What can i say? This is my Impulse Blog!
Screen shot from Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar Beta 2b, using 4096 x 2048 pixel resolution surface maps for earth, 2048 x 1024 pixel resolution cloud maps, 1024 x 512 pixel resolution maps for the moon, and updated background nebula graphics:



Comments (Page 5)
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on Jan 21, 2007
Ok, i'll post one more Raw map so you guys (and Kryo of course) can tell me if they look ok. Here's Altaria's terrain map:



Assuming everything looks ok (i'm still not sure about Mars) i'm not gonna keep littering this thread with every Raw Terrain map, gotta leave a few surprises. Also on the surprise list: ALL of the class 0 planet textures have been replaced with completely new High Resolution textures maps (yet similar in style to the originals so that they "feel" the same as the originals), as well as all of the moon and ring textures.

Heh, i should be working for Stardock huh?



P.S.
KRYO, i know i kinda moved forward without the answers, but if you could (when you get around to it) go ahead and respond to my posts #58 and #59 it'd be a big help. If i'm using the wrong tool in PSP and there's an easier way to do this, it would be a great help
on Jan 21, 2007


Here's Altaria's terrain map:


cool keep up the good work man
on Jan 21, 2007
By curves tool in paint shop pro, i take it you mean the "magic wand" tool? Or another tool altogether?


If I meant the Magic Wand, I'd have said the Magic Wand

Curves tool being used to isolate the 25-50 RGB range (0.1-0.2 in terraincolorschemes):



It's in Colors Menu->Adjust->Curves in PSP7. I don't know if they've moved or eliminated it in newer versions if you have one of those (I know they've made it more photography-oriented recently rather than being more general-purpose as it used to be).
on Jan 21, 2007
ALSO KRYO, can you confirm for me that the Class_14.png <-> Class_27.png images are no longer used?


They are not that I'm aware of, since anything over 9 is random. Classes 9 and below use a small set of pregenerated heightmaps though, at least in standard GC2.
on Jan 21, 2007
Ok, i tried using PSP to select the greyscale variants ahead of time to see where they would be. I decided to give Mars a go first. This was what i ended up with in the game. I don't know how i like it tho, what do you think Kryo, everyone?


Well, this is what I got doing it myself... back in the beta:



Yes, I've been sitting on this for almost a year now without releasing it (I did this actually before the original retail release of the game). I'd planned to do more planets but never got around to it.
on Jan 21, 2007
Altaria looks about as good as it can given what you've got to work with (Mars is easier since it's all shades of the same color--My RAW for Iconia didn't look any better than that Altaria map).
on Jan 22, 2007
It's in Colors Menu->Adjust->Curves in PSP7. I don't know if they've moved or eliminated it in newer versions if you have one of those


Ah, well no wonder i can't find it anywhere. I'm using Paint Shop Pro X (10). That tool appears not to exist any more, at least not in the same manner. You can do a brightness/contrast adjust by curves, but that just alters the brightness/contrast of the image. Unless that's exactly what you're doing?

What i did was make a 10 color greyscale palette, increasing by 25/26 each time. Then using the magic wand tool to select one of the palette colors with a 10% tolerance along the whole image. I.E. selecting 0,0,0 with a 10% tolerance selected all colors 0,0,0 <-> 25,25,25 throughout the whole image.


Hmm, so which mars do you think looks best? I could try to match the coloring in yours, but it looks a little too orange to me, and mine looks to contrasted. Maybe i should post the actual mars and altaria planet textures for comparison?
on Jan 22, 2007
Ah, well no wonder i can't find it anywhere. I'm using Paint Shop Pro X (10). That tool appears not to exist any more, at least not in the same manner. You can do a brightness/contrast adjust by curves, but that just alters the brightness/contrast of the image. Unless that's exactly what you're doing?

What i did was make a 10 color greyscale palette, increasing by 25/26 each time. Then using the magic wand tool to select one of the palette colors with a 10% tolerance along the whole image. I.E. selecting 0,0,0 with a 10% tolerance selected all colors 0,0,0 <-> 25,25,25 throughout the whole image.


So long as you figured something out that makes it easier for you, then you're ok. If you want to try it, Photoshop has a curves tool too but it's not as easy to spike a certain level while leaving everything else untouched like I did with PSP there, at least as far as I can see.

Hmm, so which mars do you think looks best? I could try to match the coloring in yours, but it looks a little too orange to me, and mine looks to contrasted. Maybe i should post the actual mars and altaria planet textures for comparison?


I was trying to match mine to the game's default mars texture, and that's about as close as I could get without totally pulling my hair out. The dark areas are not quite as dark and a bit less detailed since I did just use shades of orange picked from the original image by dropper and had to adjust the brightness and contrast in the RAW several times to get a good enough spread to peg the colors to. But aside from the dark areas being lighter than they should and the whole thing being basically monotone (not very easy to do otherwise with that part the way it's set up), it looks pretty close to me

and mine looks to contrasted. Maybe i should post the actual mars and altaria planet textures for comparison?


As far as Mars goes for yours, there's not much need for our input. I'd say just keep tweaking until you get it as close to the texture as you can stand to do, since that's all it has to do, really--match the texture.
on Jan 22, 2007
Here's the mars texture map i'm using, i think the raw terrain looks pretty close.

on Jan 22, 2007
Looks like you could probably just fiddle with the RAW map's contrast then, and/or use lighter colors for the low-end in TerrainColorSchemes.
on Jan 22, 2007
Here's the mars texture map i'm using, i think the raw terrain looks pretty close.


I know my input don`t count much. but it looks pretty good to me. it`s usable.
on Jan 23, 2007
I know my input don`t count much. but it looks pretty good to me. it`s usable.


Thanks





I know i said i wasn't going to keep posting Raw Terrains, and i'm not. But i was rather pleased with how Drengi's came out, that i thought i better get your opinions, b/c if you all say it looks like crap, then i'm heading in the wrong direction making these altogether .

on Jan 23, 2007
I know i said i wasn't going to keep posting Raw Terrains, and i'm not. But i was rather pleased with how Drengi's came out, that i thought i better get your opinions


Are the lowlands that green on the texture? Please post for comparison

(wonders if Logic will figure out that we're slowly milking the whole mod out of him like this)
on Jan 23, 2007
LoL yes the sick greenish is the lowlands, and the reds are the higher altitudes and mountains. The yellowish/blackish soup is the beautiful Drengi Ocean. One of the most breathtaking sights on Drengi, the Great Ocean is only slightly radioactive, and the sludge layer is only 3 feet deep in some remote resort areas! Some of the fabulous activities offered in these resort areas include "Spot the fish mutation," "Sludge treasure hunt," "Pollution Skiing," and "Acid bathing." Be sure to book your reservations early and you'll receive a free beating at the famous Aladrengi Spa!
on Jan 23, 2007
(wonders if Logic will figure out that we're slowly milking the whole mod out of him like this)


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