Development:Base Backgrounds
 Development
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Introduction
This page summarizes concepts and approaches recommended to add base or planet backgrounds to Vega Strike.
Development Needs and Tasks
We could always use more backgrounds. Ideally, each planet and base in Vega Strike would have a unique background.
Please head over here for a list of open tasks: FIXME
Proposed development roadmap: FIXME
Docking Backgrounds
Texture Requirements
Generic Image Requirements
Please read this Development:Graphics_Requirements page before continuing to the specific requirements.
Specific Image Requirements
That leaves few options:
- 1024x1024
- 2048x2048
Keeping original high resolution image (e.g. 8192x or 4096x) 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.
Creating and Naming
Comments by MamiyaOtaru in Forums
First off, the bases are not full screen due to the config file, not the sprite file. Change that first to have fullscreen bases. So, the explanation:
In the coordinate system, 0,0 is at the center not the top left. The coordinate system is cartesian, left to right is -1 to 1 x, top to bottom is 1 to -1 y.
Width 2 means the width of the screen (two halves, from -1 to 1) and height 2 means the height of the screen.
In your example, the image is meant to take up 3.104/2 screen widths and 2.4832/2 screen heights. This is because the actual used part of the image (320x200) is approx 512*(2/3.2) x 256*(2/2.5). 3.104 and 2.4832 stretch the image beyond fullscreen, so that the part of the image that actually has something in it (which is only 320x200) will take up fullscreen.
The next two numbers are where the image is centered. Often, those two numbers are actually stored elsewhere. In cockpits, they are stored in the .cpt file and only the dimensions are actually in the .spr file. Here, the X and Y coordinates for the center of the image are in /bases/*.py. Your example is in /bases/pleasure_land.py
Your example is therefore actually 3.104 2.4832 width and height and 0.582 -0.2716 centerX and centerY
The center of the image is thus a little more than half the distance from the center of the screen to the right hand side of the screen. This serves to place the center of the area that has actual content at the center of the screen. The center is a bit more than a quarter of the way from the center to the bottom of the screen for the same reason.
If you use an image that fills up the whole bitmap, without empty space like the priv remake backgrounds, to go fullscreen you would use something like this 2 2 (2 half widths and half heights, from -1, -1 to 1, 1) 0 0 (centered in the center of the screen)
Oh, and pleasure_land.py is also where the animations are linked, if you'd like to remove them for a different background. The animations are the water and the building lights: Jolson_LandingBay_wtr and Jolson_LandingBay_blt respectively. Remove their lines.
Python Scripts
Including and Testing
Selection and Vetting
Some Thoughts
Once you have chosen a replacement candidate and have one or more proposals...
The Process
If you are not sure that your texture meets the basic requirements, then please open a forum topic posting your textures. Please verify the summary of requirements above.
If a texture that you have created meets the texture requirements, then:
- Open a poll for a reasonable period of time (e.g. 2 weeks) and describe:
- which texture(s) you'd like to replace
- display your candidates
- briefly describe the method of creation and tools used
- If you'd like to replace more than one texture, describe how you would assign the favorites of the poll to the individual textures
- After a set period of time
- announce the winners
- and call the poll closed
- Then
- Submit the textures to svn (in case you have commit rights attributed), or
- through the forum ask a developer with write access to submit them (e.g. the maintainer of this page, pyramid).
Submission
AKA: Committing to SVN.
References
Software, Tools, Tutorials
Terragen
Terragen is a free (for non-commercial use) scenery rendering software capable of creating photo-realistic results for landscape visualization, special effects, art and recreation.
POV-Ray
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. With its unique scripting approach and through a large base of available texture, pigment, and material functions there are almost unlimited possibilities to creating any kind of graphics.
A terragen clone for POV-Ray can be found here: Project Tierra
See Also
