[ShadowGorrath]

Ok, so I used the same model for the skybox with a planet that was in BluePlanet. It's a normal starfield skybox with a disk in it with the planet texture on it. I simply wanted to change it ( to have an Earth and Pluto skyboxes for the SAH upgrade, as they need to be large ). It seems rather simple- change the planet texture with whatever you want. Yea, that's what I thought, until I tested it. The result wasn't anything that I have expected. The planet had stars on it ! Yes, you read it right- a starry planet. It seems that the starfield0000.dds is seen over the planet anyway. Darius had it fixed in his skybox(-es), but forgot how ever since. In other words- I'm in a 'oh c**p' situation and need help on how to fix it. If anyone helps me with info on that, I will make a whole skybox set for Sol and my custom planets ( probably ). So, any help?

[Water]

For blueplanet2.pof
Blueplanet3 is a dds with an alpha channel (on right)
The black area will be transparent, letting starfield0000.dds show through.

In the mission - setting the number of stars to 0 may be what you are after.
$Num stars: 0

[ShadowGorrath]

No no no. Starfield0000.dds is shown on/through the planet texture ( the one that I changed it to ). I want to know what format should I save it in. If I indexed it and saved it in dds, then it doesn't show at all ( the green planet in BP is indexed dds and doesn't have that prob ).

[Water]

Indexing is only for 256 (and lower) colour images (pcx)

Blueplanet3.dds is a 32bit colour file at 2048². The format used was A8R8G8B8 (eg uncompressed)
Because of that it is 16Mb on disk.

Edit:
I can recommend WTV as an extra DDS viewer - Well mainly for viewing the alpha channel.
Just press a or u and it will toggle between the image and the alpha channel.

[Herra Tohtori]

Let me ask a question.

Are you sure you're seeing the starfield0000.dds texture through the planet texture (probably the shadow side of the planet, hmm?), or are you seeing the retail stars rendered on top of the planet? Could you post a screenshot of the issue?

Because retail stars are rendered on top of skyboxes, and starry planet sounds exactly what the FRED2 defaults to. You can edit the mission file(s) in any text editor to change the number of retail stars to zero (I believe the minimum that FRED2 lets you set it to is 500...). This an issue that you will have if you don't fix it, regardless of whether the textures actually work or not, so I suppose it's worth bringing up even if that's not what you're referring to.

If you really see the actual starfield texture through the planet, I would guess that you have managed to make black colour transparent in the planet texture, whereas in actuality you would want the shadowed side of the planet to be black with 100% opacity, and only make the edges of the square (and atmosphere partially) transparent, like in Water's example.

[ShadowGorrath]

I'm pretty sure that it is the starfield texture. Flaming_Sword had it fixed, so now I am trying to replicate the way he did it.

[Water]

You will know if they are retail stars by just turning. If they streak then retail stars, if no change then skybox stars.

[ShadowGorrath]

You know, it's pretty hard not to tell a difference between RETAIL stars and the dense high detailed 3.6.10 skybox stars.

[Herra Tohtori]

You know, it's pretty hard not to tell a difference between RETAIL stars and the dense high detailed 3.6.10 skybox stars.

Harder than with 3.6.8zeta starfield, because now the stars are dots instead of blobs... Water's right though, the motion blur on retail stars is a dead give-away.

[ShadowGorrath]

I told you all - it's NOT the retail stars. You can see the starfield.dds through the planet.

[Water]

I told you all - it's NOT the retail stars. You can see the starfield.dds through the planet.

Well, you now know that it's your planet picture that needs work. Download WTV
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/windows_texture_viewer.html Look at the Blueplanet3.dds alpha. Compare it to yours.