New thread for my cloud texture issue

Ok, here is what I've learned from all this:

• The value in Num Planet Rings determines:
  • Obviously the number of rings on a gas planet, for one.
  • Whether or not the planet will be assigned some sort of "default" clouds (atmospheric texture index 0).
  • Whether or not the planet is assigned an atmospheric halo.
• A value of 255 in the Cloud Texture Map value won't remove clouds if the ring value is greater than 1.
• No value in Cloud Opacity actually affects cloud opacity.
• Texture 1 RGB values color the black (or darker) areas of a texture map.
• Texture 2 RGB values color the white (or lighter) areas of a texture map.
• The Texture 1 and 2 colors are blended evenly from one to the other.
• If you're using a texture map with its own color information, the Texture 1 and 2 colors can be used to fine tune the colors on the color texture map.

For the most part, this info applies only to rock planets. When I have more information on gas planets I'll post it.

btw - I'm still looking for a solution to the problem of no clouds with no halo.

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
.

ace work. btw, for the background star texture, what *does* space look like in a 360 degree view wih no objects in the way, from inside our solar system? surly you would see things like the milky way and such.

Jwk...comander of =HEMP HUNGRY MONKEY=
www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=310

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



Cambragol

PS I resolved this planet issue once long ago, and the easy solution is to make an all black texture, rename it as a cloud and set the color for the texture to 255 255 255. Or was it make an all white texture and set the color to 0 0 0,...or....I can't remember exactly, but when I was working on planets with GrandpaTrout, I figured it out. Should have written things down I suppose....

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

And cambragol, I’d be interested in swapping map and lws files. My lws files all use one nebula for the background, but I placed all of the stars. I discovered that flux can correctly place the stars in the background, but doesn’t account for distance in the flare sizes! So I had to calculate the brightness of every star as seen from every other star and type it all in by hand.

And in case you’re interested, I cracked the map file nebula code.

Byte 0 = entity type (07)
Byte 1-263 = ASCII string, entity name (terminates in first 00, rest is meaningless filler ending in D7)
Byte 264-271 = xvalue double-float
Byte 272-279 = yvalue double-float
Byte 280-287 = zvalue double-float
Byte 288-291 = orientation1 float
Byte 292-295 = orientation2 float
Byte 296-299 = orientation3 float
Byte 300-303 = nothing
Byte 304-307 = parent long
Byte 308-311 = body radius
Byte 312-359 = nothing

Note the lack of flexibility. Oddly enough, the body radius is bytes 308-311, instead of 312-315 that every other entity has. The Effrit is the only map-made nebula in the game, so the devs must have hardwired it.

mdvalley, I would be interested in swapping too. However, just to let you know, I am working under the premise that the middle states cluster as described, is not the whole cluster. It is in fact a cluster of several hundred stars (a presumption GrandpaTrout and I are working under). Thus, the named and navigable stars are not the only ones. Mixed in amongst them are perhaps a hundred to several hundred unexplored, unused and unoccupied stars. In my lws files I have included all these. Because of this huge number of stars I didn't find it really imperative or necessary to position the 'navigated' stars precisely, or at all, because they would just get lost in the background proliferation of 'un-navigated' stars.

Nonethless, since you have gone to all the trouble of correctly positioning them, it would beg of us to merge the two files into one super accurate version. If you are so inclined, please send your lws files too: mourfin(at)lycos(dot)com

Interesting about the nebula. However, after using Grandpatrouts tools to create huge 'effrit', style nebula systems, I finally gave up, frustrated by the behaviour of it's 2d sprites.

Cambragol

What happens if you were to stick a plent inside an effrit style system? make their textures and colours very similar and you would have a 'gas giant' with unusual properties. Just say that it is a newly forming one.

Jwk...comander of =HEMP HUNGRY MONKEY=
www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=310