[WIP] New Planet Textures - Open Thread (Warning - Image Heavy)

[Igard]

Thanks, Baleur. I'm glad you're enjoying these.

I guess the green/purple planets are just a matter of taste. I like 'em. It makes sense to me that not all planets would look alike, perhaps a high algae content in the water or a particularly abundant flora would create these unusual worlds. I don't really know, but if you like, I could try contrasting and brightening maybe some colour changes.

I haven't really considered cutting and pasting of land masses, I think that would be a last resort, there's still lots of material for me to go through first.

I'm also hoping that the new patch/expansion gives us the ability to add even more planet images to the game![;)]

[WoodMan]

I tried to make a planet in photoshop, I used to make them quite a lot, but its been a while and I forgot my technique [:@] But don't worry, I'm sure it will come back [:D]

Edit: Not a .png, when I make a better one I'll post a png [:)]

[ehsumrell1]

Keep up the great work man....soon DW will rank up there with HalfLife and other games
whose mooding community exemplifies a fantastic game. You, Woodman and the other modders like
you all are INVALUABLE to the PC gaming community. Again, gracias!

[Baleur]

WoodMan you could start working on those Barren planets XD
Haha

I wonder something though.... If it could look good to take eve online screenshots (in the planet view), and simply making the background transparent, then into a .png
Could have nearly infinite planets then, perhaps not super varied, but super high res and detailed.
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9798/20100622052134.jpg
These kinda planets would look insane in DW. But it seems they arent lit up exactly from the front even in the planet view mode in Eve, leaving some shadows in the bottom right corner, sigh. (this screenshot is just taken normally).

Some of them could work well though.
http://ardentdefense.files.wordpress.co ... -16-pm.jpg

And yet most are like this, looking amazing but those pesky shadows!
http://dog-net.org/Uploads/Images/eve/barren.jpg

[WoodMan]

They look B.E.A yootiful Baleur!

I think I might be able to use some texture of ice and something like cracked paintwork/wallpaper to get a ice planet like that, I'll try and do one tonight and see what happens [:D]

Interested to know what kind of Res you guys think is good for planets, i got a feeling 2048 x 2048 may cause performance problems.  Is there actually any difference between 2048 and 512x512 in game, has anyone looked?  Original Res of DW planets is 256x256 btw

Edit: oops, why did I think these images were 2048x2048, lol, they are only 800x800, that might be okay.

[Igard]

WoodMan, the planets I made are 800x800 and the Gas Giants are 1000x1000. I haven't noticed any performace issues, perhaps a bit longer loading times, but that's all. I don't think a higher res will make too much difference, it may look better, so if you like you could try something about 1200,1200.

Baleur, they are GOR-geous![:D] I don't play eve (you can't land on those planets can you?), but those images do make long for a space flight sim again. Would you like me to convert that volcanic planet into a Distant Worlds planet or would like to do that yourself? Just say the word and it's done.[;)]

[Baleur]

Idk, sigh. I mean, well. I'm actually re-downloading EVE right now (for another Distant Worlds mod, which should be up tomorrow if work progresses well tonight and if it turns out as i wish [;)]), so i'll have a look at the files and such.
The thing is, those planets are all generated on the fly when you play, so there's no way to "extract" the textures and thereby flatten them in photoshop, and as i said, when viewing them ingame they are always illuminated from the top left, at least via the easy "lets look at what resources this planet has" view mode, and it seems the DW planets need to be pretty well evenly lit to properly shade with the blablablabla....... You already know [:)]

Anyway, i'll give it a try and see what works and what doesnt.
I do think there is some sort of planet-devtool thing floating around online, that might do the trick. Or simply raising the gamme ingame to the point of having the shaded area retain some detail, which could be equalized to the sunlit side in photoshop lol.

I just realized, if i warp to the sun, then to the planet, they should be illuminated properly from the front.. Argh too tempting to resist, i may have to reactivate my account for this lol.
Yeah, give a try with the lava planet, let me know how it works out. If it looks insane in DW, i'll reactivate and take screens for you

Bla bla bla i write so much nonsense when i've had coffee.
Brb with results

[Igard]

I think you're onto something here, Baleur. Works rather nicely if I may say so.[;)]

[Igard]

Just did a google for Eve model viewer, and came up with this :-

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=389126

Is that any good?

[Baleur]

I think it only opens ships and such, either way, i reactivated my account there and will try to get some sick planet shots for you by tomorrow.
I'll start with barren worlds, considering there's a huge lack of those
Great job on the volcano planet conversion!

[Igard]

Thanks, Baleur. Really great to have some help with this stuff.[8D]

There are a couple of points I feel I must make though.  Try to keep clouds to a minimum as they probably won't look right combined with the cloud overlays. Another is pretty obvious, when taking a snapshot of a gas giant, try to keep the rings out of the way, I could edit them out if they're not too thick, but it never looks right.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing some more of those Eve worlds!

[Baleur]

Keeping the clouds to a minimum is impossible i'm afraid, at least on the temperate / oceanic / barren worlds. Though since they all look as unique as the planets below them, i'm almost thinking about ditching the cloud overlays in DW.
As for gas giants, they dont look THAT great in EVE, but ill take some examples once im done with the normal planets. Personally i think the vanilla DW gas giants look so glowy and cute

[tornnight]

Funny thing is that almost all the textures for volcanic planets look extremely hostile.

How could a species survive there?

I figured that volcanic planets with high quality would be similar to continental planets but with high volcanic activity.

[Igard]

Think of a species like the Tholians from Star Trek :-

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Tholian

I think for species non native to these worlds, you have to use your imagination a bit. Perhaps they build bio-domes or construct platforms of some kind.

[Igard]

OK, I've just made a discovery that I can't believe I missed before. For some reason in  the file structure there is a folder called 'forest'. I made the silly assumption that was another name for 'marshy swamp'. It seems the forest worlds are just the same as the continental.

I'm going to change the way I've been uploading here. From now on I'll only upload a zip file to the top post, maybe the occasional preview. Please, if anyone has any nice planet images they want me to convert for use in DW, go ahead and upload them.[:)]

[Igard]

Huge thanks to Baleur for reactivating his Eve account and searching for these ever elusive shiny new worlds![:)]

Here's the latest zip file:-

http://www.filefront.com/17222538/New planets 210810.zip

Sorry, I still have a few more planets to add from your zip file, Baleur, I'll get round to it soon.

I've include all the vanilla planets with backups prefixed with '_' for example '_Continental-0001.png'. You can delete these if you like, but they're handy if something goes wrong.

Problems with Volcanic worlds overlays. They simply don't work with these images, so I've blacked them out.

Here's a pic of one of the volcanic worlds ingame:

[Igard]

And here's a screeny of one of the marshy swamp worlds.

[Igard]

Here's the rest of the planets from Baleur. This is just an update for the main zip.

http://www.filefront.com/17225836/Planets update 220810.zip

[Baleur]

I wish i had the endurance to keep it up lol, i actually removed all planet mods and started playing with the vanilla again, they look mediocre but its consistent. lol [:D]
Why did Elliot make SO MANY planet textures? *new thing, whining about abundance* [:'(]

[Igard]

I know what you mean, Baleur, it's very tough keeping motivated to do this stuff. That's why I don't put any pressure on myself, I'm taking my time with this and if anyone wants to help, then that's very much appreciated.[:)]