Skyboxes

[nozmajner]

Maybe the cube has double sided face rendering, and the faces point outwards?
I agree, it's not really a big problem, I just thought I mention it. :)
I'll try hand paint one on top of a stars only spacescape output to see if it looks any good in-game.

[FluffyFreak]

Awesome. Eventually I'd like to have something like Spacescape embedded into Pioneer to generate the skybox procedurally for each star system. However, that's yet another `big-task` that can wait :)

[impaktor]

Hi!

I've never seen the milkyway in complese darkness, and clear sky, but the picures on wikipedia are very nice, and shows that Pioneer has some more "niceness" to add.

I've been thinking about writing my own procedural nebula creator, and wonder if this would be of interest for pioneer if it turns out nice enough. Although I should warn that I know very little about OpenGL.

[robn]

I've never seen the milkyway in complese darkness, and clear sky, but the picures on wikipedia are very nice, and shows that Pioneer has some more "niceness" to add.

I seem to recall that this sort of image is partly caused by the presence of the atmosphere, and things don't look nearly as interesting from space. But I don't have a reference for that, just a vague memory, so I'm happy to be proven wrong.

One things space doesn't have is random swathes of colour. I imagine people like them because they look pretty, because it can't be the realism. In any case, I'm inclined to push back pretty hard on having anything in that isn't at least vaguely realistic. I have agreed with Fluffyfreak that the option should be available though, so mods will be able to include whatever crazy skybox textures they like.

I've been thinking about writing my own procedural nebula creator, and wonder if this would be of interest for pioneer if it turns out nice enough. Although I should warn that I know very little about OpenGL.

You don't actually need OpenGL. You just need to be able to draw to a flat 2D texture.

[impaktor]

You don't actually need OpenGL. You just need to be able to draw to a flat 2D texture.

Yeah, I know how to use libpng or something similar I think, back when I had my mandelbrot-phase (I assume everyone goes through one of these), so I would use that one initially at least.

I wasn't thinking about going all crazy with colors like in Limit Theory, or the upcoming Elite Dangerous. More like putting in something in the lines with the horse head nebula, or crab nebula, as I would assume these are actually some what visible to the naked eye, had we traveled partway there.

[nozmajner]

What do you guys think about this slightly painterly approach?









Here's the assembled qubemap dds.

[FluffyFreak]

Just been trying it out and I like it :)

[baobobafet]

I've recently had a chance to try out some of the other more ' vibrant' skyboxes and find them beautiful, but at times a bit overwhelming, disorienting and distracting. Not to be misunderstood, I really DO love them but would like to have some option to tone down some of the 'visual drama' a tad.

Perhaps a slider adjustment for setting skybox opacity in the game options menu might be one solution.
Players could then set the dominant background to their personal preference.

[robn]

What "vibrant" skyboxes are you referring to?

[robn]

nozmajner, I'm pretty happy with this style of skybox. Its striking, but does not draw too much attention to itself.