[StratComm]

Well, to be honest, I doubt that exposed steel paneling would just be left like that to rust.  Corrosion does compromise stability and strength, after all.  It would usually be painted with some form of sealing paint (see a Navy instance in the real world).  But everyone jumped to the point of saying it shouldn't rust because it's in a vaccuum, which isn't the right way to go about that, especially when the texture in question is specifically designed to provide friction so that people won't slip when walking on it.

[Ulala]

I still think a HLP campaign would be fun.

I get to command a Ravana-class destroyer! 

[CaptJosh]

Well, for a campaign involving renegades, pirates, or just people using old derelict ships, it could work.

[WMCoolmon]

Hrm. Too be honest, I always figured that the idea was that the interface was projected on screens. (ie in FS1, all the control panels have the same interface as the game...see lab and intro cutscenes).

[aldo_14]

I don't care so long as it looks good. 

'sides which, we really need a custom ui to be more fully able to use the concept of a freeware engine, IMO.

[Pnakotus]

If someone made new art that looked the same as the old art, would that mean you wouldn't need FS2 anymore?  I mean, we make ships that look the same as the old ships, so what's the difference?

[aldo_14]

If someone made new art that looked the same as the old art, would that mean you wouldn't need FS2 anymore? I mean, we make ships that look the same as the old ships, so what's the difference?

I'm not sure you do a freeware 'remake' of FS2, though.  I'd imagine reuse of designs and textures (not sure about this for improved redraws...) would still cause IP issues.

[Black Wolf]

There's no point to trying to redo the interface art unless someone at simplifies it at the Source Code level. At the moment, every image you see is unique - there's zero duplication of images, even where the images are identical (such as scroll buttons, checkboxes etc.), the files are separate.

The ideal solution would be to use some sort of Alpha mapped TGAs so that the base image had a space for the buttons, and it just got placed on later, or an interface that was entirely generated, either through 3d rendring or repetition of images (borders, corners, etc.)