Milky Way Mod (Work In Progress)

Mecingo · Post by **Mecingo** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:23 pm

Been working on a conversion of a mod from the old game, I can't put the Milky Way in every system due to the fact some systems have no nebula backgrounds at all (Unless they do and it's just blank files that I do not know the name of yet). I would like to know the file know for the Milky Way in Sol so I can mod that as well.

I'm planning on it always front (north) view since it seems to be that way in Sol as well.

I need to sharpen it up a bit too, unless you guys think it looks fine?

Destro · Post by **Destro** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:33 pm

That looks beautiful, Mecingo.

My own humble two cents, however - shouldn't it appear significantly dimmer than that, seeing as we're out on one of the far-flung edges of the galaxy, over 50,000 light years away from the center? I don't think there's ever been any orbital photographs that show the Milky Way that brilliantly, since the light of the local star should drown most of the ambient light out. It also seems like it's too close, but my sense of cosmic scale isn't completely accurate.

But then, there's a lot of realism being sacrificed for the sake of visual oohs and ahhs, so...

Mecingo · Post by **Mecingo** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:01 pm

From post: 154840, Topic: tid=10360, author=Destro wrote:That looks beautiful, Mecingo.

My own humble two cents, however - shouldn't it appear significantly dimmer than that, seeing as we're out on one of the far-flung edges of the galaxy, over 50,000 light years away from the center? I don't think there's ever been any orbital photographs that show the Milky Way that brilliantly, since the light of the local star should drown most of the ambient light out. It also seems like it's too close, but my sense of cosmic scale isn't completely accurate.

But then, there's a lot of realism being sacrificed for the sake of visual oohs and ahhs, so...

It could use a tone down, I'm going to do more experimenting and other things need to be done before the release.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:28 pm

Cool Mecingo, Nice work!......

Storwiz · Post by **Storwiz** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:38 pm

Beautiful mod. But one question: what texture is on your SX3 ship?

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:53 pm

That's looking great, Mecingo. In the screenshot it also looks pretty sharp, so I don't really see a need to sharpen it up any further. Then again, it may look different in game with a bigger resolution. Sharpening up an image can be very difficult, though.

As a tip, I can still see where the milkyway image ends, there's a clear distinction between the image and the background. To prevent this, you should make sure the edges of the milkyway image are 100% black RGB values (0,0,0), as the game will read that as transparent and you won't see the edge anymore.

Curious to see how this turns out, looking very nice already!

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:55 pm

Looks pretty good. Keep in mind that the default nebulae are "jumbled" ... meaning, there is not one nebula file close to the galactic center, another specific nebula file further out, a third even further, etc. Ergo, if you planned to adjust the brightness of the Milky Way, depending on how far away you are from Sol, it won't work.

As for its current brightness, what you have is kind of what you see if you're out away from civilization. In orbit, even more so.

Post by **DaveK** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:28 pm

From post: 154840, Topic: tid=10360, author=Destro wrote:That looks beautiful, Mecingo. totally agree

My own humble two cents, however - shouldn't it appear significantly dimmer than that, seeing as we're out on one of the far-flung edges of the galaxy, over 50,000 light years away from the center? disagree with the edge bit - agree that to the unaided human eye it is dimmer but then so is the rest of the universe

But then, there's a lot of realism being sacrificed for the sake of visual oohs and ahhs, so... totally agree again

Sol is around half way between the centre and the edge of the spiral so the galactic central bulge is (Maars will like this) relatively speaking quite close

We also look through the various spiral arms and get them superimposed on each other.

I think the last comment is quite relevant as well - many of the deep space images we see are X-ray or i.r. or radio images, transposed along the emr spectrum so that they are visible. Looking at the milky way from where I live (UK), on a clear night outside the light pollution of the cities, if you recreate that, frankly you will be wasting your time and talent.

The other nebulae on offer are also "unrealistically" bright - and the general consensus is that we love them

So - a suggestion:

The present offering is great (awesome is an over used description - even though the milky way is awesome

- extra sharpness isn't required, so offer it as is . . . . and as a bonus for those who would like a little realism . . .

Tone it down/wash it out and offer than as an alternative. My vote is for the enhanced wow factor

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:03 pm

This is too bright:

But, testing that early Milky Way mod did give me insight into one objection to brightness: when I was planetside, the Milky Way was much dimmer. Like in real life.

Mecingo · Post by **Mecingo** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:37 am

I've been reading heavily on the Milky Way's brightness, the thing is I will not be able to get a definite brightness level because of many factors.

#1: Any object that is bright in the general area will cause a light pollution effect. Causing the overall visible light giving off from the Milky Way to be less.

#2: Distance from the Milky Way plays a heavy role. The farther away a you are from a galaxy the brighter it appears. So if you were in the dark deep void between galaxies the milky way would be heavily lit.

#3: Noticeable Nebula in the Milky Way around the center plays a heavy role on it's brightness, and since our solar system rotates around the center the Nebula, which causes it to vary in brightness through out the decades.

With that I came up with a decision. I will decrease the overall brightness just a tad. Actual realism is impossible (I was never aiming for that in the first place), also I can't find any images that are not enhanced or edited in some way. Heck not even an good pictures of the Milky Way from the Space Stations.

There will be one thing I can't change, the systems without Nebula will not have the Milky Way so will Andromeda. Then again Andromeda is a different galaxy

I still don't know the name of the Milky Way file for Sol if anyone has it I would gladly appreciate it that's all I need. Besides some final touches.

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:49 am

Good luck, Mec. Looking forward to you finished product. Send a post-it to Vice. He may help with the file name, if Marv doesn't.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:34 am

U2U sent ... due to the sensitive nature of some texture names. (And, since I never found out what the Sol texture is called in the Expansion, my suggestion is just that: a guess.)

Post by **DaveK** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 9:04 am

From post: 155475, Topic: tid=10360, author=Marvin wrote: U2U sent ... due to the sensitive nature of some texture names. (And, since I never found out what the Sol texture is called in the Expansion, my suggestion is just that: a guess.)

would that be "setofffromheretolandonEarth.png"?

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:10 am

From post: 155471, Topic: tid=10360, author=Mecingo wrote:I've been reading heavily on the Milky Way's brightness, the thing is I will not be able to get a definite brightness level because of many factors.

#1: Any object that is bright in the general area will cause a light pollution effect. Causing the overall visible light giving off from the Milky Way to be less.

#2: Distance from the Milky Way plays a heavy role. The farther away a you are from a galaxy the brighter it appears. So if you were in the dark deep void between galaxies the milky way would be heavily lit.

#3: Noticeable Nebula in the Milky Way around the center plays a heavy role on it's brightness, and since our solar system rotates around the center the Nebula, which causes it to vary in brightness through out the decades.

With that I came up with a decision. I will decrease the overall brightness just a tad. Actual realism is impossible (I was never aiming for that in the first place), also I can't find any images that are not enhanced or edited in some way. Heck not even an good pictures of the Milky Way from the Space Stations.

There will be one thing I can't change, the systems without Nebula will not have the Milky Way so will Andromeda. Then again Andromeda is a different galaxy

I still don't know the name of the Milky Way file for Sol if anyone has it I would gladly appreciate it that's all I need. Besides some final touches.

It makes you think how exactly they know the Milky Way looks the way it does. It's not like they have the technology to fly out far enough to take the pictures we're used to see of it. Or even anything that comes close to it.

-splosives- · Post by **-splosives-** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:13 pm

From post: 155497, Topic: tid=10360, author=Viper wrote:It makes you think how exactly they know the Milky Way looks the way it does. It's not like they have the technology to fly out far enough to take the pictures we're used to see of it. Or even anything that comes close to it.

By taking 2D images of our galaxy from within, and measuring the distance of each star compared to us, people can generate an image of what our galaxy is supposed to look like.
These generated images look very realistic when compared to other galaxies we actually can see from earth (Andromeda for example).