New thread for my cloud texture issue

What happens unfortunately, is that the planet does not show up. I tried this with just the same idea, and was disappointed.

Cambragol

PS also, overlapping effrits of different colors resulted in the displayed color of one effrit being locked into the others as you passed through them. Another disappointment.

I just sent the lws files. I figured the Middle States was an open cluster, a loose collection of stars cobbled together by their collective gravity (Epitaph mostly, in this case). Open clusters usually contain less than 100 stars. Setting 1 light-year = 1 unit in clusters.ini makes the Middle States just the right size for an open cluster.

I used the regular dot stars for the (non-navigable) stars. I think my method gives it a more “classic EoC� feel. I colored the stars and lights according to the documentation, and these colors are the colors lighting the systems and of the stars’ flares. If you get close to the stars, then the color changes to what the map file dictates, so here’s the colors used in my map files:

Akra: 6
Al Wadi: 5
Alcuin: 5
Aleppo: 12
Bedalov: 9
Bumpy’s Star: 13
Corliss Alpha: 11 (Originally just Corliss, but I think the geog program confused it with the planet Corliss)
Emerald Alpha: 5
Omayyad/Epitaph: 1
Hant: 12
Huang Alpha: 7
Al Quaan Alpha/Ivory Garden: 5
Al Quaan Beta: 12 (The stupid save_type program put them both in the middle of the system; I moved this one to the outer edges)
Kronholm: 12
Li Po: 7
Lombard: 5
Tulinid/New Constantinople: 2
Nisami: 5
Nureddin: 5
Penda Alpha: 5
Powys: 11
Providence: 8
Ripon: 3
Saladin: 12
T’ Ang: 11
Tau Tsun: 11
Watts: 11
Xu Xuan: 10

One thing you might notice is that Epitaph is BRIGHT (80x the sun, the next dimmer, Akra, is 20x). It was tricky balancing it with the other stars. Go to Penda (its closest neighbor) and take a look. Compare it against the other stars. Tau Tsun is farthest from it, and it’s still the brightest star in the sky there! Some stars are too small to see (Bumpy’s Star is the dimmest), except when you turn the ship and the little dot stars disappear.

Does anyone know how to resize stars? Every star in the game ends up with a 100,000 km radius, but that’s tiny for a star.

Should have written things down I suppose....

Yeah, that might have helped. Especially since none of the talk so far works for gas planets. However, using a blank texture for the clouds; since the black areas are transparent, I'd suggest all black. Then nothing would show. Not a bad idea for a graphic kludge.

Wait for Epic and you will see exactly what it looks like.

You can't be serious.

GrandpaTrout, is there any way to check mdvalley's work on nebula and get it into the geog.exe? I know you're probably quite busy.

Gas planets, having no surface, must have clouds, so I suppose you can’t turn them off.

I was afraid that might be the reasoning behind it. But I have to disagree with their (PS's) concept, since the gas planet surface textures already represent the gaseous atmosphere, I don't like having clouds forced onto them. So if you're right, that's very annoying. Thanks for your input.

btw - with all the space architects that are now here, you all might want to have a look at my post explaining how the lws components operate, and can be customized. It covers everything from ambient light to how many pinpoint stars are generated in the background and which backgrounds are used. Things like that.
www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1439

The open issue in this thread is still how to get rid of the atmospheric halo and the clouds. cambrogol offered one suggestion, but it's a graphics kludge (setting the rings to 1 would get rid of the halo, and using a black texture for atmosphere index 0 would get rid of the default clouds when rings are not 0). I would still like to see if there is a proper setting for these halo effects.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
cartoons.sev.com.au/index.php?catid=4
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Yes, I can make that change. Perhaps we can clean up some details while we are all focusing on geography! How about cloud opacity? Anyone getting that value to work? How about y-scale? Anyone understand how that was supposed to be used?

There is an unknown byte at the end of the structure - any clues what it might do?

How about the body types we don't have working entirely - asteroid belts, dead cores, and such. Has anyone made any progress getting those working?

-Gtrout

I have to admit I worked out the lws format on my own, and later skimmed Second Chance’s guide. I can make the “mdvalley’s guide to lws files� if you want my perspective on them. Y-scale is supposed to fatten planets to simulate rotation. I played with it a few months ago. The last structure byte I think is just a spacer before the next entry, but I could be wrong.

I think that asteroid belts were made exactly the same way your environment tools make them. The belt “object� as well as every station in the belt have their own small field. As for dead cores, go to Dagda. It’s main planets are identified as dead cores in the map file. And they are invisible! Seems like PS couldn’t get them to work either.

No luck getting no halo and no clouds at the same time. I did notice that when rings are added, the clouds go to texture 0, regardless of the map file entries. (I made two cloud textures, one with horizontal stripes, and one with vertical, and uncommented the rest. Zebra Emerald is amusing.)

Good idea, GrandpaTrout. I'll refer you to the conversation we had a while ago about asteroid fields here:
www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1593
We might continue looking into those issues. And for me, no, I haven't had any luck getting cloud opacity to work. No value seems to make any difference, under any circumstance.

mdvalley, you should check out my Lightwave scene geog post again. I just updated it with a lot of info anyone without Lightwave won't have access to. Unless you have Lightwave of course, then never mind. [8D]

No luck getting no halo and no clouds at the same time.

Thanks for the effort. It's appreciated. I guess I'll probably just have to go with rings set to 1 and a black cloud texture.

How about y-scale? Anyone understand how that was supposed to be used?

Y-scale is supposed to fatten planets to simulate rotation.

GrandpaTrout, you knew this already. You wrote about it in the geogSDK.
btw - any comments on the geography PDF I sent you? I haven't heard from you.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
cartoons.sev.com.au/index.php?catid=4
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