(not sure if this is where I should post the question, or in a different forum)
I am writing a small application that is supposed to draw several objects on a background represented by distant stars. That's pretty much like Celestia.
The background does not have to represent a real portion of the sky, it's enough if it looks real.
The application will not allow the user to drive the viewpoint around, but it will only generate static snapshots based on a predetermined script.
The question is, what's the easiest way to draw the sky? Should I start with several flat images? But then the sky is a sphere, so I would have to use some kind of projection, and the seams will probably be obvious.
Or should I just generate a whole bunch of "stars" with random locations and random brightness, keep the locations/brightness list somewhere in memory and just draw them dynamically?
Any other ideas?