[wistler]

Does anyone know of any good looking planet backgrounds such as the lava planet from BP and Twilight?

They can be skyboxes I'm not bothered either way. I'm looking for the sharp quality ones that stand out compared to the planets you get in the FRED background choice and would really appreciate a link or just a recommendation.

[colecampbell666]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41939.0.html

[dANGER boy]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41939.0.html

That topic needs to be stickied here.  Very very helpful, especially the tutorial in the first post for FREDders

[wistler]

  thanks for the link. I did try a search but it wasn't coming up with anything useful.

[dANGER boy]

http://gtuts.com/design/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial

That is a great one too.  Very easy to understand and follow but is also very flexible for your own experimentation.  Even the planet the tutorial creates with you is pretty decent.  If you want to make it look really good, you can duplicate the plugin you use by using gradients but work with images at 2000x2000 pixels.  You can get some real detail then.

[Krelus]

After experimenting with this, I just want to say that you should REALLY make your first planet a gas-giant. At first I tried to make something with actual terrain and damn near ripped out most of my hair.

[General Battuta]

You can grab the other awesome skybox from BP - the huge planet from 'Curse of Prescience' and 'Fallen Angel'.

[Krelus]

You can grab the other awesome skybox from BP - the huge planet from 'Curse of Prescience' and 'Fallen Angel'.

That skybox looks AMAZING with a Whitehall orbiting it. First time I did a flyover with that setup, chills went down my spine.

[wistler]

Would I have to redownload BP to grab it or are individual things like that up for download on FreeSpace mods?