Opinion on Planets

[Slynky]

Yeah, they look nice! You using a plug-in or just "doing it the hard way"?

[Raging Deadstar]

I'm Using Lunarcell, a filter that lets you create planets extremely easily.

I could do it the hard way but considering i plan to make a lot of these it's a lot easier to use this filter. I can pretty much make a planet every 3-5 minutes with it.

I personally don't care that i'm using the very easy way, as long as it looks good

EDIT: By the way, I never mentioned but i'm planning on making around 5 Planets for each Type. E.g. Ice Oxygen Huge - 5 New Planets, Ice Oxygen Large - 5 New Planets and so on. It will give Fyron either a big smile for FQM Deluxe or a headache Also should give modders a lot more options

[Fyron]

Maybe instead of even amounts, you could create amounts to fill the voids in the Image Mod? Currently, there is a wild imbalance in the number of custom planet images of each type... it would be great to bring it back to the stock SE4 balance between planet types and atmospheres...

[Gandalf Parker]

Imperator Fyron said:
Maybe instead of even amounts, you could create amounts to fill the voids in the Image Mod? Currently, there is a wild imbalance in the number of custom planet images of each type... it would be great to bring it back to the stock SE4 balance between planet types and atmospheres...

I had an idea although its way off course...
What if the images were monochrome patterns and the type/atmospheres connected to VGA color ranges? It would allow the same feel but with much more variety. A swirled medium sized planet might be image9. The map could record image9, color 1, color 2, atmosphere, etc, etc. If an image9 is displayed with blues and greens then its oxygen, shades of purple for methane, shades of orange for carbon dioxide, etc etc.

That would allow for alot of planet variance with the same files. Possibly even a sliding quality ties in with sliding colors ranges (perfect green and perfect blue would be optimal oxygen). It could also reflect a "closeness" to another type. Its a rotten oxygen planet but its close to methane and quickly converted (the scale of blue/green to purple)

[Fyron]

Gandalf Parker said:
I had an idea although its way off course...
What if the images were monochrome patterns and the type/atmospheres connected to VGA color ranges? It would allow the same feel but with much more variety. A swirled medium sized planet might be image9. The map could record image9, color 1, color 2, atmosphere, etc, etc. If an image9 is displayed with blues and greens then its oxygen, shades of purple for methane, shades of orange for carbon dioxide, etc etc.

That would allow for alot of planet variance with the same files. Possibly even a sliding quality ties in with sliding colors ranges (perfect green and perfect blue would be optimal oxygen). It could also reflect a "closeness" to another type. Its a rotten oxygen planet but its close to methane and quickly converted (the scale of blue/green to purple)

I dunno... very few planet images look good as a different atmosphere just with different colors...

[Slynky]

Raging Deadstar said:
I'm Using Lunarcell, a filter that lets you create planets extremely easily.

I could do it the hard way but considering i plan to make a lot of these it's a lot easier to use this filter. I can pretty much make a planet every 3-5 minutes with it.

I personally don't care that i'm using the very easy way, as long as it looks good

Oh, don't worry, I've NEVER been one to do it the "old fashioned way" when there is an easier way to do it.

[David E. Gervais]

Raging Deadstar said:
I'm Using Lunarcell, a filter that lets you create planets extremely easily.

FYI, I purchased the 'Space Bundle' from Flamingpear.com at xmas. It has been what I use for the backgrounds of my artwork and renderings. Did you know that when you make your planets there is an option to save all psp layers. This function basically combines all the layers and makes a texture map perfect for use in Starfury or Se5. (the texture mapped onto the planet spheres in the game.)

So if you export your settings when you make a good planet, you can come back and export a texture map to use in se5 when you're making your mods. Neat eh?

See the sample below for where the export psp layers button is in lunarcell..


Cheers!

[Slynky]

Interesting, David (and Raging).

I should really look into getting something better than what I have. Something more dedicated to planet creation than the tools I've been "getting by" with (Universe, Mojoworld, and Vue).

Are you saying, David, that Lunarcell is part of the "Space Bundle"?

[David E. Gervais]

Slynky said:
Interesting, David (and Raging).

Are you saying, David, that Lunarcell is part of the "Space Bundle"?

if you go to flamingpear.com you'll see that their 'Space Bundle' is a group of three plugins. Glitterato (for creating starfields and nebulas), SolarCell (for creating solar flares), and LunarCell for creating planets. The plugins can be purchased separately, but by buying the bundle you save money and these three plugins work extremely well together.

The other program I use for 'rendering' is Bryce 5 from Daz3d. very good raytracing/landscaping/rendering package. It allows you to import many 3d file formats to include in your scenes. There are a few good examples of Bryce over at spaceempires.net (in the gallery section.) an underwater colony I did and the Crash Site scene were both done in Bryce.

Have fun, and have a great day, Cheers!

Edit:


Here is an image of a planet made with lunarcell and exported as a texture map (PSD Layred image converted to a .bmp) imported into Bryce and mapped onto a sphere. Right off you can see the difference, the lunarcell Version has more debth and detail, while the bryce rendering does have the texture but looses the detail. You might say Bryce sucks, or why not just use lunarcell. well lunarcell while making great 2d planets has no option to rotate the image. once converted to a texture map and placed on a 3d sphere it can be rotated, resized, and otherwise manipulated. There might be a way to add a 'bump-map' to the Bryce rendering but I didn't learn how yet.

Anyway I digress, I just wanted to give you a 'visual' aide on how lunarcell could be used to make texture maps for se5 planets or Starfury. I won't turn this into a discussion on the pros and cons of 2d vs 3d. they each have their good and bad points.

Nuf said, Cheers again,