Development:Orbital Planet Surfaces - Revision history

Gonzo: /* External References */ Fix link

2015-05-31T06:58:16Z

‎External References: Fix link

Gonzo: /* Image References */ Picture link broken, picture substituted

2015-05-27T19:34:34Z

‎Image References: Picture link broken, picture substituted

Gonzo: /* Tutorial References */ Fix broken link with archived page

2015-05-27T18:00:19Z

‎Tutorial References: Fix broken link with archived page

Gonzo: /* Development Tools, Tutorials */ Uranius -> Uranus

2015-05-26T17:25:53Z

‎Development Tools, Tutorials: Uranius -> Uranus

Tbeholder at 14:16, 22 February 2014

2014-02-22T14:16:20Z

Tbeholder at 07:57, 15 February 2014

2014-02-15T07:57:46Z

Augie.ben.doggie: [vega-bot] [replace] 15 instances of 'http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums' for 'http://forums.vega-strike.org'

2013-01-08T21:27:49Z

[vega-bot] [replace] 15 instances of 'http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums' for 'http://forums.vega-strike.org'

Shark: /* Development Tools, Tutorials */ link to Solar Voyager which has some kick ass tutorials

2010-07-06T06:28:58Z

‎Development Tools, Tutorials: link to Solar Voyager which has some kick ass tutorials

Nikai: /* GIMP */ sp

2010-06-17T07:08:18Z

‎GIMP: sp

peter: updated for .texture filenames, and added image-viewer software section. and fixed some grammar/spelling

2008-05-21T21:28:32Z

updated for .texture filenames, and added image-viewer software section. and fixed some grammar/spelling

@@ Line 260: / Line 260: @@
 *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet)#Atmosphere Jupiter (planet)]
 *[http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970920.html The Clouds of Jupiter]
-*[http://www.sbg.ac.at/geo/idrisi/remote_sensing_tutorial/rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/sect19/sect19_15.html Planetary Remote Sensing - Jupiter]
+*[http://fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect19/Sect19_15.html Planetary Remote Sensing - Jupiter]
 *[http://opensourceschools.org/article.php?story=20030428204319316 Atmospheres of the Gas Giants]
 *[http://www.solstation.com/stars/jupiter.htm Solstation Jupiter]

@@ Line 266: / Line 266: @@
 ===Image References===
-*[http://www.cosmiclight.com/imagegalleries/images/space/jupiter-io.jpg Io over Jupiter]
+*[http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z305/owallgren/Vega%20Strike/PIA00144_ip.jpg Io and Europa over Jupiter]
 *[http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/images/screenshots/jupiter/4kjupiter__johnvanvliet.jpg Celestia Jupiter Map]
 *[http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/images/screenshots/neptune/neptune__tcorbin.jpg Celestia Neptune Map]

@@ Line 272: / Line 272: @@
 ===Tutorial References===
-* [http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html "Make a planet" tutorial by Greg Martin]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150423145531/http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html "Make a planet" tutorial by Greg Martin]
 * [http://alyn.deviantart.com/art/Advanced-planet-creation-11885274 "Advanced planet creation" by alyn]

@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 A good starting point for e.g. gas giant texture maps is the 'Solid Noise' filter.
-There is a way to make planetary twisters like Uranius or so, using the Gimp. First you must create the gas texture, and then apply the distort filter into Filters>Distortions>Deformation. Then set the deformation type to "counterclockwise swirl", and the make one or two swirls. This will generate swirls at the surface.
+There is a way to make planetary twisters like Uranus or so, using the Gimp. First you must create the gas texture, and then apply the distort filter into Filters>Distortions>Deformation. Then set the deformation type to "counterclockwise swirl", and the make one or two swirls. This will generate swirls at the surface.
 On the other hand, if you like a hurricane zone, for example [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot Jupiter's Great Red Spot], you can do it very simply: first select a ecliptic small zone, which will be the future hurricane. Then apply the filter Filters>Distortions>Lens Crystal, and apply a bit crystal lens distortion. Then, deselect that selected zone, and apply Filters>Distortions>Deformation, and set the deformation to "move", and move the left and right sides of the elliptical form a bit, just to make the effect of undercloud.

@@ Line 271: / Line 271: @@
 *[http://www.mmedia.is/bjj/data/jupiter_css/jupiter_css.jpg Bjorn Jonsson's Planetary Maps]
+===Tutorial References===
 '''Author: [[User:pyramid|pyramid]]'''
 [[Category:Development]]

@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 ===GIMP===
-[http://www.gimp.org Gimp] is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
+[[Links:Graphic_Applications#GIMP|GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program]] is quite versatile; to work with texture files, you'll need DDS plugin (if it's not installed already).
 A good starting point for e.g. gas giant texture maps is the 'Solid Noise' filter.
@@ Line 76: / Line 74: @@
 ===POV-Ray===
-[http://www.povray.org POV-Ray (Persistence of Vision Raytracer)] is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.
+[Links:3D_Applications#POV-Ray|POV-Ray (Persistence of Vision Raytracer)] with its unique scripting approach and through a large base of available texture, pigment, and material functions provides almost unlimited possibilities to creating surface maps.
 Maps can be exported by using a spherical camera setting:
@@ Line 84: / Line 80: @@
 ===Blender===
-[http://www.blender.org/ Blender] is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
+[Links:3D_Applications#Blender|Blender 3D]
-[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde KDE]'s image libraries (version >= 3.3.0) support reading the DDS file format, so e.g. gwenview, kview and konqueror can view texture files.
+Scripts for blender can be created using Python. No application of blender for creation of planet surfaces is known to us currently. Submissions are appreciated.
 ===Tutorials===

@@ Line 212: / Line 212: @@
 However, an attempt has been started and you can find some more information in the following thread:
-* [http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10520 seamless planetary descent with automatic mesh generation]
+* [http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=10520 seamless planetary descent with automatic mesh generation]
 =References=
@@ Line 235: / Line 235: @@
 Texture Requirements
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9160 4.4 release work]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=9160 4.4 release work]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9401 Artwork/data overhauls]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=9401 Artwork/data overhauls]
 Development Tools
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7055 Tools for creating planet textures]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=7055 Tools for creating planet textures]
 Examples, Including, Testing
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7116 Orbital planet surfaces: gas giants]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=7116 Orbital planet surfaces: gas giants]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3664 Orbital planet surfaces]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=3664 Orbital planet surfaces]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5957 Some New Planets]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=5957 Some New Planets]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4008 stand clear. planets coming through]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=4008 stand clear. planets coming through]
 Submission Process
 Development Needs and Tasks
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=36698 Shady Planet...]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?p=36698 Shady Planet...]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6200 YASP (Yet Another Shady Planet) ;-)]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=6200 YASP (Yet Another Shady Planet) ;-)]
 Improvement and Development Proposals
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3543 Auto-Enhancing Textures]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=3543 Auto-Enhancing Textures]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1970 Fractal Generation System]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=1970 Fractal Generation System]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2371 More pretty stuff: atmospheres and planet surfaces]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=2371 More pretty stuff: atmospheres and planet surfaces]
 Planetary Flight Topics
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4597 The official "Seamless Planetary Flight" thread]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=4597 The official "Seamless Planetary Flight" thread]
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9645 Theoretical planetside mode]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=9645 Theoretical planetside mode]
 ==External References==

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:28, 6 July 2010
Line 93:		Line 93:
	[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde KDE]'s image libraries (version >= 3.3.0) support reading the DDS file format, so e.g. gwenview, kview and konqueror can view texture files.		[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde KDE]'s image libraries (version >= 3.3.0) support reading the DDS file format, so e.g. gwenview, kview and konqueror can view texture files.

		+	===Tutorials===
		+	Some great tutorials can be found at [http://www.solarvoyager.com/tutorials.asp Solar Voyager]. They are geared toward 3dsmax and Photoshop, but are general enough in scope that they could be easily adapted to GIMP and POV-Ray.

	==Including and Testing==		==Including and Testing==

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 Textures ready for submission should fulfill:
 * Codec: dds DXT1 with mipmaps for diffuse textures; dds DXT3 with mipmaps for citylight textures
-* Extension: png (or jpg); future: .texture
+* Extension: .texture
 * Ratio (horizontal:vertical): 2:1
 * Size: following the POT rule (power-of-two)
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ===Image Resolution, Formats, and Quality===
-The planet surface graphics format currently recommended for the game is '''dds''' format with dxt1 compression, but  the files can be named either '''png''' (preferred) or '''jpg''' (alternative). This decision will depend on the number of files where the names appear, and your skill and time to find, replace, and test them.
+The planet surface graphics format currently recommended for the game is '''dds''' format with dxt1 compression, with filenames ending in '''.texture'''.  (Before May 2008, DDS textures were stored in files named .png, because of references to filenames in other places.)
 The '''image ratio''' horizontal:vertical must be 2:1 (assuming pixel ratio of the map is 1:1), since the texture is wrapped around the planet sphere horizontally around 360 degrees and vertically around 180 degrees.
-Necessarily, in order for the surface not to appear distorted, your '''pixel ratio''' of the generated texture must be 1.0, i.e. a circle must show as a circle when viewing the texture in an image viewer.
+Necessarily, in order for the surface not to appear distorted, your '''pixel ratio''' of the generated texture must be 1.0, i.e. a circle must show as a circle when viewing the texture in an image viewer, on a monitor with square pixels.
 The vertical and horizontal sizes should be a '''power of two''' (POT).
@@ Line 44: / Line 44: @@
 Keeping original high resolution image (e.g. 8192x4096 or 4096x2048) versions in stock helps maintaining quality and scalability as game development progresses or typical screen resolutions rise in the future with better hardware available to the players.
-Most of the surface textures included in data4.x have a horizontal resolution of 1024 or below. Committed textures are classified as:
+Most of the surface textures included in data have a horizontal resolution of 1024 or below. Committed textures are classified as:
 * DQ - Development Quality: textures with horizontal resolution of 1024 or below and low degree of realism
 * RQ - Release Quality: textures with horizontal resolution of 2048 or above and medium degree of realism
@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 [http://www.gimp.org Gimp] is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
-Gimp already comes with a great variety of scripts and the library can be extended with your own C, Perl, Python, or Script-Fu plug-ins.
+Gimp already comes with a great variety of scripts and the library can be extended with your own C, Perl, Python, or Script-Fu plug-ins.  There is [http://registry.gimp.org/node/70 a plugin for reading/writing DDS files].
 A good starting point for e.g. gas giant texture maps is the 'Solid Noise' filter.
@@ Line 73: / Line 73: @@
 There is a way to make planetary twisters like Uranius or so, using the Gimp. First you must create the gas texture, and then apply the distort filter into Filters>Distortions>Deformation. Then set the deformation type to "counterclockwise swirl", and the make one or two swirls. This will geneare swirls at the surface.
-On the other hand, if you like a huricane zone, like some gas planets at solar sistem, for example like the great red one at jupiter, you can do it very simply: first select a ecliptic small zone, who will be the future hurricane. Then apply the filter Filters>Distortions>Lens Crystal, and apply a bit crystal lens distortion. Then, deselect that selected zone, and apply Filters>Distortions>Deformation, and set the deformation to "move", and move the left and right sides of the eliptical form a bit, just to make the effect of undercloud.
+On the other hand, if you like a hurricane zone, for example [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot Jupiter's Great Red Spot], you can do it very simply: first select a ecliptic small zone, which will be the future hurricane. Then apply the filter Filters>Distortions>Lens Crystal, and apply a bit crystal lens distortion. Then, deselect that selected zone, and apply Filters>Distortions>Deformation, and set the deformation to "move", and move the left and right sides of the elliptical form a bit, just to make the effect of undercloud.
 ===POV-Ray===
@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 Scripts for blender can be created using Python. No application of blender for creation of planet surfaces is known to the author. Submissions are appreciated.
 ==Including and Testing==
@@ Line 92: / Line 98: @@
 ===Systems Substitution Testing===
-In the .systems file of the systems where you saved the game (data4.x/sectors/SectorName/), search for the planet that you want to test your texture on and replace the current texture in the 'file' statement with your texture, e.g.
+In the .systems file of the systems where you saved the game (data/sectors/SectorName/), search for the planet that you want to test your texture on and replace the current texture in the 'file' statement with your texture, e.g.
-*Take: <Planet name="Wiley" file="planets/rock.png" ...>
+*Take: <Planet name="Wiley" file="planets/rock.texture" ...>
-*Replace with: <Planet name="Wiley" file="planets/rocky_wiley.png" ...>
+*Replace with: <Planet name="Wiley" file="planets/rocky_wiley.texture" ...>
-Note: You can search in data4.x dir using the command "''grep -R "rock_water.png" sectors/*''"
+Note: You can search in data dir using the command ''grep -R "rock_water.texture" sectors''
 Should your planet texture not be listed in the sector definition files, you can edit the system config file "sectors/testsystems/planets.system" to change your texture on one of the existing planets and then run Vega Strike with the planet test mission:
@@ Line 133: / Line 139: @@
 If you are not sure that your texture meets the basic requirements, then please open a forum topic posting your textures.
 Here's a summary of requirements:
-* Format: dds (with png or jpg extension)
+* Format: dds (with .texture extension)
 * Ratio (horizontal:vertical): 2:1
 * Size: following the POT rule (power-of-two)
@@ Line 170: / Line 176: @@
 Transform your original texture using nvcompress using the DXT1 format.
-''nvcompress -bc1 textureoriginal1.png texture_dds.png''
+''nvcompress -bc1 textureoriginal1.png texture_dds.texture''
-Verify the optimized texture either by opening it with GIMP and making sure that 12 mipmap layers (for 2048x1024 resolution) are contained in the file, or by checking it with
+Verify the optimized texture either by opening it with the GIMP and making sure that 12 mipmap layers (for 2048x1024 resolution) are contained in the file, or by checking it with
-''nvddsinfo texture_dds.png''
+''nvddsinfo texture_dds.texture''
 Lightmap textures require the alpha channel to be included in the compressed texture. Use the DXT3 format to compress:
-''nvcompress -bc2 lightmap_master.png lightmap_texture_dds.png''
+''nvcompress -bc2 lightmap_master.png lightmap_texture_dds.texture''
 ===Committing to SVN===
@@ Line 186: / Line 192: @@
 Otherwise, please call through a forum topic a developer with write access to submit them.
-As of September 2007, svn has two directories for texture data:
+As of May 2008, svn has two directories for texture data:
-* \masters\textures that holds the original textures and also source files that were used to create the textures
+* /masters/textures that holds the original textures and also source files that were used to create the textures
-* \data4.x\textures that holds the optimized dds/DXT1 textures
+* /data/textures that holds the optimized dds/DXT1 textures
 ==Development Needs and Tasks==