[EL SE] Possibility of modding planets

[MarcusInVR]

I was just wondering about the possibility of being able to adjust planet's textures? The planets themselves are fine the way they are, I wouldn't want to "mod" or adjust the algorithm that generates them. I am more wondering about the possibility of modding the appearance of planet's surfaces, like hills, surfaces, etc.

If there is a possibility, any pointers on how to adjust those?

Best

[Vice]

The textures can be modified, but not the height data. It involves the '\environment' folder and some specific filenames. I can put together some samples to e-mail to you.

[MarcusInVR]

Sent an email. Many thanks!

[TraderDan]

I wouldn't mind checking these out too, without changing the height algorithms would it be possible to populate planets with random clusters of city structures, while some planets seem sparce and barren as you'd expect other planets in the center of advanced regions that are clearly habitable should be expected to have roads and structures scattered about the surface. I never asked about it before because I figure it might involve deep changes to the games rendering mechanism but even a high rate of randomly generated road and building structures that could be treated as foliage is better than nothing. Also a way to control how much or how little foliage is randomly generated could be useful, I always felt like there werent enough trees, but maybe some would disagree,a planet object slider or being tied to planet detail options (med l, low, high) would be a good way to mitigate this.

[Vice]

@TraderDan - e-mail sent. It's important to keep in mind this is outside of the scope of normal modifications as there are a number of shader techniques and internal systems designed to work with the default textures (and their brightness, seamlessness, and patterns). So importing custom textures may produce unexpected/unwanted results. This is largely just for you to experiment with and try out, not something normally intended for customizing or modification.

No, adding new structures outside of the existing city building mechanisms is not an available option.

There are some limited ways to implement more plant-life, but it has a significant impact on rendering performance and generally requires a pretty powerful machine along with a willingness to accept a much lower framerate (depending on the amount of addition). Hence, this is why such options (including planetary terrain textures) are not part of the customizing kit.

[TraderDan]

Thanks Vice I'll check it out. You know me always trying to push things to the limit lol

[Marvin]

There are some limited ways to implement more plant-life, but it has a significant impact on rendering performance and generally requires a pretty powerful machine along with a willingness to accept a much lower framerate (depending on the amount of addition).

My laptop couldn't handle the increase in flora without major lag. It's one of the reasons I moved ELse over to my game machine. It made a big difference. Depending on your computer specs, I'd suggest you give it a try.