[Razial]

I was wondering if it is possible to have a planet in the background on the same sort of scale as the blue gas planet behind Riviera outpost in the intro fmv to FS1 (we do all remember that dont we? )

If it is poss can you download high res backgrounds (planets mainly) so it doesn't look so pixelated being on a larger scale

[General Battuta]

You can do it via a skybox.

Check out screenshots for Diaspora, the Blue Planet mission 'Curse of Prescience'...there have to be others.

[Droid803]

Well, if you get a high-res enough image, you can even just put a planet bitmap and make it really big.
Doesn't really need to be a skybox.

If you want planet bitmaps, check the Celestial Objects thread in fan fiction and art

[colecampbell666]

Check the Celes- Damn, beat me to it.

A skybox is a giant model of a box (sphere?) with a texture on the inside, this texture can be a planet or whatever you want.

[Razial]

Ok i downloaded GIMP and have had a look at a few of the examples you can download from Celestial Motherlode. I have also had a look, briefly through the long online manual for GIMP and I was wondering is there a quicker way for me to learn how to use a high res image of a planet, import it to GIMP and make it rdy to use in FRED that will not require me to read through the entire manual, as I only want to make a better bigger planet than are default in FRED, I don't see myself making a profession from it

[eliex]

Knowing how to create bitmaps is a useful skill - and the best bit about it is it's quite easy to do it. All you need is creativity and practice.

[Rodo]

this will prove to be very useful to you, just need some practice with gimp and that's it.

[Aardwolf]

Check the Celes- Damn, beat me to it.

A skybox is a giant model of a box (sphere?) with a texture on the inside, this texture can be a planet or whatever you want.

The term skybox is being used in a less-than-literal sense here. It's really just any inside-out model, in .pof format.

[colecampbell666]

But in general it's a very basic shape.