New thread for my cloud texture issue

At first I thought "Cool lens flare effect", but then I was like - these were the coordinates of Alderan... yet no planet?

The problem turned out to be I swapped the byte for texture_type with the first planet texture map. So planets with texture map values of 1 or 2 worked fine, but those with texture map values of 3 or higher (not supported) turned invisible.

I normally keep my resolution in 800x600 mode to preserve some backward compatibility with slower machines. I find it especially critical when laying out GUI screens to pick a low resolution as the base. I also run windowed mode almost always so I can recover from, uh, rather frequent POG induced crashes.

My current box is only a year old. It dips into the 110 range when near ships and stations and stuff. Nvidia 5900 with 128 meg of texture memory. Seems to do pretty well. (Still only gets 30 fps in Halo. You will never convince me this is not an MS conspiracy.)

I was running an much older machine before, and just last summer was the first time I had ever seen EoC with max graphics and hi res textures. I was stunned. I just kept flying around looking at stuff. (I had to chuckle when Shane posted a similar story - I know just what it felt like. It was a good day!)



-Gtrout

Here is the new alpha release of the tool set. Updated docs as well. Please give these a test run and let me know if anything wierd happens, bugs, etc. After we stamp out the remaining issues, I will release them for real.

Because the format of the CSV files has changed, please read the included Geography Data Converter.rtf file.

The fastest way to learn the new format is to decode an existing map file. Each line of the decoded map file is commented, to make understanding easier.

Enjoy!

www.i-war2.com/epic/files/GeogTools2.0a.zip

-Gtrout

I just changed my akra.csv to the new format and ran it through. The L-Point positioning worked like a charm, though I came out pointing at the planet. Is that intentional? To point it at the moons, take the negative signs out of the angle = (atan2(-x,-z))/2; line. And with the L-Points so close to the moons now (both were more than 0.9), maybe it’s better to parent them to the moons.

Your documentation has some errors in it. The star entry does not have an orientation. I had to decode al_wadi.map to find that out. And your example line for belts has a few too many zeros in it.

Thanks! I just made the changes.

I can face the Lpoints at the moons. It would be more dramatic.

-Gtrout

Cloud Opacity - if this value does not actually adjust clouds, I wonder what it does. It is always set to 0 when clouds are set to 255 (no clouds). It is set to a value like 15 or 28 when around a planet that has clouds. It is set to 255 when around a gas giant. I can't remember if we disproved this was atmosphere halo thickness....

Has anyone worked on this? Based on the atmoshpere halo texture, it should simply be a sprite (which would use the least video memory, very important for a minor feature like this). The sprite is simply scaled when created based on the size of the planet it's for. So atmosphere halo thickness would be directly proportional to the planet's diameter. The bigger the planet, the bigger the sprite is scaled; so the thicker the halo (as an absolute measurement, it's still proportional to the planet). Since the halo is already made by scaling a sprite, it would be cake to scale the sprite to any size you want; making for a variable thickness halo. But since the halo is simply a minor background feature, it's unlikely PS built this kind of customization into the map files. So the sprite scaling factor is probably hard-coded.

However, maybe if you guys find some bytes in the map that don't appear to be used, you could try seeing if they scale the halo sprite. A variable thickness halo would also solve the problem of getting no halo and no clouds, by simply making the halo smaller than the planet.

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The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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No, I have not figured out what that byte actually does. Good theory on how it works. I notice that the halo is the same even in totally dark systems, which supports the idea it is just a fixed sprite.

-Gtrout