[Dilmah G]

Does anyone despise the time consuming nature of nebula placement? Arghh, if I could hire someone to spend hours doing it I would. Not only does it make my neck sore it detracts from actual FRED-ing time.

[Flipside]

I've never been fond of the background editor to be honest, but since it was all that available, it had to be used.

[karajorma]

I've never been a huge fan of the way it works. It's a rather fiddly and time consuming way of doing things.

I was very happy when skyboxes came along and made it largely redundant to me (since I only FRED for projects where I can ask for a skybox if I need one these days).

[Dilmah G]

I see, is there a place I can download skyboxes from? Or is that restricted to your "Diaspora Crew"

I don't mind the way it works *that* much, it's just that there's so much damn space to cover and account for, and then you have to give it some kind of pattern... it's the time consuming nature that drives me absolutely insane.

[Rodo]

yeah! die background editor!!!!!

honestly is not that intuitive... using the mouse would be great 

[eliex]

Background editing are . . . tedious.
Using the 3 sections to fill in for each nebula is so confusing, and takes time to place them in the right place.

[Dilmah G]

yeah! die background editor!!!!!

honestly is not that intuitive... using the mouse would be great 

Yeah I've heard that suggestion before, maybe if there were hard-coded patterns and you selected like 6 nebula types and they were placed in that pattern. But that's a pipe dream

Background editing are . . . tedious.
Using the 3 sections to fill in for each nebula is so confusing, and takes time to place them in the right place.

I don't find it really confusing, it just takes a helluva while. 

[eliex]

yeah! die background editor!!!!!

honestly is not that intuitive... using the mouse would be great 

Yeah I've heard that suggestion before, maybe if there were hard-coded patterns and you selected like 6 nebula types and they were placed in that pattern. But that's a pipe dream

Myself, I wish there was a preview for each nebula or planet that could be placed . . . only with sheer experience of trying out the new nebulas from the mediavps are you able to know instantly which pattern or colour is a nebula is.

[Aardwolf]

The FS1 editor let you place the sun with the mouse.

It was a little-known feature, I think. With the background editor open, you could ctrl+click to place the sun.

[Droid803]

It's not that bad.
It's annoying sometimes, yes, but putting a good background together takes only an hour or so.

[Dragon]

I heard of background utility for FS2 ,I think it placed random
background in mission ,but I don't know of what it was really capable of.
I wish I could find it now.

[TopAce]

Dragon: Try to look for "FreeSpace background generator" in Google.

As for the topic: I think it's kinda fun to spend some time with the background editor. You just have to understand FS's coordinate system.

[Krelus]

One thing I noticed with a lot of player-backgrounds is that they tend to be stretched out and utterly cluttered. I like seeing some dead zones in my background, makes me feel more like I'm in space and less like I'm flying around in a Gas Giant's atmo.

With the stock nebulae it was painful, but with the purdy new ones you can do some interesting things. Attached is what I believe to be my finest work thus far.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[TopAce]

Yes, that looks satisfactory enough. How much have you scaled those nebula images?

[Krelus]

Yes, that looks satisfactory enough. How much have you scaled those nebula images?

Usually 2x or 3x. 3x only if I want something oblong, and I tend to avoid going that large.

[TopAce]

Well, I'm between 2-3-4 usually. Sometimes I go above 5-6 a few times. I found that using one image with the scale of 5-6 and filling and encircling it with several smaller ones produces decent results.

[Dragon]

Dragon: Try to look for "FreeSpace background generator" in Google.

You should check your advise before posting it ,It didn't worked.
This is called background utility and it's quite old.
Maybe somebody still have it ,it will be great if he would upload it to FSMods utilites section.

As for backgrounds ,can this thread: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,32341.80.html
Get some more attention?
It has great backgrounds and I think people who like to create backgrounds can share them there.

[karajorma]

What you are after is Kazan's background generator I suspect. I may have a copy somewhere but it would probably take me some time to find it.

[Dilmah G]

Well, I'm between 2-3-4 usually. Sometimes I go above 5-6 a few times. I found that using one image with the scale of 5-6 and filling and encircling it with several smaller ones produces decent results.

What I do usually as well.

[Krelus]

On the subject of scaling, I found that I absolutely adore having big planets, and that you can get them to 6x without any ill effects. 7 starts to look really odd if you pay close attention, and 8 is just wonky.