Modding planets

spaceranger · Post by **spaceranger** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:36 pm

Hey folks, first post, haven't even played the demo yet, but I will!

I'm just wondering, off the cuff as it were, is adding your own planets/star systems possible? Are bump maps or other tricks supported on the planet surfaces to increase detail?

Cheers!

Post by **Vice** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:58 pm

You can add your own planets, complete with unique textures and positions in space. See the customizing kit for details. Bump mapping is not an option, although it would look pretty bad anyway at the scale level needed for a planet. Better to use a high-res main texture and apply one of the built-in detail texture layers. Water is a nice addition if you want your planet to have it. Other effects may be introduced in the future, such as planet life objects.

spaceranger · Post by **spaceranger** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:13 pm

Thanks for the quick reply Vice! I understand what you're saying. It appears that the future of spacesim planets is procedural, sooner or later.

I have been working on some hi-res planet textures for Orbiter, so I have no problem with this. I'll check out the kit.

Cheers!

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:37 am

How can we change the cities of the planets? Planets atmosphere and visual effects are very cool in the game but I guess we have to study surface of the planets...Really good idea, living life forms on the planets...And bigger cities...Landing procedure could be...
"landing planets" idea is very different way of starwraith series than the other games...Worth to work for it...

[Edited on 5-7-2008 by warsign]

Gibbon · Post by **Gibbon** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:14 am

Vice,

Being a noob when it comes to Evochron at least, i love the fact you've made it customizable. Hats off to you for that. Wish more developers did this. As someone whose been modding Freelancer for years, making things easily moddable would have saved me years of effort lol.

To the point in hand, i have loads (100+) custom planet textures and i'm curious how some of them would look in Evochron. I've downloaded the modding kit, found the section on importing the planet textures, but i'm a bit confused now. You say replace "the numerical value with the filename of the texture you want to use". Which numerical value are we talking about here? Also, would i have to create a new folder, i'm assuming environments?

-Planet
PlanetName=Sapphire
PlanetSecX=0
PlanetSecY=0
PlanetSecZ=0
PlanetPosX=-3000
PlanetPosY=-1000
PlanetPosZ=2500
PlanetText=1
PlanetClds=1
PlanetHaze=2
PlanetStat=0
PlanetEcon=1
PlanetETyp=1
PlanetCity=3
PlanetDock=80
PlanetRing=0
PlanetWeat=0
PlanetTerr=4
-EndPlanet

I fyou could give an example regarding this then i'd appreciate it. I'm also assuming planet names can be changed in this section as well. Sorry for the questions but i find if you don't ask, you don't get lol

*** EDIT ***

I think i figured out the line for the texture

PlaneText = 1 ( where 1 is the name of the texture)

Further to this, i'm assuming a custom folder with a path to the new texture is correct? For example

PlaneText = \\NewPlanet\\Mars.jpg

If this is the case, reccomended format and texture size would be my next question

[Edited on 12-6-2008 by Gibbon]

tha_rami · Post by **tha_rami** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:23 am

First, back up your universedata file in the Evochron Main Directory (usually C:\\sw3dg\\EvochronRenegades). Then, open it up and scroll through the file. Most modders add their stuff to the bottom of the file, although that is not required. PlanetText is indeed the texture-line. You do not need to make a new texture-map, but it would definitely make stuff easier to manage.

Gibbon · Post by **Gibbon** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:47 am

Thx rami, but i kinda figured that bit out, but it doesn't answer the question lol. I just need to know if a custom folder is required for the textures and then a path written into the planet code pointing to the new texture. As i asked earlier, is a \\folder\\newtexture.bmp or jpg map correct for replacing the texture number or is some other format correct? Also bmp or jpg format, or does ER recognise more compact formats like DDS?

tha_rami · Post by **tha_rami** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:26 pm

No, it's not required to put it in the folder. If you put it in the Main Evochron folder, you'd just use the filename. If you put them in a folder, do what you suggested with "folder\\newtexture.bmp". For organisation, though, I guess it would be good to put them in a "planets" folder. I'm not sure about the format, I think I used JPG back then.

Gibbon · Post by **Gibbon** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:32 pm

Thx for the info rami, last 2 questions i can think of for now, what image size is best? 512x512, 1024x1024 or does the game except cylindrical textures like 1024x 512?

Also is it possible to create really big planets like Jupiter size ones for example?

Post by **Vice** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:42 pm

As Rami pointed out, you can use either a folder or the game's folder. Using a folder would help keep it organized. You can use bmp or jpg. My recommendation for texture size would be at least 512X512, anything higher will provide better detail though, so a 2048X2048 would look nice. 1:1 ratio is recommended for proper alpha blending.

Edit: The game will also accept 1024X512 or other similar sizes, try them out and see if you like the results. Sizes are currently locked due to high dependency on a spherical height detection system for altitude and several other critical calculation systems.

[Edited on 6-12-2008 by Vice]

Gibbon · Post by **Gibbon** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:39 pm

Thx for the heads up Vice and rami, shame about the planet sizes being locked, but i guess you can't have everything lol. I was after making some nice big gas giants. I'll go and experiment now