The New Mars Texture

Don. Edwards · Post #1by **Don. Edwards** » 10.02.2006, 07:44

Hey Everyone,

I know it?€™s a bit on the late side. What can I say, work and flat out laziness is to blame. What can I say, it happens sometimes.

I decided to go back to using the zip format for compressing the texture simply because there were a few complaints about me using the RAR format. So at this point I can't be 100% sure the files are intact. If anyone has a problem with any of the zipped textures let me know as soon as possible.

So I guess this is where I should show off what you are about to download. Just two pictures this time, laziness again I guess.

So here the links to the texture in various sizes for use on any number of systems and video cards.

Mars 16k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... 16kDDS.zip

Mars 8k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -8kDDS.zip

Mars 4k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -4kDDS.zip

Mars 4k PNG texture
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -4kPNG.zip

Mars 2k DDS texture
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -2kDDS.zip

Mars 2k PNG texture
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -2kPNG.zip

Mars 1k PNG texture
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... -1kPNG.zip

Here are the links to the Normalmaps with exaggerated height values

Mars Normalmap 16k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... ap_16k.zip

Mars Normalmap 8k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... pDDS8k.zip

Mars Normalmap 4k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... pDDS4k.zip

Mars Normalmap 4k PNG texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... pPNG4k.zip

Mars Normalmap 2k DDS texure
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... pPNG2k.zip

For users that don?€™t want to use the exaggerated normalmap you can find
My older normal height normalmaps on Mars Central.

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~impulse/Mars_C ... ntral.html

Oh and I almost forgot. Here is a somewhat updated Mars cloud texture with some color added back to the dust clouds. This is for Giorgio.

Mars Clouds 4k texture
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... udsDDS.zip

Mars Clouds 4k texture for ATI Video Cards in PNG format
http://216.231.48.101/~impulse/Mars_Cen ... udsATI.zip

Well that should cover everything at this point.

Well almost.

I decided to go back and try and do something more with the Mars clouds. It?€™s far from ready at this point, but here is a sneak peak at where the clouds are headed. This shows more of the coloring. I added a low pressure area the cloudmap. I got the idea from an old Voyager image that shows that they do form from time to time on Mars. I am hoping to add more detail to the various clouds around the planet and make some convincing dust storms. We will have to see where this goes. No promises at this point.

Don. Edwards

Malenfant · Post #2by **Malenfant** » 10.02.2006, 08:03

Oo, those look dead purty.

(me likey very much, if you failed to parse that

)

Guckytos · Post #3by **Guckytos** » 10.02.2006, 10:06

Oh Don,

those lovely maps are straining my computer again, for one my puny little harddrive (that is filling up) and the other my poor graphics card

Thanks very much for them.

Guckytos

Post #4by **ElChristou** » 10.02.2006, 13:16

Many, many Tx Don, this work is greatly appreciate!!

ANDREA · Post #5by **ANDREA** » 10.02.2006, 13:38

Hello Don, thanks a lot!

I'm just downloading the 16k release, can't wait the moment to see it working.

I'll inform you. :wink:

Well done!
Bye

Andrea

Johaen · Post #6by **Johaen** » 10.02.2006, 13:44

oooooh! *drool* I wantz.
I can't wait to get home and check it out. Damn being at work right now.

Giorgio · Post #7by **Giorgio** » 10.02.2006, 23:29

Thanks thanks and thanks again. Mars looks even better now. I'm currently downloading both the 16k DDS texture and your most wanted and needed 4k cloud map. From the pictures you posted the results are magnificent. As usual, I'm just sorry there's no support for haze with ATI cards (I even tried Orbiter and a shareware version of another planetarium program, but I can't remember its name at the moment, to see a planet with haze on my pc. But my 7,86 GB installation of Celestia is just too much for any other software to steal my heart)

I just wonder if a different setting for haze intensity and colour (more on the white side to combine with your cloud map), would help obtaining pictures even closer to some seasonal shots of Mars that I've seen some time ago in some Hubble pages. If anybody tries that could please post a picture, I'm very curious about it.
Thanks again Don

Don. Edwards · Post #8by **Don. Edwards** » 11.02.2006, 06:29

Giorgio,
If you are familiar at all with any image editing programs you can make a haze layer and blend it with the cloudmap. I do this for my Earth clouds. I didn't bother with the Mars clouds as they are rather hazy to begin with.

I am sorry you cant get the haze setting to work on your ATI card. ATI makes a great gaming card, but they do tend to slack off when it comes to OpenGL implementation and its just going to get worse I am afraid. ATI has almost entirely bent to Microsoft's will on the OpenGL API under Windows Vista. This does not make for a rosey future for the OpenGL API on the Windows platform.

Don. Edwards

danielj · Post #9by **danielj** » 11.02.2006, 14:19

Thank you.Nice job,Don.There is a noticeable improvement especially in the texture of the tallest mountains,compared to the previous ones.But I would like to know if it??s possible to have a 32k texture from Mars or if we don??t have enough data.It appears that the MarsMDM21 IS a 32k texture,but it??s very raw.Do anyone could "polish" the texture?Or am I wrong?

Don. Edwards wrote:Giorgio,
If you are familiar at all with any image editing programs you can make a haze layer and blend it with the cloudmap. I do this for my Earth clouds. I didn't bother with the Mars clouds as they are rather hazy to begin with.

I am sorry you cant get the haze setting to work on your ATI card. ATI makes a great gaming card, but they do tend to slack off when it comes to OpenGL implementation and its just going to get worse I am afraid. ATI has almost entirely bent to Microsoft's will on the OpenGL API under Windows Vista. This does not make for a rosey future for the OpenGL API on the Windows platform.

Don. Edwards

Johaen · Post #10by **Johaen** » 12.02.2006, 02:39

Absolutly gorgeous textures here Don. My Mars is so pretty now. Thanks so much for putting it together.

Don. Edwards · Post #11by **Don. Edwards** » 12.02.2006, 09:24

danielj,
I believe Mario at SpaceGraphic.com has larger versions of the textures I used as the base material. But he doesn't release them to the public and as far as I know doesn't release them at all. I can understand why, there is a bandwidth issue for him. I suppose I could ask him and see what he says. It certainly couldn't hurt. Of course any 32k texture will have to be in VT format and I have only made one VT as of yet, and that was a 16k version of my Earth clouds that I never released. So at this point 16k Mars is about as good as you are going to get from me. Also i have the added issue that my system doesn't have the memory to work with those monster 32k textures. I prefer to work on my textures as one big image. That way if any changes in values are made its uniform and across the texture. That simply doesn't work well when you are using pieces of a larger texture. You invariably get diferences in the pieces as you go along. Not a good thing. This is the main reason I have never released a 32k Earth texture. Its not that I don't have the data, i just don't have the system recourses to achieve it at this point. Also I am working on a 2 year old CPU. Although fast it does have its limitations.

I hope this answers your questions. At this point 16k is all I am going to be able to pull off.

Don. Edwards

Post #12by **t00fri** » 12.02.2006, 09:39

Don. Edwards wrote:danielj,
I believe Mario at SpaceGraphic.com has larger versions of the textures I used as the base material. But he doesn't release them to the public and as far as I know doesn't release them at all. I can understand why, there is a bandwidth issue for him.

Indeed, I do have Mario's 32k Mars (TIFF Format) since a long time. Based on it, I made my own VT's which look most beautiful. But as you say, it's a serious concern of bandwidth of distributing these HUGE textures. And as should be known meanwhile, I do NOT collaborate with the Motherlode...

Bye Fridger

Post #13by **t00fri** » 12.02.2006, 10:43

Don,

let me ask you what was the render path that you were using for judging colors etc? "OpenGL Vertex Program/NVIDIA Combiners" renders fog and thus gives a beautiful somewhat hazy impression with your texture (and my haze settings). However, with the OpenGL 2.0 path that I use throughout, the texture appears quite color intensive (reddish orange) on my (analog) monitor, not far from Mario's original. The two rendering alternatives make a HUGE difference in my display. It is a pity that Chris still did not manage to implement haze rendering into the "modern" OpenGL 2.0 rendering path.

Bye Fridger

Deimos · Post #14by **Deimos** » 12.02.2006, 18:01

Hi,

I want to know where do put exactly the file DDS please

Jeam Tag · Post #15by **Jeam Tag** » 12.02.2006, 18:59

Deimos wrote:I want to know where do put exactly the file DDS please

Hello, il y a beaucoup de solutions pour ajouter ou remplacer des textures plan?©taires dans Celestia (Quelquesoit le format, .dds, .png, .jpg).
Comme Don Edwards propose ses textures avec leur compl?©ment pour simuler l'?©l?©vation (NormalMap) je te propose, plut??t que d'intervenir dans le r?©pertoire de base de Celestia, de cr?©er un dossier ? placer dans le r?©pertoire 'extras' qui comportera les deux. Tu le nommes comme tu veux. Dedans tu cr?©?©s :
1/ un dossier 'textures', sous-dossier 'medres' dans lequel tu places la texture de Mars et la NormalMap correspondante. (tu peux aussi mettres en 'lores' les textures en plus petites r?©solutions, et en 'hires' celles en plus haute r?©solutions: ? toi de voir selon les capacit?©s de ton installation)
2/ un fichier de placement .ssc (? ?©diter avec un ?©diteur texte, tout simplement). Par exemple:

Code: Select all

AltSurface "Nom-de-ton-dossier" "Sol/Mars"
{
   Texture "Nom-de-la-texture.dds"
   NormalMap "Nom-de-la-texture.dds"
}

Qui te permet d'afficher celle-ci lorsque tu cliques droit sur la plan??te dans Celestia (Surface Alternatives). ou

Code: Select all

Modify "Mars" "Sol"
{
   Texture "Nom-de-la-texture.dds"
   NormalMap "Nom-de-la-texture.dds"
}

Qui remplace la texture de base du programme.
Pour de meilleures explications en fran?§ais jette un oeil au forum francophone (voir ma sig) qui essaye aussi de constituer un wiki, dont le but est d'essayer de r?©pondre ? ce genre de questions simples: c'est en construction, mais d?©j? bien fourni...
SURTOUT: Ici en anglais, lis les FAQ de ces forums, le site de Selden Ball, etc, please :-)

Jeam
---
Hello, there are many options to install a texture, so a simple one is to create a folder in the 'extras' repertory (named as you want) that includes 'textures/medres' folders with the textures in it (surface and elevation -the NormalMap instead of the Celestia basic BumpMap in this case- and a .ssc file (use a simple text-editor to create it) that allows the infos (quoted before) 1/ to alternate the textures (right-click on the planet in Celestia) 2/ to replace the basic textures. Jeam

Don. Edwards · Post #16by **Don. Edwards** » 13.02.2006, 00:36

Hey Fridger,
Been a while since we have spoken. Yes I am usng the OpenGL/nVidia combiners seting, always have for the most part. I used to use the GeForceFX render path but it seems to have stopped working for me after Version 1.3.2. So I fell back to what worked. I am happy to here that you got Mario's 32k versions, I will have to contact him and ask as I said.

I also still find myself a bit unhappy with the way textures are handled at the Motherload. That is why I still have a standing request that they not carry any of my newer textures. I am also seriously thinging if asking them to remove the older ones. I know it is causeing some confusion as to what texture is what. I have received a few emails on this subject from users.

Don. Edwards

Boux · Post #17by **Boux** » 13.02.2006, 09:23

Don,
Thanks for the great texture.
It is now the default texture on my setup

Post #18by **ElChristou** » 13.02.2006, 17:15

Don, do you think you can do a 16k dds VT from your 16k one? (for those of us who cannot used 16k -> lower config)

Don. Edwards · Post #19by **Don. Edwards** » 13.02.2006, 22:42

ElChristou,
I might try, but for some the tile size may be to big. I simply haven't downloaded all the info and tools for making VT's. I do the cutting by hand in Photoshop so I keep the tiles on hte larger size. I was comforatable with cutting my 16k clouds down to 2048x2048 tiles. Still most cards should be able to handle that I think. Of course if someone else wishes to do it I could supply the the texture.

Don. Edwards

jnthn · Post #20by **jnthn** » 14.02.2006, 01:58

Don. Edwards wrote:Of course if someone else wishes to do it I could supply the the texture.

Do you mean a full 16K PNG, or other lossless format? If so, I'd love to carve that up into a VT. I've loaded the 16K DDS, and it looks great, but it's a bit of a strain on my 128MB Radeon 9800. The first thing I thought when I saw that 86MB DDS file was, "OMG, that's deadly... this thing needs to be "VT'ed." Of course converting to PPM for tiling, then converting back to DXT for the VT would ruin image quality.

I know you don't know me but, I'm pretty well experienced in making VT's (none released, yet) up to 64K. It would take no time to slice that 16K Mars into a VT with 512x512 tiles, so that most everyone could enjoy it. Let me know if you're interested.

ciao,
Jonathan