Celestia Forums

Below is a preview of my 8k Mars textures to hopefully appear soon on my TextureFoundry site for downloading. Since a long time I use /blue haze/ together with a carefully illuminated spec mask besides the normal map and main textures.

Bye Fridger

I get very confused with mars.

some pictures it looks very red (or orangie)
and in others it looks very sandy and i am told it is the atmosphere that makes the planet look red ?

My current mars texture is a light sandy colour

If we was orbiting the planet right now, like we do with our space station
or space shuttle.
What would it really look like ?

Darkmiss wrote:I get very confused with mars.

some pictures it looks very red (or orangie)
and in others it looks very sandy and i am told it is the atmosphere that makes the planet look red ?

My current mars texture is a light sandy colour

If we was orbiting the planet right now, like we do with our space station
or space shuttle.
What would it really look like ?

I do not know. But I know what I see since many years with my own eyes through a variety of telescopes. So clearly there are atmospheric effects etc. But at least its my OWN eyes;-). If it's too red for your taste take somebody else's sandy brown Mars;-). Also note: on my images, its sunset on Mars!

Bye Fridger

Fridger,

Don't you also have some very nice moon textures to share with us?

- Hank

HankR wrote:Fridger,

Don't you also have some very nice moon textures to share with us?

- Hank

I would be happy if the quality of the Clementine textures were better. But I tried to make the best out of it. The refill of the TexFoundry will contain a quite pleasing 4k /colored/ Moon texture along with a normal map that is far from perfect. But at least, I went through a lot of efforts eliminating periodic stripe patterns and other artifacts in the Clementine main texture. I also have made an 8k colored Moon. But there are really many larger areas that urgently need repair, which is pretty time consuming...

Bye Fridger

Darkmiss,
If you want to know what Mars really looks like just visit the NASA web sites. This should give you an idea of what Mars looks like from an orbital stand point. I for one think the color of Mars should be based on NASA photos and imagery not on how one sees the planet through a telescope from the surface of this planet. Trying to base color on that perspective is not the best choice for a number of reasons.
In the end you have to make the decision and alter your texture to how you feel looks best. That is what I have done and no one seems interested in the least. Again all they could say was the color was off. Nothing was said as to the merit of the idea. I for one am tired of being lambasted over trivial things like a temporary color shift when I specifically said the texture still needed a few adjustments. I am starting to feel a strong bias toward certain individuals and there textural work. On a rare occasion have I done something that got some praise. But there are a few in this forum that can turn out some questionable work and simply because there name is attached it is taken as (gospel) as to what something should look like. This has been an increasing issue here in the last few months and I for one am getting a little tired of it. So for me as a new rule, if it is not how it looks from NASA’s standpoint than it is not right at all. Besides who better to get the information from than NASA.
Don.

I have been on Mars. Believe me. It just look like this





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Don. Edwards wrote:Darkmiss,
If you want to know what Mars really looks like just visit the NASA web sites. This should give you an idea of what Mars looks like from an orbital stand point. I for one think the color of Mars should be based on NASA photos and imagery not on how one sees the planet through a telescope from the surface of this planet. Trying to base color on that perspective is not the best choice for a number of reasons.
In the end you have to make the decision and alter your texture to how you feel looks best. That is what I have done and no one seems interested in the least. Again all they could say was the color was off. Nothing was said as to the merit of the idea. I for one am tired of being lambasted over trivial things like a temporary color shift when I specifically said the texture still needed a few adjustments. I am starting to feel a strong bias toward certain individuals and there textural work. On a rare occasion have I done something that got some praise. But there are a few in this forum that can turn out some questionable work and simply because there name is attached it is taken as (gospel) as to what something should look like. This has been an increasing issue here in the last few months and I for one am getting a little tired of it. So for me as a new rule, if it is not how it looks from NASA?s standpoint than it is not right at all. Besides who better to get the information from than NASA.
Don.

Don:

I really think you should be more critical about images
with a NASA label as concerns the correctness of the displayed
colors;-). At least, the images that you used as a reference from the
Global Surveyor mission (cf. the pale dirt-yellow pair on the
composite image below), are far from reliable, as Jens already noted!
Why did you choose exactly images that were composed of /2 color channels
only/, in order to teach Darkmiss what the right colors of Mars
are;-)??

Here again the official description as a reminder:
------------------------------------------------
Over the course of a single day, the wide angle cameras of the Mars
Orbiter Camera (MOC) system take 24 pictures--12 red and 12 blue--that
are assembled to create a daily global map
------------------------------------------------

I have /never/ changed the colors of my Mars textures in any significant way,
for good reasons, I think (cf. e.g. with my old textures in the TexFoundry) :

I have used Hubble /3 color channel/ CCD images from 2 oppositions
(2 years appart) as a reference instead. They are taken with the famous
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 that yielded /excellent, color reliable
images/ of other planets as well and uses the /full RGB filter set/
to compose the color. Moreover, these images are /not/ affected by atmospheric
effects. Why should this camera exactly produce false colors for
Mars?? In addition, the representative WFPC2 set from 1997 and 1999,
match exactly my own visual impressions from looking at Mars many
times from earthbound telescopes. From these nice images below, you
can also clearly see that the /haze is blue/ not yellow, for example!

This is just to explain the scientific basis of the choice of my Mars
colors. Everyone is of course welcome to use dirt-yellow instead;-)

Bye Fridger

Pixel wrote:I have been on Mars. Believe me. It just look like this ;)

Hey Pixel,

I am impressed by the amount of detail in your 16k Mars textures above. Do you also have a genuine 16k bump map for me;-)??

Looks like at least...

Yet, this "imposing" orange color takes away my breath. But since you have been up there, you are clearly "the Boss";-)

Bye Fridger

Hi Fridger, guardian,

unfortunately the 16k Mars looks worse than these pictures. I made these shots using my favorite Mars picture I have. Don't remember from where. This is NOT full Mars map - just a region of it. also these nice sunset shadows are static. But if you want 16K (and more) Mars elevaton (bump) maps go here :
http://wufs.wustl.edu/missions/mgs/mola/megdr.html

the site has been just updated .

thank you

-the guardian

Don, do not be disheartend.
I am still useing both your 4k and 8k earth textures
as i think they are the best i have seen so far.

Keep on making your texture to please yourself and no-one else.
then share them for the people that will appreciate them.

if somone dosn't like them, then thats there hard luck.
you made it for yourself.

but remember constructive critisism, can help too somtimes.

Don... I your textures are great...just keep up the good work! I'm looking forward especially to your seasonal Earth textures. I still like Fridger's Redmars..probably because it's so light (DXT1?).

I've been messing about with the Moon...but it looks like porridge at the moment.

We love your stuff...just keep on keeping on.

Many regards...bh.

Well this is my little recreation of the above NASA photo spread that Fridger posted.

I set the times to approximate as close as possible as to what was in the originals. The texture used is an update to the one I released a few days ago and will be releasing as an update. As you can see its quite a bit darker. I simply loaded the texture back into Photoshop and used the Auto-Levels setting and this was the result. I have to agree that this deeper color does look better than my previous attempts. Although no where near as dark and moody as Fridger's, but I think they stand on there own quite well. And they are pretty close to the real photos in the spread. Keep an eye out for the updated texture in my thread called "A Case For Dark Martian Volcanoes".
These textures will have the modified volcanoes as well as the color changes

Don.

Don. Edwards wrote:Well this is my little recreation of the above NASA photo spread that Fridger posted.

I set the times to approximate as close as possible as to what was in the originals. The texture used is an update to the one I released a few days ago and will be releasing as an update. As you can see its quite a bit darker. I simply loaded the texture back into Photoshop and used the Auto-Levels setting and this was the result. I have to agree that this deeper color does look better than my previous attempts. Although no where near as dark and moody as Fridger's, but I think they stand on there own quite well. And they are pretty close to the real photos in the spread. Keep an eye out for the updated texture in my thread called "A Case For Dark Martian Volcanoes".
These textures will have the modified volcanoes as well as the color changes

Don.

Very well, Don, you correctly noted that we are indeed free to
modify the staturation/brightness/contrast values for the
HST-images. These adjustments that are /independent/ of the color
composition in question, easily appear inappropriate through repeated
resizing, WEB copy actions and the use of different media...

Below I have adjusted these values (and /only/ these) to make the two
HST-WFPC2 RGB images of Mars from 1998 and 1999 appear similar. They
are then compared with my Mars texture color that will appear on the
TextureFoundry soon.

The overall color impression of my Mars texture looks quite close, I
guess.