Matrix Games Forums

Hi, i have a question about the upcoming version 4.5

Do you plan on improve the planets and galaxy ? they look bad in the screenshots with the new bumpmaped ships ... you could look into open source projects that make planets like Celestia :p

-Dim.

PD: any release date? jejeje

any pics/know how?

basically do you know how those planets are put together? or any pics or ideas, helps milo a lot if you can show him what you mean.

I would imagine it would be possible to bump, lum, spec, transparent a planet.

I profit from this topic to ask what's new on version 4,5 other than those new options on the game menu, the light effects and obvious improvements on the game engine?
Any new ship classes? Any new ships added to the existing classes?
Thanks in advance,

=S=

Well, its hard to explain this with my poor english, but i will try it.

An example (from project Celestia himself) to make more appealing planets, is basically formed by 3 layers.

Water, Ground and Clouds

The water is the base of the planet, with a "shinny" aspect reflecting light, something like this :

http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet01.jpg

Then you have the ground (it doesn't reflect light) :

http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet02.jpg

The ground can have bumpmaping like these 3 planets :

http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet07.jpg
http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet08.jpg
http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet09.jpg

And finally the clouds, a layer that rotates around the planet :
http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet03.jpg
http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet04.jpg

And if you want to pu in more detail, even a 4rth layer, only visible in dark, that represents the city lights :

http://www.clon01.net/dimuscul/planets/planet05.jpg

And some kind of atmosfera (look at the borders of the planet for the blue aurea of earth, or the red aurea from mars)

It isn't hard to make more complex and detailed planet/space textures, with 2 or 3 tools all the work is done in a simple day.

Hope this helps!! [:)]

Wow, that is a sweet earth...

excellent.

I will pass this along, this is something I was meaning to bring to milos attention but I Didnt know of a good enough way to express it.

Hey look! it even has New Zealand!

ORIGINAL: se5a

Hey look! it even has New Zealand!

Great! now all we need is orbit to surface nuclear weapon capability!