[WIP] New Planet Textures - Open Thread (Warning - Image Heavy)

[Igard]

Welcome to the New Planet Textures - Open Thread.

I would like to encourage everyone to come here and post their new planet textures. Either zip them or embed the PNG. Eventually we can build up a new collection. If you have an image of a planet you want me to convert for Distant Worlds, then just post it up or PM me.[:)]

A selection of these images were taken from The Celestia Motherlode addon repository site for the 3D space simulator Celestia.

Credits -

Creator - fungun
Creator - Zhar2
Creator - jestr
Additional Textures, models, addons - Cormoran, Don edwards, 3d duckboy productions, 3d.concept40.com, John M. ,Dollan , Andy Roberts, Steve Bowers, Ivo Beckers, http://galaxistar.googlepages.com, Matt Davis, Selden Ball, Runar Thorvaldsen, Rob Sanders, Cham (from Celestia forum), Pericapolis, Fridger Schrempp, pioneerxtower (J. P.), Bruckner, Shcuf, Jean-Marie le Cospérec

Thanks to Baleur for supplying the Eve planets.[;)]

Barren Planets by ConflictX.

Additional planets by Kalthaniell.


Installation -

1. Backup your \Distant Worlds\images\environment\planets folder by copying and pasting it somewhere safe.
2. Unzip to your planets folder and overwrite files when prompted.

Here are all the latest planet and cloud overlay retextures as of 26/07/2012:-

DOWNLOAD: http://www.gamefront.com/files/22038456/New+Planets+standard+res+-+260712.zip


For the high res pack, download here. However these do not include the volcanic overlays, so some volcanic worlds will appear very dark. Performance reduction is also not deemed worhwhile.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.filefront.com/17459676/New-Planets-311010.zip/

WARNING - These images are much larger than the stock images. Always back up your original files before replacing them. If you experience a performance drop after installing any of these images, restore your backups.

Installation of individual planets -

Backup your \Distant Worlds\images\environment\planets folder
Copy the image to the appropriate planet type folder for example, save Continental-0014.png to the \planets\continental folder.

I've named these images so they will directly replace the stock images. Remember to back up your originals.

[adecoy95]

isint there already a thread for planet image overhauls?

[Slyke57]

[gijas17]

It would be cool if someone could mod the planets from the Star Trek and/or Star Wars Universe which would make the two mods even more immersive but the new textures are good. I to was wondering the same in regards to the Celestia planet images... I guess it worked. One question though, how would you install the Cybertron planet image? Do you just put it in any planet type folder or do you have to create a new sub folder for it within the planet sub directory?

[Igard]

Actually, gijas, those 4 planets are from the various Star Trek planets I downloaded from the Celestia website. The one with green oceans is Romulus and the one above it is Cardassia Prime. We can't assign a planet image to a planet owner/race yet (I think it's on the modders wishlist[;)]).

You have to replace one of the existing planets. I would place cybertron in the Ice planet folder, but that's just me.

[Igard]

[Igard]

Cloud overlay preview. Looks much better than I expected. Notice the clouds in the atmosphere. I love this game.

[Baleur]

Can't you just add the new planets with higher numbers, and have the vanilla + the new ones?
Or will we always be stuck with 20 ocean planets etc?

[WoodMan]

Can't you just add the new planets with higher numbers, and have the vanilla + the new ones?
Or will we always be stuck with 20 ocean planets etc?

Add to modders wishlist please!

[yurtoman]

ORIGINAL: Slyke57

That monstrosity. Sperm does not end our beautiful land like this. [:-]

Grettings.

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Can't you just add the new planets with higher numbers, and have the vanilla + the new ones?
Or will we always be stuck with 20 ocean planets etc?

Add to modders wishlist please!

That would be ideal Baleur. I think the good thing about the vanilla planets is they have no recognizable features, making them appear more varied.

WoodMan, I'll do just that!

[Igard]

Here are replacements for the cloud overlays. I had to tweak the planets a bit so I re-uploaded the above, sorry if you have to download them again.

[Igard]

[Baleur]

Amazing work!!! I love them all, but i must ask, what's the reasoning behind the yellow and snot-green planets being glacial? I suppose, methane-glacial perhaps? Doh answered my own question [:'(]
Just downloaded the clouds too, much much better than vanilla

[nadia911]

Hello, please, what is the procedure for converting images to format (PNG) Distant Worlds from Celestia site???? Tutorial maybe?

[Slyke57]

I have photoshop and fireworks which can save in PNG format, I crop it resize it then save as .PNG.  I'm sure there freeware out there, try google.

[Igard]

nadia911, Hello welcome to the forum.[:)]

I use a very nice little freeware program called GIMP :-

http://www.gimp.org/

Here's a very brief tutorial for what I do:-

- Take a print screen image of the planet in celestia. Ctrl-Alt-Prt Scr

- Paste the image into GIMP and use the circle select tool to select around the planet. Make sure the borders are within the planets face. Cut the selected planet (ctrl-x).

- Open an 800x800 image with a transparent background in GIMP (use a 1000x1000 image for gas giants). Paste the image.

- You should now have a perfectly centred planet in your image. Scale the layer to 770x770 (for planets) and 985x985 for Gas Giants.

- Anchor the layer. Now select the colour sample tool and sample the lightest colour of the image. This will be the colour for the atmosphere. You may need to lighten it some more if it's too dark.

- Now create a new layer. Select Layer > Stack > Layer to the bottom. Select the blend tool. Change the gradient to FG to transparent. Change the shape to radial. Change the offset to 93% for planets and 97% for Gas Giants.

- Click and hold the mouse cursor at the exact centre of the image. See the bottom left of the screen for the co-orinates. They should be 400, 400 for planets, 500,500 for Gas Giants. Drag the blend tool to the edge of the image, again look to the co-ordinates for guidance.

That's all there is to it. I wrote this very quickly, so I hope I didn't miss anything out. It does give a good example of how little is required and it shouldn't be too hard to figure things out or improve on this technique.[;)]

[nadia911]

Thanks Igard

[Igard]

[WoodMan]

Very nice Gas Giants, I've been making my planets in photoshop, Gas Giants is the one kind I really can't do!  Also quick question about Gas Giants, are they colooured depending on what resources they have in them?  I notice some naming oddity in that folder