against or for custom portrait backgrounds

[Aloofi]

I think black backgrounds go better with the game. Though this is probably an issue of personal taste.....

[henk brouwer]

The backgrounds don't go well with some of the games screens, especially during race selection and in screens such as the one for stellar manipulation. These screens aren't used often but somehow it bothers me.

I do like backgrounds on weapon platforms, and groundunits, which don't have the above issues. A well done background can give some idea of the sort of environment the race lives in (I did this for the United Flora). This is also true for the race portrait. I reworked some of the raceportraits to use backgrounds; a hightech background for the xiati, and organic-looking backgrounds for organic races. That, and good speech files can add a lot to the character of a race, and the atmosphere of the game. It somehow looks out of place when used on ships though.

Henk

[mlmbd]

Personally, I am glad I thought of doing it, and did it. I like the way it makes the images (except in just a few cases) look.

mlmbd

[trooper]

Well it seems that most people dislike background pictures, or don't care about it.
So my pirate shipset will be... black.

A little poll is simpler than never ending threads...

[PvK]

I tend to prefer them without. In the example below for instance, although it's a neat portrait-like effect, and would look good as wallpaper, it makes it a bit harder to see the ship itself unless you spend more effort studying it to see what's the background, and what's the ship. Without a background, the lines of the ship itself are more visible.

PvK

[trooper]

The majority agrees with you. Maybe shipset authors will take this mini-poll into consideration when designing their next races.

Originally posted by PvK:
I tend to prefer them without. In the example below for instance, although it's a neat portrait-like effect, and would look good as wallpaper, it makes it a bit harder to see the ship itself unless you spend more effort studying it to see what's the background, and what's the ship. Without a background, the lines of the ship itself are more visible.

PvK

[Raging Deadstar]

I myself don't really mind backgrounds as long as they are nice, but i do lean more towards having a black background, i remember the tylmai weapon platforms annoyed me so much i edited in photoshop and gave it a black background

I do agree with PVK and others on this issue i'm afriad, but backgrounds do look nice, maybe for race portraits perhaps