then be coloured any way you like. I'm sure people have some interesting ideas here, but the main thing is to add colour and vibrancy (is that a word) to he whole deal. I think you may understand what I mean here.
ANyways, what do you guys think of this?
