[Fineus]

Following some recent discussion in Lightspeeds Planets 2.0 thread, it seems people have some opinion on the background nebulas of the game. So here's the thread to discuss it.

Edit: First time visitors to this thread, Lightspeeds development thread for his nebula files can be found here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,21026..0.html Visit it for his latest work on nebula files.

Personally I think that despite the work thats been put in on the originals, new ones are badly needed. The backgrounds of the game look rather poor. Suffice to say, these are real:





And here's one from Eve:



And IWar 2:



My point being, FS2s need a real polishing if they're going to compete. The resolution needs upping and they need an allover makeup *glances at Lightspeed*. What does everyone else think?

[TrashMan]

New ebbula backgrounds?
Why not...you can naver have too many beautifull backgrounds!:D

[Fineus]

I'm talking about re-working the old ones by the way, not changing them entirely (that is to say, so that original missions would use the new nebula etc.)

[RandomTiger]

I think a set of consistant hi res, 32 bit colour nebulas would be a very good thing. I dont see any reason why they couldnt be used as a direct replacement for the old ones, ut would be good if they were roughly the same kind of shades.

Code is of course very important but visually this project will only be as good as its art.

Go for it.

[Rictor]

Yeah, you see what I meant about Eve's nebulas in the HiRes Planet thread? Looks good, eh? And I think that it would fit in more than ever due to the soft, pastel quality of Lightspeed's new planets. But thats just me..

[aldo_14]

Did they ever release that improved graphics patch for I-War2?  Stephen Robertson mentioned it on a thread here once, IIRC.

[Foxer]

First: nebulas and backgrounds from Haegemonia:
http://foxer.pl/freespace/Haegemonia_002.gif - nebulas
http://foxer.pl/freespace/Haegemonia_003.gif - black space - only stars (nice for skybox)
http://foxer.pl/freespace/Haegemonia_007.gif - nebulas in background and asteroids field in front
http://foxer.pl/freespace/Haegemonia_013.gif - nebulas, starry background, lens-flare and planets (not better than Lightspeed's planets ;D)

Secound: i think that we need not only a better re-worked nebulas... i think that SCP need to do some good thing with stars in game (or do some really good skybox), becouse FS2's nebulas are not compatibles with our "dots" (not STARS - its dots) like in this screen from Milliways:

Nebulas is good but not with that little and only FEW stars at background. We may compare it with Haegemonia screens. See different?

BTW. http://www.penguinbomb.com/lightspeed/effects_02.jpg This skyboxed stars will be look good if it will be in hi-res, its blur now... and some stars are stretch in this skybox.

I belive that SCP brings us some solution for this in 3.6

[Carl]

the freespace 2 nebulas > the I-war 2 ones. at least according to the picture you posted.

[Lightspeed]

I agree FS2 needs completely new nebulae. The multi coloured thingies look crap.

When I update them i'll probably go for a mix between realistic and EvE style.

[KARMA]

as you know, I created a couple of nebs on my own,
this: http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/swfs2/img/starmap.jpg
and this: http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/swfs2/img/starfield2.jpg
and I made em as background pofs.
Now, I was wondering if I may substitute the vanilla fs2 nebs instead of having to create an entire skybox, since it would be many times easyer and less performance hit.
The background nebs are something that I never explorated so I don't even have a clue about what can be done or not

[Liberator]

Since we're talking about nebulas, how about THE nebula.  What we've got now is great, but how about maybe changing it out for some volumetric fog in the style of the Liberty Badlands from Freelancer.  Now that's ominous.

[redsniper]

THE nebula looks fine, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe we could make the background have a higher res, but that's about it.

[Turnsky]

http://nodewar.penguinbomb.com/aotd/Turnsky/Angels/paintings/etheric.jpg

something like that?

[Lightspeed]

No, that's too much

[Stryke 9]

What we need, and what I-War and and the like seem to have, is full 360% backgrounds. I'm not sure if they're generated procedurals or what, but they work, and they're beautiful. None of this patchy **** the Freespace bitmaps have, there's just this consistent look all around, and it works.

I'm betting there's a way to add onto the starfield generator FS2 already has to create something basic like that- nothing so complex as EVE's, probably (after all, this is an amateur project and we're theoretically trying to keep it low-demand on the processor deal), but a step up from FS1's ass-looking ones and more consistent than FS2's bitmaps.

Of course, how would be the kicker. I have a vague idea of how nebuloid-looking procedurals work in 3D graphics software, but I don't think it'd apply here, and that stuff's generally a bit higher quality (and hence a bit more demanding on the processor) than would be needed for FS. If anybody's got a workable idea for how to implement that sort of thing, well...

[Bobboau]

we have background pofs

[Liberator]

It's called skyboxes, and they're trying to make it work.

[Nuke]

check out my tutorial

[Fineus]

How much more of a performance hit would skyboxes have over the regular FS2 nebuli though?

Also, would we be able to have the skyboxes take effect in standard FS2 missions? I'm kinda looking for backwards compatability as well - so that the original files are overwritten with something far more visually impressive... rather than have a totally separate skybox.

[KARMA]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
How much more of a performance hit would skyboxes have over the regular FS2 nebuli though?

Also, would we be able to have the skyboxes take effect in standard FS2 missions? I'm kinda looking for backwards compatability as well - so that the original files are overwritten with something far more visually impressive... rather than have a totally separate skybox.

ok, but here I come again: can I put my neb as regular fs2 nebs? how will it work?