[Omniscaper]

This is a major concession of mine do to my failure to include planetary glows on actual sphere models. It does have a negligable performance hit if your videocard is at least a radeon 9500 pro or Geforce 4 Ti 4200.











get it here

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,19747.0.html

[Nuke]

try it in the env mapping build

[Omniscaper]

The runabout v2.0 doesn't have specular maps yet. It gets glassy when I used Bobboau's build. I'll show you in a sec.

[Omniscaper]

I have to admit, it looks nifty. Looks like WestCoast or Orange County Choppers got their hands on it. Either that or the Nyquil is kicking in.

[Omniscaper]

Has anyone ever figured out how to keep stars from appearing IN FRONT of background POF's?

[Raptor]

Nice, very nice.

Hate to sound like an idiot, but how does a skybox work? (hell, I'm not sure I completely understand what a skybox IS)
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What?

[Nuke]

Originally posted by Omniscaper
Has anyone ever figured out how to keep stars from appearing IN FRONT of background POF's?

technicly they dont, fs uses additive transparency. 255'255'255+0'0'0=255'255'255. the only solution i can think of is to turn the stars down, maybe someone can convince the coders to allow a setting of 0. then simply make your own stars.

Originally posted by Raptor
Nice, very nice.

Hate to sound like an idiot, but how does a skybox work? (hell, I'm not sure I completely understand what a skybox IS)
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What?

a skybox is a pre rendered surrounding environment. quake 2 is a good example of a game using a skybox. it requires a recent scp build and the open gl version of fred, as well as 1337 |-|/\><0|2 $|<][|_|_Z. this tutorial may be usefull.

[Omniscaper]

I used the same earth model and made a new Mars model in 3dsmax. Rendered in all their glory, bumpmaped, glowed and all the rest of the trimmings. I then used that image and with it textured a 20km plane and placed it within a transparent cube. The cube itself can also be textured, but since this is the Solar System, theres not much to put in the background. Hell, actual earth orbit pics barely reveal stars.

[Nuke]

i made my box in truespace, as im still not too good with max. i moddeled some planets, threw in some nebs, rendered. then i made a cube, applied the texture flipped the normals and saved.

freespace wont let you black out the stars because of the additive trans. you could white them out, but space isnt white last i checked. maybey i can get the coders to add a no trans sky check box. the idea is to block out the stars, suns, nebs, ect. that way they could be replaced with what is in the skybox. might boost performance too.

[KARMA]

Originally posted by Nuke


the only solution i can think of is to turn the stars down, maybe someone can convince the coders to allow a setting of 0. then simply make your own stars.


 

I'd love it too
btw are the stars present even over planet images as background images? If not, they probably could extend this to skyboxes maybe?

[.::Tin Can::.]

The only form of skyboxing I knew of is when I did my Aliens vs Predator 2 mapmaking. It was all an effort of uploading a "complex_skybox" design into the far reaching of FAR AWAY from your level, and then plastering the skybox you wanted on it. (Lets see a cloudy background)

Then, you would put a hole in your level where you wanted the sky to be shown, or you would be outside. If you were outside you would surround the ENTIRE level with a massive BOX. Then, you plaster the texture labeled "sky" and get rid of a few properties and add a few. The skybox was the most of my problems. but after a while I got used to jacking with it...

Im glad newbies bring some experience with them.

[c914]

that look s realy good:yes:
special danube with Mars on bacgroun.

[Setekh]

Oh dude... Welcome to the highlights. I have no more to say.

[Turnsky]

*foams at the mouth*

bllblblblblblblbargh....

[Setekh]

I mean, this is the shot that makes me foam at the mouth:



Given, we're going over the top with the reflection right now (it will look far more refined once we tone it down some), but I mean, compare that to a screenshot from FS2 retail. Holy smoke it's an improvement.

[Turnsky]

dude, it's a quantum LEAP from fs2 retail

[Nico]

exepted that now the little space debris are big sticks

[Deepblue]

I was wondering why they were like that.

[Grug]

great work. bloody marvolous...

I hope I can make skyboxes that come out to be as good as that...

Keep up the good work

[Carl]

yeah, me thinks environment mapping has helped us regain our claim as the best looking space sim out there. the skyboxes work great with it.