[Bullhorn]

1} Is there no central list/release thread of all the planets created by the various mods?

2} Im trying to make my own.
Attached (jpeg version, but using pcx or dds. Whichever works better).

In FRED2_OPEN it looks like the attached screenshot.

WTF????

BH



[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]

[karajorma]

Are you sure that background is transparent? Rather than simply being green.

[Bullhorn]

hmm, not sure how to do that.

[Rodo]

IIRC FS can read full green areas and replace them with a transparent alpha channel or something like that.

Not sure if it was related to a specific type of file or not, but you could check whether that green area is actually full green.
Or you could try replacing the green area with a transparent alpha channel using any image editor (that's what I'd do myself).

[Shivan Hunter]

Did you add it to the stars.tbl? If so, planets (and everything that needs to be rendered with an alpha blend mode, rather than an additive mode like nebulas are) there have to be $BitmapX: rather than $Bitmap:

Also, there are a variety of reasons to give planets an alpha channel (that is: an opacity channel, for transparency) instead of green-masking them. Green-masking is an "all or nothing" effect where no pixel can be partially transparent: either it's (0, 255, 0) or it's rendered fully opaque. It would look ugly in a mission and there's no real reason to do it anymore.

I'm not sure how to introduce you to alpha channels because I suck at explaining stuff, but look up planet tutorials in your preferred image editor; they will probably cover the subject.

[Bullhorn]

Thank you, yep sorted it out.  I'm merrily building a planet portfolio,  sick to death of the low resolution retail. 

Once I hit a decent number (say 20) I'll release. 

My ultimate aim is to do enough to set a semi-canon (or at least commonly agreed upon)  planet set for each system in FS, with a general Background, set in individual missions.

Ie, if you want to set a mission in Polaris,  you load up Polaris.Fs2

Neat, huh?
Then let the accuracy wars begin!

Bh

[Lorric]

I came across this a while back. It may be of use to you. I didn't actually download it.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Background_Emporium#Canon_systems

[Bullhorn]

I came across this a while back. It may be of use to you. I didn't actually download it.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Background_Emporium#Canon_systems

Yeah I saw that.  It's fairly old,  and I can't say that I was terribly impressed with them. Also,  placing as text is just a pain -  better to give a straight up fs2 file.

Bh

Ps.  I'm very much a fan of using notepad++ in mission editing,  I'd just prefer to open from a fully BG preset mission.

[Nyctaeus]

This planet looks very old for standards of today. I think you should look for something new. Many mods have big collections of awesome planets. I saw a lot of them included in Between the Ashes demo. My Shadow Genesis has pretty big collection too. There is also Diaspora, WCS, Celestial Objects Thread...

[Bullhorn]

Oh I agree,  it's quite bland and featureless. Very much a placeholder.

I've moved on to much better ones.

Bh