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Author Topic: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)  (Read 34002 times)

Bernier77

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New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« on: May 04, 2009, 03:11:36 PM »
I've been browsing/lurking the forums for a few days now, and I've noticed some other people have the same wants that I do for future improvements on U.S.

Another good idea would be to add different star types (not only our familiar yellow star and the blue star Rigel) like the white, red and brown dwarves (don't know the name in english, it could be another...); giants, pulsar... ecc :)

Be cool to have the ability to change textures. Be cool to have like Lava,Desert, and Terran types of Planets.

Pretty much I want the other planets in the New Body list.

I think it would be really cool to have a HUGE variety of planetary/solar skins/textures for use.  Reason being that it would give new creations a more personal attachment.  Example:  A planetary skin/preset-texture that looks as if the whole planet is made of dense city and lights, somewhat like what Alderan(?) looks like in one of the more recent star wars movies, a city planet.  It would add a very human feel to the creations, instead of just seeming like you are looking at some lifeless, though still nice, masses.

I guess the easiest way to implement this would be to add more presets, but, although it would take more time to devellop, perhaps adding a "skin" system into the object properties box would make for a more system in which you could change the skin of your object after having created it, and would allow for a very user-friendly interface for changing the textures this way.

Something like this:
*note the area following the arrow*

Sorry for the huge image, resizing it seems to make certain aspects distorted beyond recognition.


The following is my proposition:

We work together in a collaborative effort to make a series of surface textures.  Then perhaps these will later be added into the presets or maybe, even farther down the road, into a "skin selection" list, as I have shown in the above (photoshopped) picture.


The following link is a tutorial for how to make a texture that will wrap properly around a globe without looking stretched and skewed:
http://www.vgd.co.uk/pages/notebook/mapsphere.html

Then just save as a Jpeg and post it here, and perhaps Dan Dixon will take care of the coding/implementing if he decides to include these in an update.  Perhaps we could even do the scripting ourselves, although I've had some difficulty in trying to do this, but there is a guide to doing it in the following link:

http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,302.0.html

A few cool ones that I would personally like to see would be:

-A planet made entirely of liquid, on which the texture is slightly exaggerated in size as to see the waves.
-A few cool solar skins, maybe where you can see some contrasting elemental seas.
-A planet covered in molten rock/metal, for making planets closer to the sun.
-An industrialized planet, covered in lights and smoggy cities.

I will get to work on making a new solar skin right away, and I hope to see some cool contributions.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO UPLOAD THE ORIGINAL PICTURE OF THE TEXTURE, SO THAT IF DAN DECIDES TO INCLUDE THEM IN AN UPDATE, HE CAN.


Happy photoshopping! ;)


*It would be great if Dan could please confirm that this is the correct format/shape for the textures*
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 11:56:04 AM by Bernier77 »

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2009, 03:38:31 PM »
My first contribution. (I just re-tweaked it and re-posted the new version, as I notice the last on had a few bugs) 

A solar or hot planet texture.  Mapped for being wrapped around a sphere.
Very high resolution, as I'm not sure what the standard resolution for US textures are.


I have yet to test it out, as I suck at editing the program files to make new presets, but from what I've read so far it seems like what I've done with the texture will allow it to be mapped properly onto a spherical surface.

I'm currently working on a liquid planet with a frozen pole.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2009, 07:04:21 PM by Bernier77 »

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2009, 01:46:37 AM »
thats a Freaking good idea!  :o
look
can't wait for the next one!

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2009, 04:28:42 AM »
WOW!!  :o :o :o :o

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2009, 04:53:18 AM »
I tested much textures. there all good

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2009, 08:20:50 AM »
Very very nice work.

Try to upload the original jpeg (Something like what I've included in the second post) so that if Dan decides to implement these into a future update he can have the source pictures to work with. 
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 11:57:13 AM by Bernier77 »

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2009, 10:21:50 AM »
Awesome Idea!

Have a Texture List in US!

If Dan does this he can make a few default textures and make the option to manually upload new ones the same way someone can download a system. Or some similar way.



P.S. Don't forget Gas Planet Textures!

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2009, 12:02:15 PM »
If Dan does this he can make a few default textures and make the option to manually upload new ones the same way someone can download a system. Or some similar way.

Or he could include them in an update with the new menu and all.  But I expect that it would take a little while to code in a new section for the Object properties.

I'm not sure how the textures get fetched from the files as of now either, so to implement a system where you could change the texture at any time might take some re-organizing of the files, as to make it so that the program swaps out your selected texture and replaces it with your desired one from the list.

But again, I'm not sure how the current texture fetching system works, so if Dan could shed some light it would be great.

And yea, very nice contributions so far, but please include (or link to) the original texture file, (as requested before) like I have included in the second post, for ease of integration if Dixon decides to use these in an update.

EDIT:

Some new textures.  I'll post some screenies of them in action soon.  EDIT: I gave up trying to apply them.

A solar surface:

A gas planet:

Another gas planet:


If someone could test these it would be awesome, cause there's some wierd lines that might (or might not) show up strange in the sim.  I just need some closure about these latest textures, as it looks like they might not apply properly.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 05:18:52 PM by Bernier77 »

Chaotic Cow

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2009, 02:52:21 PM »
I don't expect it soon, but hopefully eventually. =]

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2009, 02:53:58 PM »
Yo SuperBova, how the hell did you apply my texture to that planet?

That .dds/xml stuff confuses me so hard.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 05:10:30 PM by Bernier77 »

Naru523

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2009, 04:31:12 PM »
SO AWESOME!

monmarfori

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2009, 04:55:27 PM »
how can i make textures?

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2009, 05:13:17 PM »
how can i make textures?

If you want to just make the texture picture, then there is a guide in my original post, but to actually apply it in the sim seems hard, and seems as if you need a basic knowledge of xml editing, which I don't have.

I too became really confused when trying to make a new object preset, and quickly gave up.

I'll stick to just making texture images for now, as it seems my technique works like I intended it to.

CHECK YOUR FREAKIN FORUMS DAN! we need some input on this.  :P
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 05:15:25 PM by Bernier77 »

monmarfori

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2009, 05:52:46 PM »
i do not know how i do

Dan Dixon

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2009, 09:03:24 PM »
Those textures look great. Sorry for the delay.

Recommended texture settings:
- 1024x512  or  2048x1024
- Save as a PNG or TGA and email it to me.
http://universesandbox.com/contact/

More info:
- I'd recommend creating the textures to be at least 1024x512, but ideally 2048x1024.
- I will likely scale them down, but might release a high resolution texture pack in the future (maybe).
- It is also best to save them in a png or tga format (a lossless format) instead of as a jpeg.
- Either way... It's super easy to make textures smaller (and it doesn't work the other way around).
- Specifically the textures should be a 2x1 aspect ratio and the sides length should be divisible by 4.

I'll answer the other comments and questions soon.

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2009, 05:13:15 AM »
- It is also best to save them in a png or tga format (a lossless format) instead of as a jpeg.

Oh.. Those are transparent-capable.  I'm so making a black hole skin that's see-through

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2009, 07:08:03 AM »
Yo SuperBova, how the hell did you apply my texture to that planet?

That .dds/xml stuff confuses me so hard.

just save your JPEG in the map C:/Users/UniverseSandbox/Media
then if you edit an XML file, just put <texture>(nameoftexture).jpg</texture>

ok?

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2009, 07:08:54 AM »
here some textures

SuperNova

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2009, 08:16:27 AM »
look ad this!

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2009, 10:59:11 AM »

just save your JPEG in the map C:/Users/UniverseSandbox/Media
then if you edit an XML file, just put <texture>(nameoftexture).jpg</texture>

ok?

Cool cool.  My problem was that I didn't know which file to edit.  I now know that it's the "Appearance" file.

I'm going to toy around with it and see if I can add a whole new body preset by adding a new object to the list.

Thanks for your help guys.

EDIT:

ACK!  It keeps telling me that I can't save the XML because "the file name or path is wrong" but it clearly isn't.

 :-[
« Last Edit: May 06, 2009, 11:46:37 AM by Bernier77 »

Dan Dixon

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2009, 03:48:37 PM »
It keeps telling me that I can't save the XML because "the file name or path is wrong" but it clearly isn't.

Are you trying to save a system in Universe Sandbox?

Try backspacing the entire file name and type it again. I think there may be a strange problem with the text box sometimes adding extra characters (that you can't see) that cause an error to be reported.

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #21 on: May 06, 2009, 04:44:09 PM »
It keeps telling me that I can't save the XML because "the file name or path is wrong" but it clearly isn't.

Are you trying to save a system in Universe Sandbox?

Try backspacing the entire file name and type it again. I think there may be a strange problem with the text box sometimes adding extra characters (that you can't see) that cause an error to be reported.

Ok cool. I thought it might be vista too, since I just re-installed windows not too long ago, and now it blocks me from doing a bunch of stuff, like renaming files in certain areas, deleting files in certain areas etc, but I also set the US program files to be writeable, so I'll go try what you said.

Dan Dixon

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #22 on: May 06, 2009, 05:03:28 PM »
I also set the US program files to be writeable, so I'll go try what you said.

Universe Sandbox saves all images and systems/simulations in a "Universe Sandbox" folder under Documents (or My Documents in Windows XP).

just save your JPEG in the map C:/Users/UniverseSandbox/Media
then if you edit an XML file, just put <texture>(nameoftexture).jpg</texture>

Just to be clear:
SuperBova is talking about editing system/simulation files.

Although if you change the "Appearance.xml" file, this will cause global changes to all simulations/systems that get settings information from this file. For example: if you change the texture setting for Jupiter in Appearance.xml, then all simulations that refer to Jupiter will now use the new texture.

Bernier77

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #23 on: May 06, 2009, 05:12:33 PM »
Ah ok, thanks.

monmarfori

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #24 on: May 06, 2009, 05:16:00 PM »
So Dan will support 1024x768 and upper

Chaotic Cow

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #25 on: May 07, 2009, 10:14:49 AM »
Dan, what are your ideas/hopes for future support of textures?

Dan Dixon

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #26 on: May 07, 2009, 03:54:21 PM »
Universe Sandbox has pretty liberal texture support. Generally it supports humongous textures (only limited by the video ram (memory) on one's video card) and it can understand most of the common file types.

Most of the included textures in Universe Sandbox are between 1024x512 and 512x256.

If you're going to create a texture it's best to make it larger than this and then scale it down. (Which is why I recommend creating it at 2048x1024 and saving it in a lossless format (like png or bmp or tga). I will then scale it down and save it as a dds (which loads more quickly than other formats).

Dan, what are your ideas/hopes for future support of textures?

Adding the ability to easy change a body's texture and color is something that will appear in one of the new few updates. Creating fictional textures and posting them here (or sending them to me) is useful to this end.

I suspect that many of the textures might be just black and white and you can color or tint them to be any color you want.

In the further future:
Eventually I'd like to develop some kind of procedural texture system based on the materials making up the body, its size, and its density.

monmarfori

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #27 on: May 07, 2009, 04:09:54 PM »
but i have NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache but the max is only 1366 by 768 pixels.

Dan Dixon

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #28 on: May 07, 2009, 04:29:32 PM »
but i have NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache but the max is only 1366 by 768 pixels.

I believe that Universe Sandbox will automatically scale down textures that are to large for specific video cards. So no need to worry about future inclusion of textures that might be much larger.

If you look at the "Sandbox Log.txt" file in (My) Documents\Universe Sandbox\Logs it will show information about your video card including the "Max TextureSize"

For example:
Code: [Select]
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.508 | -- Device Info ----------------
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | Primary Screen        : 1680 x 1050 | 32 bit | 1680 x 986
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | Adapter | Driver      : NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 | nv4_disp.dll
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | Max TextureSize       : w 4096 | h 4096
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | Is Vertex/Pixel       : True | True
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | Max Vertex/Pixel      :    3 |    3
     0 | 2009-04-22 15:05:17.601 | AntiAlias : True | Bump : True | DoubleSS : True | Reflection : True | StencilS : True

atomic7732

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Re: New Planetary/Solar Textures (Collaborative Effort)
« Reply #29 on: June 24, 2009, 12:56:24 PM »
Hmmm... I used these textures and I dunno what went wrong. Nothing pops up.
Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<System>
  <Body>
    <Name>Sun</Name>
    <Object>Sun</Object>
    <Appearance>Sun</Appearance>
    <Mass>19891000000</Mass>
    <Density>1.40844628708309</Density>
    <Diameter>1392000</Diameter>
    <PositionX>-67885734.9754417</PositionX>
    <PositionY>129233872.55859</PositionY>
    <PositionZ>20395297.0298883</PositionZ>
    <VelocityX>6.1834716256905E-08</VelocityX>
    <VelocityY>-2.6114950594118E-08</VelocityY>
    <VelocityZ>-9.34240494717165E-09</VelocityZ>
    <Settings>gravity=1</Settings>
  </Body>
  <Body>
    <Name>Malto</Name>
    <Object>Moon</Object>
    <Texture>test3.jpeg</Texture>
    <Mass>7 jupiters</Mass>
    <Density>1.34458858085376</Density>
    <PositionX>23900165.511027</PositionX>
    <PositionY>93183810.6145903</PositionY>
    <PositionZ>6683467.23539272</PositionZ>
    <VelocityX>13.4912953471177</VelocityX>
    <VelocityY>33.9037650943561</VelocityY>
    <VelocityZ>0.234774973129048</VelocityZ>
    <Settings>timestep=1.00 minute</Settings>
  </Body>
  <Body>
    <Name>Zeltok</Name>
    <Object>Mars.jpeg</Object>
    <Texture>Savannah Wetlands</Texture>
    <Mass>3.287 earths</Mass>
    <Diameter>21594 miles</Diameter>
  </Body>
  <Body>
    <Name>Kyrik</Name>
    <Object>Mercury</Object>
    <Texture>Lava.jpeg</Texture>
    <Mass>.1 earths</Mass>
    <Diameter>677 miles</Diameter>
</System>