hey! i have a super idea! let's have planets!

*wonk*

er... no... just kidding. i'm not making a suggestion. nor am i asking to be able to land on planets.

but rather, i'm curious as to why we have planet objects?

i mean, the distance level of details affects how they're rendered. if you zoom into one, you can even see a thin film of atmosphere and the planet's outlines made out of segments depending on that level of details.

on top of being objects, they're objects you can never get close to. they're somehow layered in the scene where ship position doesn't affect it's visual size.

weither they're spheroids of not is out the scope of this question (though i tend to believe they're actually flat surfaces).

given that we can simply not toy with those objects, why did they went to the length of having actual objects to render them rather than simply incorporate them in the backdrop scene?

what's the purpose of them lingering there?

One word: Gravity

Because they rotate. Oh yes. They do.

On the highest graphics setting planets become 3D objects, anything below that and they are just your standard static image on the skybox. The purpose? It looks cool. A planet is much easier to make than a ship. Sphere is a built in object in all 3D modelers I've seen, but awesome looking spaceship isn't.

Because, one day, we want to be able to land on them.

Yes softy, and otherwise we'd need to find a new topic to yell at n00bs for suggesting. And until we do, we'll all be slightly less elitist! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

They do rotate. Right after full scene glow, that was the first thing I cried happily seeing when I got my new computer.

Because they look cool.

I agree with Whistler , space should be an interesting place . In the long term I would like to see more interesting objects in space , even if there is no direct interraction with them.

The planets are part of the backstory , there must be trade between them and the stations even though we never see it happening. Perhaps in the medium term events on planets could generate space missions , " There has been a famine on planet x , agriculture related goods are needed at station y " etc. VO is a space game not the sims.....

Ecka

I think they are objects because that way, it's easy to render them a different size and aspect depending on the sector you look at them from, rather than having one background to load each time you jump.

dave, re-read the original post. i'm not arguing about the presence of planets (duh). i'm just asking why there was a need for them to be objects rather than backdrop canvas. and why, as objects, we can't get closer to them anyhow.

edit:
nioubi, that's one very good point. i think it's the most logical answer to my question.

Because sprites are soooo 1999

Next!

They look a lot better as 3D objects than they do baked onto the skybox. But if you like, you can lower your background detail and they will be. They really are spheres, and if you move around a system, they're positioned correctly in the background based on where you are (so you can see the "other side" of the planet, and it will actually be the other side, and has different stuff on it). And yes, they also rotate.

We would like people to be able to interact with them more, but that's not on the front burner right now.

I interact with them all the time. You should hear what Sol II has to say after drinking a bottle of wine (me, not Sol II). Its a bit of a one sided conversation, but every now and then the planet says something kinky.

If you hack your ships, you can actually fly to it too.

Like you can fly to suns.

how so?

i want to sling shot around a sun and go back to the previous db backup!

You can reach the sun, but you can't slingshot and go back in time, unfortunately, despite what mr spock might think.

Who cares about travelling through time? The acid trip caused by said slingshot looks like enough fun as it is....

Don't go to the planets... They're upside-down. You'll fall off!!!!