[rscaper1070]

So I've been playing around with this and this is what I've got so far.

[Droid803]

Are those...all backgrounds?

[rscaper1070]

There's one background that the game repeats to make the whole asteroid field. I think I need to thin it out some, especially the smaller rocks, but at least I figured out my index problem. It's no mjn.mixael but I think it's better than what was there before.

Original:


My Version:

[Sushi]

The lighting on yours looks kind of funny, I'm afraid... the asteroids look top-lit, but the planet behind is obviously side-lit...

[mjn.mixael]

The lighting on yours looks kind of funny, I'm afraid... the asteroids look top-lit, but the planet behind is obviously side-lit...

Good call! I knew something looked off, even in my version. That should help a lot.

How did you render the asteroids? I would recommend a more detailed diffuse/bump map. That will help a great amount too.

Good work though! 

[Klaustrophobia]

honestly i like the original better.  the lighting was definitely part of it, maybe that will fix it.  but really other than being kinda fuzzy the original is fine.

[rscaper1070]

Well I used the original as a guide for the lighting, there's a lot of light coming around the tops of the rocks because they are closer. You are right though since mine is much brighter that stands out more.

As far as rendering I just painted them in photoshop using a couple of NASA pics for textures. Bump maps are on my "Things to Learn" list.

[rscaper1070]

honestly i like the original better.  the lighting was definitely part of it, maybe that will fix it.  but really other than being kinda fuzzy the original is fine.

You've got to be kidding. It's like flying though God's litter box.

[Mongoose]

Lighting issues aside, it's much much much better than what's there at the moment.

[rscaper1070]

I rotated some rocks and dampened the hot spots. I think it's a step in the right direction. What irks me though is the one thing in that scene that is lit incorrectly is actually the planet. I don't know what's lighting the planet from the far left but it isn't the star that's behind and to the left. If it was lit by the star most of the planet facing us would be lit.

[Sushi]

That looks a lot better. 

[Kolgena]

That looks a lot better. 

1000x this.

One idea you could toy with is to throw in some shadowing, so that there's a better spatial sense of where those rocks are. I realize that task is pretty much asking the impossible if you're manually painting lighting in photoshop, but I think it'd be a cool effect to see.

[Mobius]

Wow, nice work.

[Galemp]

[rscaper1070]

Well I think I've taken this as far as my meager skills will allow. I resized a couple of things and did add a few more shadows. Thing is when the game repeats the image it overlays it on itself (which is really neat) so I can't shadow those. Anyway I'm starting to feel like I live in Betelgeuse so I'm calling my asteroid field done.

If anyone wants:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/km3ohc2w01138t1/SunSathanas03.7z

[Galemp]

Can you provide us with an alpha-channel DDS (or PNG or TGA) please?

[rscaper1070]

I hope this is what you are looking for. It's a copy of my photoshop file and a .tga.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ju7ynbs56uy55n6/SunSatanas03workfiles.7z

[Galemp]

Thanks. I wanted a transparent, anti-aliased DDS to go into the FSPort MediaVPs; your conversion to PCX wasn't really clean around the edges, since Photoshop anti-aliased the asteroids with the green background.

The retail PCX can stay just how it is.

[rscaper1070]

So I've been playing around with this and for the life of me I can't get the color index to play nice with an alpha channel. I went in and removed the green edge that was showing through manually. Let me know if this is better.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/72cis97k3361qdi/SunSathanas03.7z

[Galemp]

What you need to do is flatten and index it with a black background and a single green pixel in one corner. Then you use Magic Wand on the black with 0 tolerance and do a bucket fill with that green. Double check the palette to make sure the color is 0.255.0 and not something very close to it, like 10.250.0.

Photoshop's tools shouldn't have any AA when you're working with an indexed image, so that ought to do it.