[ktistai228]

I dare you all to make the COOLEST pictures in the FreeSpace engine as you can. The only thing that matters is for it to look good.  
However, there are some kinda strict rules:
-you have to have only ONE ship in the picture
-it has to be clearly visible and recognizable
-the ship has to have been released to the general public, and available for download
-size limitations: throw them out the window!
So go ahead, use the best this engine can give, use the 3.6.12 with full capacity, use all the features you can think of, use HTL versions, make them if you want (nobody will do that but what the hell ), use whatever you want. The only thing that counts in the end is for it to make everybody say "WOW"(do not think of world of.... or you just might get shot).
The best pictures will be used by http://starships.wikia.com/wiki/Starships_Wiki as a representative image for the ship it... uhm... well... represents.

All the good, and lets see what you can do!
Ktistai228

Winners:
FreeSpaceFreak - GTCV Deimos!
Congratulations!

[Black Wolf]

You know, I'm fairly sure this doesn't constitute a dare in the traditional sense, but hey, go nuts.

[Dilmah G]

I like this idea, but I gotta agree with BW. 

[Rodo]

GO LOKI!

[Dragon]

From where did you got this background?

[Rodo]

I made it for Syrk campaign.

[ktistai228]

@Black Wolf and Dilmah G Not really a dare indeed, but a nice little contest in the end.
@Rodo: That.... is.... nice   Really, great start!

[Aardwolf]

*snip*

WHOA. That is beautiful. It's like Herra Tohtori's milky way galaxy skybox, except it's brighter, without sacrificing clarity.

Incidentally, "milky way galaxy" is redundant. Explanation

[High Max]

;-)

[Rodo]

I saw that background in ASW.

You did?.. I could sworn I finished this one two days ago so it's kinda hard for it to be on ASW.

You might have seen a similar skybox though.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I saw that background in ASW.

That specific background wasn't in ASW, but there was a galaxy alright.

Rodo: Good start, but needs more close-up

Here's some I did a while ago. The first two have been manually post-processed; the Deimos one is purely in-game. Except for the text, of course.

[Jeff Vader]

* Lazy person decides to reuse old screenshots instead of taking new ones

[Rodo]

Those norma maps look awesome on the Aurora.

[High Max]

;-)

[Bob-san]

Is that Aurora screen from BP Director's Cut? that background is similar to the Sol starfield.

Edit: I wonder how long it will take to make FSO look this good

img

If ever. The detail of that ship makes FSO look like a joke. This detail looks as good as visually possible for human eyes unless we alter it to be true 3D and view it with 3D tv.

But I will give FSO more points for background detail.

IIRC, real shadows aren't implemented.

In other ideas... a ray-tracing gfx engine may eventually be an awesome choice. Only like $12,000 for a 4S 12-core AMD workstation (48 real cores total and ~$30-40/GB RAM).

[High Max]

;-)

[Bob-san]

We'll probably have to wait at least 10 years for that to be standard.

Perhaps, but 48+ cores in 2010 is nearly irresistible. You'd go broke putting RAM in; about $2000 for 32x2GB sticks or $5000 to fill it up with a full 32x4GB sticks.

[ktistai228]

@FreeSpaceFreak: That Ravana kicks ass..... however it is a tad bit too dark for a "representative" image, the Deimos are also nice(very possible for them to go in!), but I don't like the Aeolus. Too dark and really can't see those nice details it has. Did I mention that Ravana kicks ass?
@Jeff Vader: Get me another one showing the top of the Aurora and the two are winners and go to the site!!
@High Max: Heh, if FreeSpace would look like that I wouldn't be playing it. Really, my computer barely handles 3.6.12.....

[NeoKnight]

I'd like to make a small contribution, but I'm relatively new to online forums and have yet to figure out the method of adding pictures to my posts. Sorry, I know that's pretty bad....but if someone can tell me how to proceed after adding image tags, I'd really appreciate it.

[Scotty]

Put the address of the picture between [ img ] and [ /img] (minus the spaces of course).  That should be it, unless it's a gigantic picture, in which case you really should replace img with lvlshot.