NEW ADDON : Earth's Craters

[ElChristou]

Ok, recently I think I have marmalade in place of brain! Oblateness! Why no one use this setting??
This make me think that the locations data sets should be automatically modified if oblateness is ON...

[BobHegwood]

Ok, recently I think I have marmalade in place of brain! Oblateness! Why no one use this setting??
This make me think that the locations data sets should be automatically modified if oblateness is ON...

Can one ask where you mean Christophe?
I don't recall having to do anything special in terms of "oblateness" when I created my own VT's.

Is there someplace in particular that you are referring to?

Thanks, Brain-Dead himself.

[ElChristou]

Because oblateness is commented out in the default solar system ssc... and seems I don't do anything as everybody else...

[BobHegwood]

Because oblateness is commented out in the default solar system ssc... and seems I don't do anything as everybody else...

Yes, neither do I obviously. My Earth definition is below if it helps at all.

Code: Select all

"Earth" "Sol"
{
   Texture         "EarthRealistic.jpg"
   NightTexture      "EarthNight.jpg"
   NormalMap         "EarthNormal.jpg"
   SpecularMap      "EarthSpecular.jpg"
   SpecularColor      [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
   SpecularPower      100.0
   HazeColor         [ 1 1 1 ]
   HazeDensity      0.3
   Radius         6378.140         # Equatorial.

   Atmosphere
   {
   Height         60
   Lower         [ 0.43 0.52 0.65 ]
   Upper         [ 0.26 0.47 0.84 ]
   Sky            [ 0.40 0.6 1.0 ]
   Sunset         [ 1.0 0.6 0.2 ]
   CloudHeight      7
   CloudSpeed      65
   CloudMap         "EarthClouds.png"
   Mie            0.001
   MieAsymmetry      -0.25
   Rayleigh         [ 0.001 0.0025 0.006 ]
   MieScaleHeight      12
   }

   CustomOrbit      "vsop87-earth"
   EllipticalOrbit
   {
   Period         1.0000
   SemiMajorAxis      1.0000
   Eccentricity      0.0167
   Inclination      0.0001
   AscendingNode      348.739
   LongOfPericenter   102.947
   MeanLongitude      100.464
   }

   UniformRotation
   {
   Period         23.9344694
   Inclination      -23.4392911
   MeridianAngle      280.5         # Offset at default epoch J2000.
   }

   Albedo         0.10
}


Then, I'm using the altsurface code below to get to the high-resolution textures.

Code: Select all

AltSurface "High Resolution" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Color         [ 0.85 0.85 1.0 ]
   Texture         "BlueMarble.ctx"
   NormalMap      "EarthNormal.ctx"
   NightTexture      "EarthNight.ctx"
   SpecularPower      100.0
   SpecularColor      [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
}

And finally, the CTX file...

Code: Select all

VirtualTexture
{
        ImageDirectory "BMNG"
        BaseSplit 0
        TileSize 1024
        TileType "png"
}

I have "oblateness" nowhere in my definitions. Just FYI...

[ElChristou]

...I have "oblateness" nowhere in my definitions. Just FYI...

Ah, then someone delete it from the ssc... (I still use some ssc from 2 years ago with a special arborescence of mine)

BTW, I see that you still use png for your VT? I suppose you know that dds is much better in term of performances, right?

[Cham]

suppose you know that dds is much better in term of performances, right?

dds degrades quality, I think, which isn't the case of png.

Guys, could one of you upload your hires 64K textures (with normalmap and specular texture) to the ML ? Should be better use of the ressources there than all those crappy Star Trek like textures in the SF trash section.

EDIT : ElChristou, maybe you should report your finding with labels and oblateness as a bug, to Chris.

[ElChristou]

suppose you know that dds is much better in term of performances, right?

dds degrades quality, I think, which isn't the case of png.

Not if used wisely!

Guys, could one of you upload your hires 64K textures (with normalmap and specular texture) to the ML ? Should be better use of the ressources there than all those crappy Star Trek like textures in the SF trash section.

That is not possible; remember those VTs are possible only because of Fridger's hard and fantastic work (+ people who help him during tests) and he ask expressly to not publish any maps done via those tools.
Anyway, it's not a really good idea because the resulting VT use ~ 3 Go so it's almost faster to download the raw data files and do your homework...

EDIT : ElChristou, maybe you should report your finding with labels and oblateness as a bug, to Chris.

Not sure there is a great interest for this...

[BobHegwood]

Guys, could one of you upload your hires 64K textures (with normalmap and specular texture) to the ML ? Should be better use of the ressources there than all those crappy Star Trek like textures in the SF trash section.

As noted by Christophe, these textures were the result of Doctor Schrempp's tutorial (which he allowed me to create) along with Cartrite, John van Vliet, Christophe and others on the CM Forum.
I will not add these textures to the ML simply because of the fact that the Good Doctor asked me not to. And, Christophe's other point is well-taken here too. The only way to
learn how to create these monsters is to create them yourself. They were a lot of work, and would not have been possible (for me) at all without the Doctor's assistance.

The tutorial is freely available on the CM Forum HERE though if anyone else is interested in creating their own VT's.
It was written for a Brain-Dead Windows Vista user, but the details of what needs to be done are painstakingly listed, each in its proper perspective.
This is a great resource.

[Cham]

Just a small update to the craters files. Two craters in Africa weren't placed correctly (they had exactly the same coordinates). I used Google Earth to find their true location. Just use the data below in your SSC files :

In the earth_craters_named.ssc file :

Code: Select all

"Arkenu 1" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Class "surfacefeature"
   Mesh "circle.cmod"
   LongLat[ 23.7186111 22.047225 0.001 ]
   Radius 3.4000
   RotationOffset 214.2186111
   Orientation [ 22.047225 1 0 0]
   Albedo 0
}

"Arkenu 2" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Class "surfacefeature"
   Mesh "circle.cmod"
   LongLat[ 23.7946 22.09975 0.001 ]
   Radius 5.0000
   RotationOffset 214.2946
   Orientation [ 22.09975 1 0 0]
   Albedo 0
}


In the earth-craters_locs.ssc file :

Code: Select all

Location "Arkenu 1" "Sol/Earth"
{
   LabelColor [ 0.380 0.663 0.725 ]
   LongLat [ 23.7186111 22.047225 0 ]
   Size 3.4000
   Type "AA"
}

Location "Arkenu 2" "Sol/Earth"
{
   LabelColor [ 0.380 0.663 0.725 ]
   LongLat [ 23.7946 22.09975 0 ]
   Size 5.0000
   Type "AA"
}


Please, a picture with the 64K texture would be appreciated here.

[ElChristou]

There is not much to see...

crat.jpg

BTW, the circles (symbol) of the craters locations is quite badly drawn on my config. What on yours?

[Cham]

Please, could you show us a better (closer) view of the craters ? We don't see them on this picture.

The symbols are correctly drawn on my system, except at long range in a few cases...

[ElChristou]

Please, could you show us a better (closer) view of the craters ? We don't see them on this picture...

A 64k is not enough then (at close range you see nothing but pixels). OR, there is something to see? (they are not at the correct place in the pict above?

[Cham]

They aren't visible with 64k ? Not even a small blurry thing ?

I know the craters are now properly placed. Here's my view with a 16k texture (I removed Jestr 64k version recently. Will have to give it another try) :

craters.jpg

It's the same global surface features as in GE, so I know the placement is correct.

EDIT : I just retried Jestr's 64k texture, and we don't see the craters (except some very pale and blurry spots in the center of the red circles). Doh !

[ElChristou]

They are ok, there is a few pixels showing something, so it must be OK.