Merry Mars-mas Celestians

Don. Edwards · Post #1by **Don. Edwards** » 24.12.2005, 14:37

As most of you know I have been quiet for a while. I had some time to kill and thought I would get my new Mars texture together for upload. I should have all the links and a few pics as well tomorrow just in time for Christmas Eve.
I hope everyone that celebrates the holiday is having a good one.
By the way, the picture above is a view of my Christmas tree with new texture turned it into an ornament.

buggs_moran · Post #2by **buggs_moran** » 24.12.2005, 14:47

Very neat. See private message.

Post #3by **ElChristou** » 24.12.2005, 18:06

This is a nice gift!!

Many many Tx, Don.

Kolano · Post #4by **Kolano** » 24.12.2005, 19:26

Thanks Santa.

PlutonianEmpire · Post #5by **PlutonianEmpire** » 24.12.2005, 20:55

Don. Edwards wrote:

As most of you know I have been quiet for a while. I had some time to kill and thought I would get my new Mars texture together for upload. I should have all the links and a few pics as well tomorrow just in time for Christmas Eve.
I hope everyone that celebrates the holiday is having a good one.
By the way, the picture above is a view of my Christmas tree with new texture turned it into an ornament.

Don. Edwards

You actually took your mars texture and put it on an actual ornament?!

Don. Edwards · Post #6by **Don. Edwards** » 25.12.2005, 04:17

That?€™s funny,
I guess I should have been a little more clear. The image above is a Photoshop job; sorry I didn't have the texture actually applied to an ornament. But I understand it can be done and I am seriously considering looking into to it for next year, lol. Hey it might be a whole new line of work for me.

OK, on to the good stuff now. The Mars texture is one I completed back in September. It is a blend of a previously unreleased texture and Mario's SpaceGraphics newest Mars textures. All three were layered and combined with a few other tricks of mine to reduce the shadows on the surface. This is by no means a shadowless texture, but a light or low contrast shadow texture if you will. I also re-colored the texture slightly to take out the very pumpkin orange look. This is the result. If you click the image you will see a 2k version of the texture and the detail that be seen even at 2k is great.

Ok now for a few shots of the texture n Celestia. I also need to state that the normalmap used in the following shots has exaggerated height and depth. Because the process of removing many of the darker shadows tends to flatten the image more than what most are used to I have compensated for this in the normalmap. Although technically not accurate it does make the texture look much better. I am including this normalmap in the download links, Try it out, if you don't like the results simply use any other standard Mars bumpmap or normalmap in its place and it should be fine.

Now I can't guarantee that the texture will look like this on your computer. I use the nVidia GeForceFX rendering path for my image taking, so you may see a darker Mars than you see in these pictures. As for the settings in the Mars section of the solarsys.ssc I have only changed the haze values a little to add some extra haze, that?€™s all I have done. Hope everyone enjoys the texture,

Here are the links.

Mars 16K DDS
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... 16kDDS.rar

Mars 16k DDS normalmap with exaggerated height
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... _16kDS.rar

Mars 8k DDS
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... _8kDDS.rar

Mars 8k DDS normalmap with exaggerated height
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... p8kDDS.rar

Mars 4k DDS
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... _4kDDS.rar

Mars 4k DDS normalmap with exaggerated height
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... p4kDDS.rar

Mars 4k PNG
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... _4kPNG.rar

Mars 4k PNG normalmap with exaggerated height
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... p4kPNG.rar

Mars 2k PNG
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... _2kPNG.rar

Mars 2k PNG normalmap with exaggerated height
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... p2kPNG.rar

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season and I will check in later.

Don. Edwards

Cham · Post #7by **Cham** » 25.12.2005, 07:18

Thanks a lot Don. This texture is really nice !

Merry Christmas.

ANDREA · Post #8by **ANDREA** » 25.12.2005, 10:37

Hello Don, these is a very appreciated Xmas gift, thank you very much indeed.

Your textures are very impressive, and after the Xmas lunch I'll download the 16k. :wink:

BTW, have you eliminated the polar caps pinching? :oops:

And, BTW, at least on my monitor all appear a bit too dark, is it my fault or your decision? :oops:

Meanwhile, THANK YOU, Don!
Lots of greetings to all Celestians, all over the world!

Bye

Andrea

Boux · Post #9by **Boux** » 25.12.2005, 12:06

Thanks Don for the Xmas gift!

PlutonianEmpire · Post #10by **PlutonianEmpire** » 25.12.2005, 12:54

what's the difference between a .rar file and a .zip file? Just curious.

Jeam Tag · Post #11by **Jeam Tag** » 25.12.2005, 13:42

PlutonianEmpire wrote:what's the difference between a .rar file and a .zip file? Just curious.

This is another compression tool, 'Winrar' instead of the more common 'Winzip' or the more unused '7zip' or 'Winace'.

Don, many thanks for these maps, another Xmas gift very appreciated :-)

Jeam

Post #12by **selden** » 25.12.2005, 13:53

RAR is a proprietary compression format used by programs like WinRAR. You have to find, download and install the software that can decode it. You can't assume that everyone has it. Like the algorithm used by 7-Zip, RAR's compression algorithm is slightly more efficient (10-15%) that the algorithm used by Zip. In my personal opinion, that small an improvement is *not* enough to matter.

Although not quite as efficient as RAR or 7-Zip, Zip is included with just about all operating systems and does not have to be located, downloaded and installed.

Don. Edwards · Post #13by **Don. Edwards** » 25.12.2005, 16:58

Hey everyone, my choice of moving to RAR is a simple two fold one. With my internet conection a smaller file even by a few megs makes a difference. The other reason is that almost every zip file up upload gets corupted for some reason, this isnt happenig with RAR files. I am sorry for the inconvienience but i have to use what works, I simply can't keep drivng 25 miles to make uploads. This is what happens when you trade city life for living in the beauty of the Cascade foot hills.

Andrea, the Mars texture may apear dark if you are useing a rendering path other than the nVidia combined OpenGL or the GeForce FX render options. I myself continue to use the combined nVidia/OpenGL options. I have discovered that with the latest build of Celestia the for some reason on my card the GeForce FX and the OpenGL 2.0 rendring option simply are not working right. I am on a new install of XP and new drivers and still get no wear with the newer build, although I should probably update or I have a damaged install of Celestia. I have an old install of Celestia 1.2 on my system that works just fine with all the rendering paths, except OpenGL 2.0 as it doesn't support it.
So in the end try alternating your rendering paths with the old control v switch to see if you get a lighter view of Mars. If it still looks dark it could be your monitor settings, but I think thats a long shot. I hope this helps.

Don. Edwards

ANDREA · Post #14by **ANDREA** » 25.12.2005, 17:57

Don. Edwards wrote: Andrea, the Mars texture may apear dark if you are useing a rendering path other than the nVidia combined OpenGL or the GeForce FX render options. I myself continue to use the combined nVidia/OpenGL options. I have discovered that with the latest build of Celestia the for some reason on my card the GeForce FX and the OpenGL 2.0 rendring option simply are not working right. I am on a new install of XP and new drivers and still get no wear with the newer build, although I should probably update or I have a damaged install of Celestia. I have an old install of Celestia 1.2 on my system that works just fine with all the rendering paths, except OpenGL 2.0 as it doesn't support it.
So in the end try alternating your rendering paths with the old control v switch to see if you get a lighter view of Mars. If it still looks dark it could be your monitor settings, but I think thats a long shot. I hope this helps.
Don. Edwards

Don, I'm downloading just now your 16k and 16knormalmap, and when finished I'll test them following your suggestion. :wink:

Meanwhile, all my sincere greetings for a very Happy New Year and, even if a bit too late, for a Merry X'mas.

Bye

Andrea

ANDREA · Post #15by **ANDREA** » 25.12.2005, 18:46

Hello Don, WoW and Wow and Wow again!!!

Your textures are extremely detailed and give a very nice shadowing during planet rotation, truly appreciated.

I have checked all settings, obviously including FX and OpenGL 2.0, but image is still dark (and a bit too red for my taste, but this has been already discussed a lot of times, so it's OK as is). :cry:

So I managed to modify my monitor settings (it's an old Philips Trinitron 21" CRT screen) and now image is more bright and more yellowish rather than reddish, as for my taste.
Very very beautiful, indeed!

BTW, I can't imagine what you will do with your next (????) 32k Mars textures, if you'll realize them. :wink:

Meanwhile I'll enjoy the 16k ones, the best available up today, IMHO.
Thanks a lot Don for your precious contribute to Celestia.

Bye

Andrea

calder · Post #16by **calder** » 26.12.2005, 03:32

Like others have said, the details in these Mars textures are absolutely fantastic, some of the best I've ever seen.

ANDREA · Post #17by **ANDREA** » 26.12.2005, 15:33

Hello Don, I had some time to make a better check of your new 16k Mars texture, and here are my results (please, take my critics as constructive, as they wish to be): :oops:

1- the Polar caps are not at the same level as the remaining of texture;
2- the South Polar cap is owful, it looks like a rayed 150 deg fan.

The resolution of the remaining 95% of the texture is outstanding, the best one for 16k textures.

But... there is always a "but".
I give you examples of what I mean:

here is Praesepe's 16k shaded Mars:

here is Don's 16k with normalmap at noon:

IMHO, but this is a problem common to ALL unshaded textures, in normal lighting conditions, with Sun sufficiently high on Martian ground, the overall aspect is that of an airbrushed drawing, not of a real image, while the shaded texture, even if it cannot give the shadowing effects, is more "real", "live", "exciting" than the unshadowed one that has a "dull" feeling. :cry:

If I would be able to do it, I would increase a lot the image contrast, that IMO is very low in this texture, to avoid the appearance that it has now.
This doesn't mean that your work is not wonderful, but for my needs I prefer a nice looking still image than a more detailed dinamic one.
It's an opinion, obviously, and perhaps I'm alone to think in this way, but I think it's correct to give my idea on the matter.
Thank you, Don.
Bye

Andrea

Don. Edwards · Post #18by **Don. Edwards** » 27.12.2005, 03:33

Well thanks for the input Andrea, I have noticed that at times these ultra high-res textures sometimes get this artificial look to them, I can only point to the source. If you would like these textures with the shadows they are available at SpaceGraphics.com under the Mars section. The coloring may also be in line with your preference as well. Of course they are not in the DDS format there. As for the polar fanning, I have seen that in both Earth and Mars polar areas. I didn't notice it on my card but I will go back and see if it is there,. If it is than there was an error in the creation of the DDS file, this is often a result. On the other hand I may have uploaded the Beta texture instead of the newest master one. In any event that was my mistake and I will try and fix and replace the texture as so as possible, Can you possibly have a look at the 8k and see if you see the same artifacts? The 16k and the 8K are made with different DSS generating utilities so there is also a problem of that to contend with. I have been out of the loop for a while, do you or anyone know of a DDS compression utility that can handle 16k textures better? The one I am using for 16k is the old BMP to DDS converter that was made by someone here, I have long since lost the read-me file that came with it. It has been the only thing that has been able to make 16k textures for me.

BTW, the fanning you are seeing at the poles seems to come from some kind of problem with the mipmaps not matching up right from what I have experienced, If anyone knows more on why this happens please chime in on the subject.

Don. Edwards

ANDREA · Post #19by **ANDREA** » 27.12.2005, 10:51

Don. Edwards wrote:Well thanks for the input Andrea, I have noticed that at times these ultra high-res textures sometimes get this artificial look to them, I can only point to the source. If you would like these textures with the shadows they are available at SpaceGraphics.com under the Mars section. The coloring may also be in line with your preference as well. Of course they are not in the DDS format there. As for the polar fanning, I have seen that in both Earth and Mars polar areas. I didn't notice it on my card but I will go back and see if it is there,. If it is than there was an error in the creation of the DDS file, this is often a result. On the other hand I may have uploaded the Beta texture instead of the newest master one. In any event that was my mistake and I will try and fix and replace the texture as so as possible, Can you possibly have a look at the 8k and see if you see the same artifacts? The 16k and the 8K are made with different DSS generating utilities so there is also a problem of that to contend with. I have been out of the loop for a while, do you or anyone know of a DDS compression utility that can handle 16k textures better? The one I am using for 16k is the old BMP to DDS converter that was made by someone here, I have long since lost the read-me file that came with it. It has been the only thing that has been able to make 16k textures for me. BTW, the fanning you are seeing at the poles seems to come from some kind of problem with the mipmaps not matching up right from what I have experienced, If anyone knows more on why this happens please chime in on the subject. Don. Edwards

Hello Don, I'm happy to give my little help to your outstanding work. :oops:

I'm downloading the 8k textures just now, and after checking them I'll inform you on results.

Thank you for your patience, have a Very Happy New Year.

Bye

Andrea

ANDREA · Post #20by **ANDREA** » 27.12.2005, 23:48

ANDREA wrote:[Hello Don, I'm downloading the 8k textures just now, and after checking them I'll inform you on results.
Andrea

Well, I have done some test, and here is the result:

this is the 16k with normalmap

and this the 8k with normalmap

Results seem very similar about the images "dullness", but IMHO the resolution difference between the two versions is outstanding.
I insist that increasing luminosity and contrast, the result should be more photographic and so more realistic. :wink:

For this reason I would like to make a try myself.
I have Infanview, Pshop CS2 and Xnview so, please, can someone explain me very shortly the steps I need to
1- take Don's 8k image (I read that Xnview cannot open and/or save 16k images),
2 convert as needed in something I can manage in PShop (tiff?),
3- work on it with PShop
4- and than convert again to .DDS? :oops:

Thanks a lot.
Bye

Andrea

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