How to make a starsphers ? Please Help Me!
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Custom starsphere/cubes
Create a sphere, box, cylinder etc. in Milkshape
Reverse vertices winding so it’s inside out
Texture it properly, the cube will require 6 textures unless you use the same for all sides
A cube map needs to be made as a dds cube texture, put all 6 textures in it (dxtex.exe can be used for this)
Export the cmp and include the materials in it (1 model, 2 exports)
Load the cmp into one of the newer utf editors, this is because you need the drag and drop feature
Grab the VMeshPart node and reattach it to the .3db node that it is a child of (fixes problem of the texture not showing)
Delete any other child nodes of the .3db node, don’t delete the VMeshRef or VMeshPart nodes (VMeshRef is a child of VMeshPart)
Save it
Load up a system ini into your favorite text editor
Reference it in the ‘nebula =’ line, example below[Background]
nebulae = solar\starsphere\starsphere_bp01.cmpNOTE : It does NOT have to be included in any other file, not even the petaldb.ini file
PS - any shape can be used but go easy on the texture size, especially if you use cube mapsThat is the complete method of making a custom starmap
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LancerSolurus wrote:
Custom starsphere/cubesCreate a sphere, box, cylinder etc. in Milkshape…
Cube? Box? I’m not sure about it… I saw cube starsphere somewhere, it looks like you are locked inside an endless box that you can’t exit. Not good for clastrofobian people…
My suggestion: either sphere or cylinder. Not box, because it will look ugly. -
Actually you won’t be able to tell it’s a cube if its done right. I use them extensively in my game engine as well as sphere maps. One reason to use cube maps is the increase in texture definition, sphere maps tend to be blurry.
For exporting, the standard way used for ships…
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LS is right; you can use virtually any shape you want. So long as the mapping/projection is done properly, it’d be impossible to tell the difference.
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I pulled up an existing Srarsphere in HardCMP and added two Hp’s one at the sphere centre and one at 100 units, the 100 unit location is just outside the “surface” of the sphere.
I’ve tried this for two Starspheres and both are around 200 units in diameter, makes you wonder how you fit a 4000 unit planet inside! (TARDIS tech perhaps LOL).
I think the texture is mapped onto a curved spherical surface so the diameter probably isn’t that critical, and as mentioned earlier it doesn’t have to be spherical.
When I played around with them I just used existing Starspheres and changed the Mip images, they’re all based on spheres (except ew06 is a funnel) with cut-outs for additional imaqe panels.
I did find getting the texture correct quite difficult as a poor choice would result in a tiling effect (see the attached image) I think a less distinct texture works better and any specific images would be added to the windows/plaques using UTF. -
Your’re welcome
have you seen this thread?
i hadnt, reading it now, thanks again 
