UPDATE!! - Ultimate Terraformed Mars Texture

[Johaen]

Awesome news Don. I was actually just thinking about this little project of yours the other day. Good to hear that you're going to finish it up. Can't wait.

[PlutonianEmpire]

*wolf whistle*

[Darkmiss]

Been patiently waiting for this for quite a while now Don.
It's looking very special indeed.

Will you be embeding the spec map into the DDS file?

[Don. Edwards]

Hey Darkmiss,

Long time no see. I will be including it in the 8k and under and in the VT version. Yes I am finally going to release a VT texture. The 16K however, because of the tools I have to use to create it will not allow an alpha channel so it has to be a separate texture. I know this isn't the best thing and I really wish I could add it. But the only tool I have that can create a 16k texture uses BMP's as the source file and that leaves the alpha channel out. but of course there will be various sizes of textures available so there will be something for everyone. Still the VT may be a good option. Of course I don't know how well its going to work with OpenGL at this point. I haven't even experimented with it in Celestia as of yet. So just hang in there, it is coming. I may end up doing a staged release of the texture instead of everything at once.

I will possibly have some pictures up tonight of the 16k version to show it off. If not tonight certainly be the weekend.

Don. Edwards

[ANDREA]

..I will possibly have some pictures up tonight of the 16k version to show it off. If not tonight certainly be the weekend.
Don. Edwards

Hello Don, your Terraformed Mars is here again, and waiting was worthwhile.
Just a pray: will you show us some image without clouds, please?
Thanks a lot.
Bye

Andrea

[Don. Edwards]

Hello Everyone,
As promised here are some close-ups of the new 16k Terrafromed Mars texture without clouds. I am sorry that I didn?€™t meet the weekend deadline I set. But I had some connectivity issues yet again. I always seem to be plagued by getting the one bad router out of hundreds for sale.

I have discovered a slight pale seam line near Gustov Crater that I need to take care of. Its not visible in the picture below but its there.
So at this point its basically finishing off the rivers and some final color adjustments and it will be called done.

So here they are, 12 in all. I tried to give some coverage to as much of the land mass as possible while keeping the picture count down. Enjoy.








































All comments are welcome as always. As I finish things up I will post more pictures.

Don. Edwards

[Cham]

EXTREMELLY well done ! I love it ! Can't wait to replace my old version with this one !

What format (png, dds ?) will you release ? at what resolution ? I'm interested in the best format at higher resolution available ! This is a terrific texture, Don !

[Don. Edwards]

i plan on releasing it in 16k to 2k in DDS, and in PNG tiles in VT format.
The lower res texturtes will ahve the specmap included in their alpha channel in the old style to same a few bits of memory.

Don. Edwards

[Cham]

Don,

what actually is the version used on your pictures above ? What resolution and what file format ? I hope there wont be any degradation with the DDS version.

[Don. Edwards]

Hey Cham,

The pictures above are 16k DDS at DXT1 I believe as is the normalmap. I am using an old BMP to DDS converter that was made by someone here at the site years ago. Its the only tool I have for making a 16k DDS texture. Unfortunatly there is always some loss in quality with the DXT1 format, or at least I alway felt there was especialy with normalmaps.

At this time there is no other way for me to make a normalmap for this texture other than the old tried true one I have used in the past. Again they do introduce some distortion and they do not take into consideration proper spherical rendering when made. As of this time there is no way to make my custom bumpmap into a file that is compatible with Fridger's nmtools. If there was I would use them in a heartbeat to make new normalmaps with proper projection. But until I find a way to convert these they will continue to be created the old way. I just dont have any way around this.

The best posible version will be the VT. It will be in PNG and therefore wont have the distortion of the DDS version. I will be also adding the specmap to the alpha chanel on the VT. As far as I know this should work but if anyone knows please let me know before I get to far on it.

Don. Edwards

[ANDREA]

Hello Everyone,
As promised here are some close-ups of the new 16k Terrafromed Mars texture without clouds. ...... Enjoy.
All comments are welcome as always. As I finish things up I will post more pictures. Don. Edwards

Don, what I can say is... astounding, wonderful, incredible... but my English knowledge is too poor to find other words that may clear my thought, so the only thing I can add is... THANK YOU!
Bye

Andrea

[Darkmiss]

Don for a really nice small and Free tool for viewing and creating DDS files
you might want to take a look at this superb free paint program.

Paint.net is here http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html


Its called paint.net and its very small and powerfull
and with two very small plugins from the forum section you can convert DDS files and make your own Normal maps

DDS file converter using Squish 1.10 is here http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1637&sid=1465c419dbf919f54b26cc8959714a35


Normal map creator is here http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2973&sid=1465c419dbf919f54b26cc8959714a35

[ANDREA]

Don for a really nice small and Free tool for viewing and creating DDS filesyou might want to take a look at this superb free paint program. Its called paint.net and its very small and powerfull
and with two very small plugins from the forum section you can convert DDS files and make your own Normal maps
DDS file converter using Squish 1.10 is here
Normal map creator is here

Wow Darkmiss, thank you very much for this information, very appreciated.
Bye

Andrea

[ANDREA]

Don for a really nice small and Free tool for viewing and creating DDS files you might want to take a look at this superb free paint program.

Darkmiss, I checked PaintNet but, alas, the problem is always the same of the other packages: it works up to 8k textures, but with 16k it gives the error "Not enough memory".
This isn't due to my machine, I open without problems png images larger than 500 MB, but PaintNet is unable to open files bigger than 100MB.
It's a pity, I was hoping to have found the way to obtain 16kdds images, but we have to search for something else.
Moreover there is something wrong or in the soft or in the installation, because when I try to save a png as dxt1, it gives the message "There is an unspecified error while saving the file".
I tried all the save combinations, included the default one, but all with the same error.
Thank you anyhow, for normal work it'a a nice, simple and light freeware.
Bye

Andrea

[Don. Edwards]

Darkmiss,

Thanks for that, I have been using Paint.Net for about 2 years and never even knew or looked at the ability of it make DDS textures. I look into at once.

Thanks again.

Don. Edwards

[Don. Edwards]

Well Andrea is right. It can't handle anything very big. I will work great I think for converting tiles to DDS, but as for larger textures its a bust. Back to the drawing board.

Don. Edwards

[Darkmiss]

Sorry guys I havent had any chance to try it with 16k textures
I didn't know.

still a nice program for the smaller stuff
any good success with the normal map creator?

[t00fri]

...
still a nice program for the smaller stuff
any good success with the normal map creator?

That produces surely incorrect results for the applications required in Celestia. Standard normalmap generators assume /flat/ geometries of the surfaces. We need normalmaps on /spherical/ or even more complex curved surfaces!

Also my normalmap tools (=> CelelstialMatters) are way superior to any of these programs. The latter may have some residual applicability for add-on creators in cases where scientific elevation data are entirely lacking.

Bye Fridger

[fsgregs]

Don:

GAhGah!!! WOW, is all I can say! Awesome textures. I am anxious to load them, and bring them to my students.

Please include a link or info on which cloud texture you are using for Mars. It is also great.

Frank

[Don. Edwards]

Hey Frank,

The cloud texture is one I custom made for this texture. I do plan on releasing it with the texture when completed. But I do plan to change a few things in the 8k version.

Don. Edwards