Hello..

This might be a little late... but... I work for IPAC (Inrared Processing and Analysis Center) part of JPL/Nasa

we take pictures of deep space objects, Galaxies, star formations, dust...

i beleave that our finished products are public data (because your tax dollars fund this stuff)...

so you could include real pics of space in the backgrounds of the sectors...

here are some links to some of the projects at IPAC

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/mediaimages/data.shtml
spitzer is the latest project taking pics of objects in near infrared

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/index.html
2mass (2micron all sky servey) was one of the biggest projects at one point, now is very small but they have some AWSOME pics... particaularly the "galatic center"...

those to will have the "prettest" pictures...
the homepage for all the projects here is

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/

...

i hope you consider to use some of these images in your game...

-MorbidlyWrong

I like the idea, it would allow the game to take on more realism to actual space. Currently, the black in most systems and the s7 backgrounds are kind of odd looking and the black one gets rather boring after long times on patrol.

And with the idea of adding many new sectors to the game, there may be a VERY open window to use JPL/IPAC images in the future perhaps.

Also, MW, you are correct, legally, everything NASA take pictures of using Tax-funded, non-military projects becomes public property although under certain circumstance (say you guys discovered a martian with a rover) that maybe classifable as a threat to the planet and then the military can classify it.

At least, that is my understanding of the situation.

i will defenitly find out the legal stuff for ya.. but as i under stand it... ipac.caltech.edu is a public webserver... you can download the images from the archive pages and use them how ever... but i will get a better answer than "i think"...


-MW

If it's open to access for the public "i.e. not secured with a login procedure of any kind" it's fair game.

Right now I can't stand the current backgrounds, so I play with it off. I'd much rather see less complex background images for Vendetta. Look at the backgrounds of the Homeworld series. It's an example of how you can make a game VERY pretty without all the complex crap. The whole nebula and excessive star patterns thing is becoming a cliche fast. Yeah sure, it's real, but is it really original or interesting? You can make beautiful backgrounds without slapping thousands of stars and colors into it. Toning down some of that helps keep texture memory low and makes long distance vision bearable.

The only problem I can see with using real starmaps as backgrounds is that the Point of view is from earth. The game takes place in a galaxy far far away as it were. (sry couldnt resist) The starmaps would appear drastically different than anything we see from earth.

Arolte, homeworld had PLENTY of colours... Personally, though, I prefer our current backgrounds for this game. Homeworld's backgrounds made everything seem so... big. That's fine for a game where you're playing with huge ships in large quantities, but in Vendetta where you're just one little tiny fighter? These are more comfortable...

Vendetta's current backgrounds make it waaaaay too hard to locate other players and objects from a distance. Play with backgrounds off to see what I mean. You'll get a huge boost in visibility and you'll concentrate more on the action. I'm not saying backgrounds should be all black. I'm just saying that something more could be done to make the current backgrounds much easier on the eyes. I just happen to prefer the smooth and clean look of Homeworld.

Arolte, that's very useful if you're trying to run. I have found it hard to locate someone's cargo in deep space because of the background. makes it more challenging

More challenging? Why bother putting a glow effect on each cargo box then? Why bother even putting radars in the game? The current background textures are just adding unnecessary clutter. I mean it's cool that it's adding to the environment and all, but there's a way to make them look beautiful without making simple navigation and visual surveying difficult. At the very least I think something should be offered as an option to tone the background complexity down. See my new topic on Background Rendering for a possible solution to this that will make everybody happy.

I play vendetta for the beautiful scenery. (/me is almost totally serious)
in some situations, the background improves vision. I've tried to fight several blue ships at once with the background turned off, and except for the one blue ship I had targeted, the others were barely visible against the black background

Was it Icarus who first said, "Vendetta is the most beautiful chatroom on the web?"

I forget who that was, but it's still true today.

I'd never turn the background off, nor would I advocate allowing it to be turned off (though obviously some compremises should be made). Things should be hard to see, at least, when away from a Sun (most of the sectors we have now are fairly close to one). In fact, I'm inclined to feel things are too easy to see. I want to see the blackness of old man space, and look at him in his abyssmal maw. If the game doesn't sometimes give me the willies, then there is something wrong with the art.

The thing about using the NASA images is that most the publically released ones don't have enough resolution. Link to something that would print on a poster-sized (or at least 11x17) sheet of paper without looking grainy and that might could be turned into pretty good background art.

BTW...

WOOHOOO!!! REAL SPACEMAN!!!! GO NASA!!!! WOO HOO!!! WE ARE LIVING IN A SCIENCE FICTION WORLD!!! WE ARE LIVING IN A SCIENCE FICTION WORLD!!!

Seriously, the geeks at the JPL (and my wife, whose quite a geek herself and has the mission patches to prove it) are my heroes.

Vendetta WAS the most beautiful chatroom on the web before the updated backgrounds came out.

Even on low, they were stunning. Of course, they were also 12 megs each, but hey? What's more important than beauty?

I too liked the older backgrounds.

Wasn't Homeworld an RTS? I would think an RTS style game would need a different type of art style than a more FPS type one like Vendetta.

Although I would like to see some (not too many) truly spectacular backgrounds of nebulae or stellar phenomena (distant black holes, a galaxy that fills up half the skybox on a side, vortexes, etc).

I'd also like to see some sectors with relatively dark backgrounds. Just a black starfield with a small deadish planetoid out in the distance or something like that. I have faith thesse things will happen. Remember what Incarnate said. The sectors now just represent one solar system. In the final game we'll have a whole galaxy.

My only regret is that I won't be able to upgrade my vid. card before it goes into the final.

The first three or so mission in Homeworld I while you are still far from the center of the galaxy are some of the best space backgrounds I have ever seen. Very minimalistic - the only really significant objects nearby are a planet, the sun and a vague smear representing the center of the galaxy.

But then Homeworld was just awesome ;)

The sectors now are one solar system?! I guess s15, s17 and s18 are not part of it.. after all, they have totally different backgrounds than the other sectors.

Yeah, this is all one solar system. Eventually there's gonna be multiple systems connected by long-range transport systems. Or something like that. It's in the Vendetta MMORPG site.

[quote]
The Universe of Vendetta is composed of a great many Solar Systems, linked by "Wormhole Areas". These Systems will contain multiple Sectors. Within a given solar system, characters will travel from sector to sector using a short range (ie, millions of miles) high speed propulsion system, activated by a navigational computer. Between whole solar systems, Wormhole Areas (sectors unto themselves) will be utilized, wormhole activation providing instantaneous very-long-range transportation.
[etouq]

wow... lots of good ideas...

Celebrim

if you poke around the links i posted you can find very VERY large poster side images...

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as for turning the background off... i think you should be able too although i dont see why one would want to...

-

Spellcast

i understand that the point of view of these pictures if from earth... it was a suggestion to the Devs that they could use these images for what ever or not... just get those creative juices flowing... they could simple use a small nebula and put their own stars around it, or what ever.

-

i soo wish i had somthing more to do with vendetta... so all i can do is suggest things like IPAC/JPL images, and hope it gives them more ideas...

-MW[VC]

The current background nebulae are derived (in part) from images of the lagoon nebula.

Does that count? :)

No.

j/k


I'm a fan of the (fictitious) Phoenix nebula.

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/paintings_20023.html