[Angelus]

Is it possible to reduce the amount of lighting from the Sun, or to have a mission without sun?

I'm after a really dark environment, where the only lighting comes from Stars and/ or a Sun that's REALLY far away.
Playing around with the feature tab settings is in this case not an option.

Reducing the size of the sun bitmap to the minimum doesn't do anything noteable.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

You can always put a planet over the sun blocking most of the light.

[Rodo]

You can always put a planet over the sun blocking most of the light.

does it nullify the flare effect completely?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

It used to if the planet was bigger than the sun.  Haven't tried it in quite some time though. 

[Angelus]

Ah, will test that, thx!
A bitmap with random placed stars, to fit the starfield.pof map( more or less).
Does that also nullify the lighting ( from the sun ) applied to ships?

What about making the sun bitmap opaque? Would that work too?

[terran_emperor]

Some MODs, like TBP, have an "ambient" option for Suns. This provides light with out a specific souce. So, "Ambient_Red" will cover the mission area in red light without need for a red sun.

[haloboy100]

Well, he wants a dark environment, so he might not even want any light at all.

[Droid803]

Ambient black?

[Rodo]

ambient in red, very low emittion, Im guessing he wont need to have a completely black env, or maybe he can use a dark nebula or something.

[haloboy100]

Dark Nebula...I like how that sounds

[Angelus]

I've tested it.

Placing a planet over the sun doesn't work, the sun is visible through the planet ( and even 9 planets ).
Painting the sun bitmap in black gives a REALLY sexy effect, reduces the amount of lighting, but the flare is still visible. Hm, have to paint the flare black too.


@terran_emperor: will check that out, sounds interesting. 



EDIT: The flare is gone, but the lighting is still there, and heading toward the sun, although not visible anymore, makes you go blind.
The effect isn't that intense like before. but still annoying.

Checking the B5 option...

EDIT:
The B5 ambient effect did it, after editing the values a bit.
It's exactly what i'm looking for, the only thing that still bothers a bit is the effect you get if you look into the sun,
although it's way better then before. I assume it's part of the code?


Thx to everyone!

[terran_emperor]

Glad to be of service.

I'm surprised thad FUBAR-BDHR didnt mention it, especially since he's part of the TBP team

[Excalibur]

If you have space for one more ship in ships TBL, create a massive square plane, texture it with statrs and place it at a distance far enough such that the stars appear normal size and the "ship" cannot be reached easily. Actually, this is sounding like too much work...

[Retsof]

there's the remove sun bitmap sexp.

[Angelus]

there's the remove sun bitmap sexp.

ouch, i never checked that in the default 3.6.9 FRED of BtRL, mainly because BtRL has no Nebulaes.


*note to self: output SEXPs to html*

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I'm surprised thad FUBAR-BDHR didnt mention it, especially since he's part of the TBP team

I'm not much for background making don't have the patients for it.  I usually just "borrow" Vid's

[CP5670]

You can have a sun in the mission and just get rid of it with the remove-sun-bitmap sexp at the very beginning. The ambient level is then the only thing that contributes to lighting.

[Angelus]

thx!


Next question:

I need clouds ( poofs ) floating through the area, but to have 'em i have to enable full nebula.
I've tried to make the background ( nbackcust ) fully transparent ( an empty file- flood fill black and then 0 opacity), but ingame i get a blue screen.

Any ideas how to make a fully transparent background?

[terran_emperor]

you mean clouds that behave like asteroid/debris fields?

[Angelus]

I mean the effect you see when you are flying through a full nebula, only without the colored background.
I thought it's possible to have those clouds and make the background ( pattern ) transparent.