Custom planets

Taken from my Solararch.ini in my current mod i’m working on,

[Solar]
nickname = planet_jupiter
ids_name = 60203
ids_info = 60204
type = PLANET
DA_archetype = solar\sol\jupiter\jupiter.sph
mass = 1000000
solar_radius = 70492
shape_name = NNM_SM_MEDIUM_FOREST_MOON
LODranges = 0, 999999

[Solar]
nickname = visual_jupiter
type = NON_TARGETABLE
DA_archetype = solar\sol\jupiter\jupiter.3db
material_library = solar\planets\atmosphere.txm
material_library = solar\planets\planet_earthgrncld\planet_earthgrncld.mat
mass = 1000000
LODranges = 0, 999999
solar_radius = 71492
shape_name = NNM_SM_MEDIUM_FOREST_MOON
phantom_physics = true

I’m using 3DB’s but i’m assuming this is how it will go for cmp’s as well. That line i’ve highlighted is what gives you the atmosphere. This can be edited in UTF so you can change the colour to suit your custom planet. Example being if you have a red planet like mars, then you can make the atmosphere look red or any colour you fancy.

@MH

Yes they are easier to work with than the vanilla planets which use six sided textures. CMP or 3DB planets only use one texture (advise DDS or the file size will be horrendous) and they are cylindrical format, normally 2048x1024. I use some higher res textures for bigger planets because they look better.

Re sph file. Copy any one you fancy, rename it and edit the size in utf. All it does is create an invisible sphere

As to the what? comment, the reason i create two entries is because otherwise all i get is a white ball in space. This solves the problem for me at least. I can then create stuff like this,

In conclusion: Costum planets are a big mess! (not as big as effects tho)
BTW aren’t jupiter’s rings white-gray shade?

tell us, gibbon, what software do you use to make this breathtaking music?

TheDvDMan wrote:
In conclusion: Costum planets are a big mess! (not as big as effects tho)
BTW aren’t jupiter’s rings white-gray shade?

The image i posted isn’t Jupiter, obviously it is in the video, who knows what colour they are? lol. They are not really a mess as you need to know what you’re doing tbh. It doesn’t take me long to put one together i can tell you that much

@Gisteron

I’d like to say the London Philharmonic that i’m conducting but no it’s not. I use Acid Pro 6 for creating and mixing samples so the music was put together there, then finalised in SoundForge 8

I have a question.

I’ve followed the Custom Planets tutorial.
I’ve resized the space arch shield .sur to fit my CMP.

When I apply a 2048 x1024 DDS texture to it, it doesn’t render in game (looks fine in hardCMP).

If I resize that texture to 1024 x 1024 and save it in exactly the same way (DXT1 no alpha), it renders in game.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rik

DDS textures need to be square to work properly

Cheers for the quick response Gibbon.

Yes they are easier to work with than the vanilla planets which use six sided textures. CMP or 3DB planets only use one texture (advise DDS or the file size will be horrendous) and they are cylindrical format, normally 2048x1024. I use some higher res textures for bigger planets because they look better.

Not wanting to sound rude, but perhaps you’ll forgive my confusion

Is there anyway around this? For example I’m guessing the textures that look so fantastic in your Galaticum preview are cylindrical and 2048 x 1024??

Cheers,
Rik

Just open your texture in photoshop and resize from 2048 x 1024 and make it 1024 x 1024.

The model will still know what to do with the texture in game and it will look completely normal. There’s no other way around it, dds textures have to be square in freelancer.

rik_starkiller wrote:

For example I’m guessing the textures that look so fantastic in your Galaticum preview are cylindrical and 2048 x 1024??

Cheers,
Rik

Ahh, yes. I actually use TGA textures for my planets. I’ve been considering changing them over to DDS simply to save space and i should really consider that with the amount of custom planets i’ve done.

In answer to your question though, yes, the textures i normally use are cylindrical, depending on where i source them from, 2048x1024 on average. The one i use for Jupiter is double that size as i found a really good high grade texture on the NASA website and used that.

Great, after I wrote the reply I guessed maybe that’s what you’d done!

Many thanks for the help!

Cheers,
Rik