[Topgun]

Hi, I made some planets for everyone. any healthy criticism would be nice.
enjoy!

Edit: I uploaded the 32bit TGAs. scroll down to my other posts to download them. they are split to 2 posts.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[--Steve-O--]

actual planets or background planets?

[Topgun]

actual planets or background planets?

background bitmaps.

[shiv]

I don' like it...

It's in low resolution and in low color depth.

[Herra Tohtori]

Okay, here's some advice:

The planets themselves aren't bad. In fact they look good (as good as the retail FS2 planets, given that the 8-bit PCX format rapes the colours on everything...), for what I can see from the indexed PCX format... But that format is unnecessary now, and also the way you've used it is a bit flawed.

First, there is no need to make planets PCX files any more. Alpha blended TGA or even better, DDS files work much better and also look better.

Secondly, if you insist on using PCX format, note that FS2 interprets bright green (0,255,0) as transparent. AS it is, the shadow areas on your planets will be transparent and the background stars and nebulae will be visible through your planets. Which, I daresay, is an unwanted effect...

If you have the originals, I would suggest taking them, making them power-of-two textures with alpha channel and correct transparency, and then convert them to DDS format. 1024x1024 resolution seems to be sufficient for most cases.

[Getter Robo G]

I haven't tried them out, but just looking at them the first two seem serviceable... The third does look a little lacking compared to the first two.

What would the poof be used for?  Neb mix? (never did understand how all that works)


Topgun, on a related note, would you be interested in getting that high res earth pic I posted like 2 years ago squared away???

When I try to do it you see the ugly green square behind it that's supposed to be invisible. Plus I screwed up the border so best to just start with the original that had a black background. It's 2048x 2048 but works in game.

[Topgun]

Okay, here's some advice:

The planets themselves aren't bad. In fact they look good (as good as the retail FS2 planets, given that the 8-bit PCX format rapes the colours on everything...), for what I can see from the indexed PCX format... But that format is unnecessary now, and also the way you've used it is a bit flawed.

First, there is no need to make planets PCX files any more. Alpha blended TGA or even better, DDS files work much better and also look better.

Secondly, if you insist on using PCX format, note that FS2 interprets bright green (0,255,0) as transparent. AS it is, the shadow areas on your planets will be transparent and the background stars and nebulae will be visible through your planets. Which, I daresay, is an unwanted effect...

If you have the originals, I would suggest taking them, making them power-of-two textures with alpha channel and correct transparency, and then convert them to DDS format. 1024x1024 resolution seems to be sufficient for most cases.

Okay, i will do that later.

[Topgun]

Here are 2 of the 32bit TGAs. they look better.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Topgun]

....and here are the other 2.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Herra Tohtori]

You will still see through (almost) half of your planets. You need to make the dark areas of the planet black instead of transparent. That way the stars won't shine through the planet.

Another thing is that a huge amount of the images is empty. Planets are round, so planet bitmaps should be square, and preferably powers-of-two resolution. Like 512*512, or 1024*1024. But the transparency is a more immediate problem in these.

They should also be bigger, have more detail and they should make my teeth whiter when I look at them, but for first attempts it's not too bad. If you are interested, you might want to read a certain thread and see if the links in it help any. If anything, you might find ideas and techniques you might want to use to improve your own way of making planets.

[Topgun]

You will still see through (almost) half of your planets. You need to make the dark areas of the planet black instead of transparent. That way the stars won't shine through the planet.

Another thing is that a huge amount of the images is empty. Planets are round, so planet bitmaps should be square, and preferably powers-of-two resolution. Like 512*512, or 1024*1024. But the transparency is a more immediate problem in these.

They should also be bigger, have more detail and they should make my teeth whiter when I look at them, but for first attempts it's not too bad. If you are interested, you might want to read a certain thread and see if the links in it help any. If anything, you might find ideas and techniques you might want to use to improve your own way of making planets.

oh, I get the problem now... I will try to fix that.

And remember that this is my first try at making planets.

[Herra Tohtori]

That's why I wrote that they are not bad for first attempts.

[Turambar]

http://www.game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3433

aim for this.

[Snail]

I think I hate you.