Forums » Suggestions
Please fix the textures on the background of planets. Some are extremely terrible looking and choppy really is opposite of what VO should and does look like. If you dont believe me go to a sector with planets and look in the background
Thanks
Thanks
[AGREE]
Been an issue for awhile, they really need better effects such as glows and atomospheres as well as darker shadows.
Been an issue for awhile, they really need better effects such as glows and atomospheres as well as darker shadows.
What? With the settings all the way up, the planets look pretty decent. We have glows and atmosphere.
We know Inc but they just dont cut it, for example the moon outside of sedina is flat as a rock. The problem is we dont have a consistant quailty. The planets just kinda look rushed and I think thats what hes talking about.
Perhaps darker shadows would help, and if not brighten and vary the glows as well
EDIT: heres an example of this
VENDETTA NOW
Dramatic look more people are thinking of. *I blacked out the left side so it wasnt distracting*
P.S I run at max everything when I play, and I think everything looks great however the planets stand out as being a lower quality than the other universe visuals.
BTW ringed planets look good, but they are all the same color as far as ive seen
Perhaps darker shadows would help, and if not brighten and vary the glows as well
EDIT: heres an example of this
VENDETTA NOW
Dramatic look more people are thinking of. *I blacked out the left side so it wasnt distracting*
P.S I run at max everything when I play, and I think everything looks great however the planets stand out as being a lower quality than the other universe visuals.
BTW ringed planets look good, but they are all the same color as far as ive seen
The *lighting* in the game could look better, I agree. But the problem there is.. if we decrease the ambient light, it will be a lot harder to see. Which is why it was made the current way. Solving that will require workarounds, like more advanced radar and such.
I don't personally think the planets look bad, or "rushed" at all. And they weren't rushed. But they are lit by the same global illumination model as everything else in the scene.
In the alpha we could tweak the illumination to whatever looked the nicest.. but in beta and release we had to deal with the realism-factor of having a distant sun, and having the placement of that sun based on your actual position in the system. So, that makes for some lighting being good and some lighting being not-so-good.
I don't personally think the planets look bad, or "rushed" at all. And they weren't rushed. But they are lit by the same global illumination model as everything else in the scene.
In the alpha we could tweak the illumination to whatever looked the nicest.. but in beta and release we had to deal with the realism-factor of having a distant sun, and having the placement of that sun based on your actual position in the system. So, that makes for some lighting being good and some lighting being not-so-good.
Chikira, I like that imager, but I don't think it takes into account the other light sources in the image.
But I do agree with these two, one of my biggest pet peeves was the over-ambient lighting in some of the sectors (d-14 for example). IMO sectors like that SHOULD be hard to see anything. There is very little light.....
I have my gamma turned way down to achieve this effect, but it doesn't help the fact that some of the planets do feel "flat".
But I do agree with these two, one of my biggest pet peeves was the over-ambient lighting in some of the sectors (d-14 for example). IMO sectors like that SHOULD be hard to see anything. There is very little light.....
I have my gamma turned way down to achieve this effect, but it doesn't help the fact that some of the planets do feel "flat".
Yea.
I turn my background off so I feel like I'm in space.
Cause the backgrounds get very pixilated when you zoom in.
Which I use alot.
Too bad when you turn the background off the stars disappear as well.
I turn my background off so I feel like I'm in space.
Cause the backgrounds get very pixilated when you zoom in.
Which I use alot.
Too bad when you turn the background off the stars disappear as well.
Well yeah I turn the bkgnds off cause I can't fight Kix with 'em on and chewing up my fps.
Not to try and derail your focus Inc, but I thought I would quickly do up a Chikira style image. Basically to show another thing that had stuck out to me in the past. The fact that none of the planets ever really seem to be populated. And never seem to have a "night".
This is a screen from Sol II. Given the light sources I think this is pretty accurate....
Screenshot (full quality)
With the nightside burned out and city lights put in:
This is a screen from Sol II. Given the light sources I think this is pretty accurate....
Screenshot (full quality)
With the nightside burned out and city lights put in:
Yes, we don't have any "night" features on the current planets. We did on the old ones:
http://images.vendetta-online.com/screenshots/dump0092.jpg
"night-light" features would actually not be that hard to add. I would just have to add a self-illuminated texture to the planet. When it was lit by the sun, the self-illum would be difficult to notice, when it was unlit.. it would be noticable. The "lights" would always be on.. but would be noticable when the area of the planet was in darkness, basically.
Anyway, I don't have a problem with reducing the ambient light in the galaxy. I mean, I'm the guy who made the "dark" sectors (well, I made almost all the alpha sectors.. but especially the dark ones were my thing). But, there needs to be some solution to the fundamental navigation issue. And that requires code.. enhanced radar, headlights, whatever you want to do.. it's non-trivial and it's that lack that has kept things as is.
And I'm not changing focus :). What we need most of all is not prettier stuff, but rather more stuff to do. The latter is my focus, if I can get back to the former eventually I'll be happy.
http://images.vendetta-online.com/screenshots/dump0092.jpg
"night-light" features would actually not be that hard to add. I would just have to add a self-illuminated texture to the planet. When it was lit by the sun, the self-illum would be difficult to notice, when it was unlit.. it would be noticable. The "lights" would always be on.. but would be noticable when the area of the planet was in darkness, basically.
Anyway, I don't have a problem with reducing the ambient light in the galaxy. I mean, I'm the guy who made the "dark" sectors (well, I made almost all the alpha sectors.. but especially the dark ones were my thing). But, there needs to be some solution to the fundamental navigation issue. And that requires code.. enhanced radar, headlights, whatever you want to do.. it's non-trivial and it's that lack that has kept things as is.
And I'm not changing focus :). What we need most of all is not prettier stuff, but rather more stuff to do. The latter is my focus, if I can get back to the former eventually I'll be happy.
Wait a sec....
The background maps are models? Not actual game-engine models right? They are pre-rendered 2d images.....?
How hard would it be to "hire" some "intern" to go in and hand correct some of the backgrounds? Ala "Matte Painting"?
/me volunteers for an intern position with guild software!
The background maps are models? Not actual game-engine models right? They are pre-rendered 2d images.....?
How hard would it be to "hire" some "intern" to go in and hand correct some of the backgrounds? Ala "Matte Painting"?
/me volunteers for an intern position with guild software!
No, they're models. The backgrounds are all generated realtime. If you have a slow computer and your background is set to a lower detail, the 3D will be "cooked" and rendered out to a 2D texture. But the backgrounds are all generated by your computer.
If you have your detail set reasonably high, you can see the planets are 3D, and in fact many of them visibly rotate.
If you have your detail set reasonably high, you can see the planets are 3D, and in fact many of them visibly rotate.
WHAT?!
So how come they warp when closer to the edges of the screen?
So how come they warp when closer to the edges of the screen?
They rotate!? I have everything maxed, and I've never noticed that before! /me logs in to watch a planet spin....
Yeah they do. I sometimes like to zoom in and look at the planet, and I noticed that it rotates.... I thought everyone knew that....
gavan: probably because of the fov (field of view). Everything warps.. background or foreground.
Good god yes, bring back the dark sectors. Fighting there was always so dangerous and mysterious and spooky!
I think part of the problem is that a system is given a global level of illumination that propagates out to all of its sectors without regard to obstacles in the gameworld, instead regarding only background planets and suns.
For example, I think asteroid belts should cast a shadow. In an ideal world, this would be cast by a detailed map of each object, but in reality it's a small enough detail that you could fudge with a field map like this example of Pelatus:
Thus Pelatus A-16 would get 60% of the global light level/color, as defined by the system.
I think part of the problem is that a system is given a global level of illumination that propagates out to all of its sectors without regard to obstacles in the gameworld, instead regarding only background planets and suns.
For example, I think asteroid belts should cast a shadow. In an ideal world, this would be cast by a detailed map of each object, but in reality it's a small enough detail that you could fudge with a field map like this example of Pelatus:
Thus Pelatus A-16 would get 60% of the global light level/color, as defined by the system.
ctishman: I like the idea. :)
(You won't be able to use it everywhere, though. The Red Dwarf in Odia is just too damn huge to block out with asteroids. Go to M-14 and see what I mean.)
(You won't be able to use it everywhere, though. The Red Dwarf in Odia is just too damn huge to block out with asteroids. Go to M-14 and see what I mean.)
That's a neat idea, ctish. Never having fought in a "dark" sector, and now with the possibility of BLACK ships (or just darker ship coloration), I think this would be rather kickass.
... And...Whaaat? The background is generated on the fly? And... the planets ROTATE?!?! Incarnate you are PULLING OUR LEG.
As a side note to that: if true, than that is a complete waste of processing power, because I think about 2% of VO cares about whether the planets rotate and whether the backgrounds are generated on the fly or not. A matte painting is MORE than enough in most cases.
And if it's rendered on the fly when we enter a sector, how come it's so hard to flip the rendering upside-down so RelayeR can be happy? Hrmmmm?
... And...Whaaat? The background is generated on the fly? And... the planets ROTATE?!?! Incarnate you are PULLING OUR LEG.
As a side note to that: if true, than that is a complete waste of processing power, because I think about 2% of VO cares about whether the planets rotate and whether the backgrounds are generated on the fly or not. A matte painting is MORE than enough in most cases.
And if it's rendered on the fly when we enter a sector, how come it's so hard to flip the rendering upside-down so RelayeR can be happy? Hrmmmm?
Actually, watching planets rotate can be entertaining when you're sitting in one place for hours mining. Try watching for one complete rotation of a planet :P
I really like Ctishman's idea, although it might be best to have the shadow areas reduce as you get farther away from the asteroid fields. So asteroid fields would have strong directional lighting with low ambient to have deep shadows when you're behind roids. Directly behind asteroid fields, like Pelatus C-12, sectors would have 65% lighting, and would work their way up to maybe 85 or 90% the farther away you go, like 85%.
You could go a bit more complicated and have planets reduce ambient levels farther than asteroids given their larger size.
Remember that a planet (or asteroid's) umbra or penumbra for that matter, don't extend forever. You don't see shadows of asteroids or of other planets being cast on, say, Jupiter...
I really like Ctishman's idea, although it might be best to have the shadow areas reduce as you get farther away from the asteroid fields. So asteroid fields would have strong directional lighting with low ambient to have deep shadows when you're behind roids. Directly behind asteroid fields, like Pelatus C-12, sectors would have 65% lighting, and would work their way up to maybe 85 or 90% the farther away you go, like 85%.
You could go a bit more complicated and have planets reduce ambient levels farther than asteroids given their larger size.
Remember that a planet (or asteroid's) umbra or penumbra for that matter, don't extend forever. You don't see shadows of asteroids or of other planets being cast on, say, Jupiter...