Celestia Forums

Hello all...I've downloaded the mars texture from Space-Graphics and converted it to dds. I would like to use this as my 'normal' Mars texture using DBrady's as my alternate. When I switch the two the alignment is way off...any tips?

Regards...bh.

bh wrote:Hello all...I've downloaded the mars texture from Space-Graphics and converted it to dds. I would like to use this as my 'normal' Mars texture using DBrady's as my alternate. When I switch the two the alignment is way off...any tips?

Regards...bh.

Yes, bh,

Mario (SG) always uses the non-Celestia convention for the central meridian! So all you got to do, is a translation by (texture width)/2 with "wrap around mode" activated. Every image manipulation program can do this even in a "high alcohol" environment;-)

Bye Fridger

Many thanks Fridger...hehe...I'll try to do this sober!

Is there a reason one wouldn't just add/subtract 180 from the rotationoffset line in your .ssc?

Changing the RotationOffset is OK if you have only the one surface map.

If you want to be able to compare the surface features of several different surface maps (by switching among AltSurface textures or by selecting different resolutions), then all of the surface texture images have to have to use the same coordinate system. Celestia expects 0 degress of longitude to be in the center.

BTW...it's a stunning texture!...works very smoothly.
Anyone else using this great texture? Many thanks Mario!

Oops!...I've bumped this thread.

Fridger...many thanks. I've got a perfect match switching these textures.

Mario's texture is awesome!

Regards...bh.

bh wrote:Oops!...I've bumped this thread.

Fridger...many thanks. I've got a perfect match switching these textures.

Mario's texture is awesome!

Regards...bh.

bh,

yes, I know. I am cooperating with Mario since a long time "behind the lines". I even have his /gigantic/ resolution lossless TIF textures, which are more than amazing.

For instance, also his 32k specular map of the earth with thousands of glittering little rivers is unbelievable...

Mario just got the right feel!

Bye, Fridger

Fridger....I would love to see that. I knew you were helping Mario out with this. Many thanks is all I can say. You've both done a great job..I can't believe it's an 8k texture!

Regards...bh.

PS....post your usual sig...people are getting upset!

Hi guys. I downloaded Mario's new 8k jpg Mars and his 8k Bump Map. I thought that they would play OK as jpg files, but when I loaded them, my system came to a complete stop. I mean, Celestia was running at less than 1 frame/sec. I know that jpg files are uncompressed before loading, but Mario's two new Mars textures must be uncompressed to some enormous value to freeze my graphics card like that!! I have a GeForce 4 4200 with 128 MB of video RAM. It is only 6 months old.

Did I do something wrong here?

Frank

Frank,

When it's decompressed, an 8K JPEG texture image is at least 8*1024*4*1024*3 bytes = 96MB. That doesn't leave much room for anything else!

In order to get reasonable performance, you should consider converting it to DDS format.

If you don't want to do that, you might want to try adding the SSC directive

CompressTexture true

right after the Texture declaration. That can help in some circumstances.

Frank...I'm only using the m46_color_8k texture which I've converted to dds (DXT1). I'm not using the bump texture at all...I've only got a Gforce2 400. It looks great as is! I would post a screenie but it's late...maybe later.

Works really smooth and fast...I'm very impressed!

Regards...bh.

Any luck Frank...?

Regards...bh.

OK, I have been avoiding using D. Brady's dds image converter program, because I have been unable to find a post on the forum telling me what to do. I can launch a DOS command line from Windows and I remember enough of DOS to navigate to the Image Converter.exe file, but I don't know what to do with the program next. When I type "ImageConverter.exe and press "Enter" in the command line, all I get is an error message. I can't seem to find step by step instructions on how to launch the program or how to operate it. I don't know how to use a "BAT' file.

Please help .... anyone?

Frank

Frank,

You can simply edit a batch file (.bat) to perform the conversion for you.
Just edit one of the sample batch files which came with the converter to make it do
what you want it to do. For example:

You might create a file called EarthConvert.bat which contains the following:

ImageConverter Earth8k.jpg Earth8k.dds dxt1

Then, all you have to do is type in the name of the batch file to have it execute
automatically. Or, you can simply type the command as shown:

ImageConverter inputfilename outputfilename dxttype

To convert an Earth texture from jpg to dds, for example, you'd type the following:

ImageConverter.exe Earth.jpg Earth.dds dxt2

Is that what you wanted? This is what I picked up from the readme file, but I
haven't tried it yet.

Edit: Just tried it on my machine, Frank, and it worked fine. Remember to move the
image you wish to convert to the same directory as the ImageConverter.exe file too.

Hope that helps, Bob

Hi guys,

where can I download D. Brady's dds image converter program?

Hello Frank...I used Doug's photoshop plug-in for the dds conversion.

Regards...bh.

Dear Bob:

Thanks for the help. I finally figured out what a BAT file is, and I edited one to convert the Mars 46 texture from Space Graphics.com to dds format. Now, could you give me your recommendations on whether I should be using DXT1, DXT2, DXT5? For this particular texture which is a jpg file to begin with, I presume there is no alpha channel. What DXT compression should I use for it, and for converting the new 8k Mars Normal map that Mario has also made available on his website?



Frank

Hi Frank...all I can say is suck it and see...my setup has trouble at anything over DXT1 and ends up crashing. I'm really pleased with the re-worked DXT1 texture however...good luck. You will not be dissapointed!

Many regards...bh.

HI guys:

Sigh!! I have now succeeded in converting Mario's Mars jpg planet and Bump textures to dds. They are quite impressive. Of course, they are off by 180 degrees. I tried to do what Fridger suggested, but the only image manipulation program I have is Paint Shop Pro 7. I have searched through the entire program to find a translation command or a wrap-around movement command, or something that resembles cutting the picture and wrapping it 180 degrees off center. I have found no command to do that in that program.

I next tried using a 180 degree RotationOffset command in the solarsys.ssc file but the textures don't move. They are still off. I tried commenting out the "CustomOrbit" line, to no effect. It seems you cannot change the orbital parameters of Mars in the ssc file, and still call the object "Mars". Is that true?

Is there anyone who knows if Paint Shop Pro 7 has a translation command? Is there anyone who may be willing to host the "corrected" dds textures on their site for a while so us downtrodden souls can get them?

Frank