The New Earth Textures From Space-Graphics

[briandelancey]

Don., those shots look amazing! I've yet to try using texures any larger than 4k and am curious to see if 8ks will run smoothly on my setup (750Athlon256MGeF4-440mx64M...) A nice smooth run at 100x speed would put a big smile on my face. Now we need get Chris to meld his knowledge of 3D particle rendering with some weather prediction/modeling algorithms and get some real-time dynamic 'cloud-maps' for all our favorite sweaty planets. OK, I'm drooling. Sorry...

BD

[Guest]

I was ale to use 8k textures when I had a 64meg Ti4200 so I don't see why you won't be able to. You will just have to keep the bumpmap and citylights textures down in size. I think everything would look ok with a 2048x1024 bump and 2048x1024 citylights. The cloudmap is already 2048x1024 and there is no advantage of moving to a larger cloud texture as Celestia doesn't render it any better. Something I think Chris is still working on at this point but I can't be sure. Fridger is able to get an 8k .dds file to run on his 32meg GeForce2 pretty good so I think your in good company. Just keep an eye on this thread for the download when its ready.

[t00fri]

I was ale to use 8k textures when I had a 64meg Ti4200 so I don't see why you won't be able to. You will just have to keep the bumpmap and citylights textures down in size. I think everything would look ok with a 2048x1024 bump and 2048x1024 citylights. The cloudmap is already 2048x1024 and there is no advantage of moving to a larger cloud texture as Celestia doesn't render it any better. Something I think Chris is still working on at this point but I can't be sure. Fridger is able to get an 8k .dds file to run on his 32meg GeForce2 pretty good so I think your in good company. Just keep an eye on this thread for the download when its ready.

Yes indeed, with my 32MB GF2, I get a quite smooth performance with 8k DDS textures /provided/:

1) I use static bumping (which is much less fashionable recently;-))

2) I use DXT1c, DXT3 (8:1, 4:1) compression and not DXT5 (1:1), as Don uses them recently.

With /dynamical/ bumping in a separate 4k bump.png (png is smoother than jpeg!), a separate 4k spec.dds, a 2k nightlights.dds, a 2k clouds.dds (DXT3) and a 4k main earth texture (DXT1c, 8:1), I still get smooth 15-20 fps for earth.

Hence with >=64MB cards one should get a similar performance with 8k textures and 4k, 8k bump.png's.

If great care in preparing a smooth bump.png file is applied, the overall earth display is very beautiful, indeed, alread with my 4k setup. Even according to my relatively high standards;-)

Bye Fridger

[Don. Edwards]

Well I am even closer to being done. Heres 2 more shots. The first shows some nice bumpmaping of the Himilayas.


The second is just a transition shot of north america from day to night.


About another day an I think it will be ready.
Hey Fridger wha tdo you think of these shots. I have the textures compresed as DXT3 instead of DXT5 for size purposes. Any ideas on how to make it better? All imput welcome.

[billybob884]

When the 8k texture is done it will include the night texture with aurora effects.

how do you add the aurora?

[t00fri]

About another day an I think it will be ready.
Hey Fridger wha tdo you think of these shots. I have the textures compresed as DXT3 instead of DXT5 for size purposes. Any ideas on how to make it better? All imput welcome.

The shots look really nice. Also the colors of the sea and the specular reflections...

I have been playing quite a bit recently with the separate bump files. Notably, studying how the bump quality depends on the graphics format and what is the best compromise between speed and smoothness.

1) PNG's win clearly (over JPG's)
but 8k PNG's take quite some time to load. 4k PNGs can give very nice bump patterns already and are still reasonably fast.

2) No sharpening tricks on bump files, otherwise => bad effects. Smoothness is paramount.

Bye Fridger

[Darkmiss]

WOW, looks really great
Im useing your first 4k version, right now.
this looks perfect, what better texture to relese with the new version of Celestia. (which is also perfect)

? will the spec-map be added to the textue, like the first one
or will it be a seperate file.

Question for Toofri
I know spec-maps can be added into a dds file,
but can bump-maps be added too, so all three textures are in one file

Looking forward to it Don.

[Don. Edwards]

I will be making it available in several formats. 8k.dds, 4k.dds, 2k.dds all with the spec pluged in the alpha chanel. I will also make them available in .png format at the 4k and 2k size also with spec pluged in. I might also make a .jpg 1k and 2k with seperate specmaps. I am trying to cover all the bases for various cards and memory requirments. This might hold the total package back a few days but I will put the 8k.dds up in just a day or so. I just want to make sure sure I have it as perfect as posible. Well maybe perfect may be the wrong word but as close to perfect.
As for bumpmaps in textures. I know Fridger was able to plug a bumpmap into his cloud texture but I don't think you can add it with a specmap for the simple fact the specmap is in the alpha chanel and I don't think Celestia see muliple alpha chanels. But I think multiple alphas are posible but I can't be sure. I have seen the option in photoshop but never played with it. I still haven't tried Fridger's way of pluging in the bumpmap for clouds yet. If I figure this out then I will start making more cloudmaps available. I not sure right now but there might be a way to have Celestia load diferent cloudmaps at diferent times so we arn't always seeing the same old clouds, but a diferent or random cloudmap from time to time might be nice.

[horrgakx]

They look really fantastic.

I'm not that new to Celestia but have never looked into textures so I'm not sure what 8k.dds, 4k.dds, 2k.dds mean. Are they to do with resolutions? And if so, why bother with lower resolutions (maybe for lower powered PC's?)

[Don. Edwards]

A .dds is a compressed image format. Its the format that Celestia uses on the fly to compress textures. By precompressing the textures into the .dds format Celestia can load the texture faster and the texture can be larger than say a equal size .png based texture. The reason for multiple textures sizes and types is so everyone can enjoy and use them no matter what video card they have. Some users have video cards capable of loading and useing a .dds based texture but may be limited by the amount of memory their card has so a smaller version of the texture will work for them. There has been some discusion over the varying texture formats aand texture size. I aim to please as many people as posible and the only way to do that is by making multiple sizes of the textures. Hope that answers your question.

[horrgakx]

I'm on another thread about this, but how do you install the DDS files (please, if you can, give step by step instructions)

[t00fri]

I'm on another thread about this, but how do you install the DDS files (please, if you can, give step by step instructions)

Pleeeeeeaase, a /little/ bit of common sense should tell you that among the almost 10000 mails, your question has been asked xx times before! We have an extensive search facility in this forum. So why do you keep people busy asking to write things again and again...

Just enter: dds and search!

Bye Fridger

[horrgakx]

Thanks for your help. I did try searching but the results were overwhelming.

... not hard for someone of your calibre though is it :lol: I downloaded some of the stuff from your site.

[t00fri]

Thanks for your help. I did try searching but the results were overwhelming.

... not hard for someone of your calibre though is it :lol: I downloaded some of the stuff from your site.

Entering e.g "dds AND install" into the search engine and looking for the author "t00fri" just leaves two entries:

...
Install this in textures/hires (actually, textures/medres works fine too), and change this line in solarsys.ssc:

Texture "earth.png"

to:

Texture "earth8k.dds"

What is so hard here?

Bye Fridger

[horrgakx]

Thanks

[Don. Edwards]

Well the 8k texture is ready for download. There has also been some questions asked about how I implemented the aurora effects. It was really quite simple. I simply found an image of what the aurora looked like, colored it as close as I could according to info I found and added them to the Earth nightside texture. The result is this.

As you can see the aurora just happens to look like its floating above the background. Of couse it still needs a little more work but I think its a good start.
Now for the the download. The 8k texture package is almost 17megs. It contains the newest 8k earth texture in .dds format. It contains a 4k bumpmap in .png format and the 4k nightside texture in .dds format.
I know this is going to limit the usage of this to those with slightly higer end video cards. I will have a multi-format multi-size package assembled in a few more days. So I hope everyone who has been waiting patiently is ready and those who want the lower res textures just have a few more days. Have fun and give me feedback on your experience with the textures.
Download link: http://63.224.48.65/~impulse/NewEarth8k.zip

Don

[snickell]

Don, these shots look terrific! If you'd be so kind, it'd be really cool if you'd be willing to post the Earth section from your solarsys.ssc file that you used to setup this stuff? I know this is sort of a newbie question, but I'm still trying to tinker to get things looking right and it'd be really helpful.

Also, where does one find the cloud maps that you used? They are referenced in the discussion, but I'm not finding them after searching the forum...

Thanks, and sorry for such banal questions...

-Seth

[Don. Edwards]

Well I kind of gooffed up the 8k package. I forgot to include the cloudmap. Thats what happens when you try to hurry with things. I am replaceing the original zip file with an updated one including the cloudmap. Just click on the old link above and you can redownload the whole package or you can download the clouds seperate for those you have already downloaded the the first zip file. Sorry about that.
The settings I use are almost the same setting that Fridger has posted from time to time but I will indulge.

"Earth" "Sol"
{
Texture "NewEarth8k.dds"
NightTexture "lights_aurora4k.dds"

# SpecularTexture "---"
Color [ 0.85 0.85 1.0 ]
SpecularColor [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
SpecularPower 25.0
HazeColor [ 1 1 1 ]
HazeDensity 0.3
Radius 6378
# Oblateness 0.003

BumpMap "Earth-4K-Bump.png"
BumpHeight 4.5

Atmosphere {
Height 60
Lower [ 0.5 0.5 0.65 ]
Upper [ 0.3 0.3 0.6 ]
Sky [ 0.3 0.6 0.9 ]
CloudHeight 7
CloudSpeed 65
CloudMap "New-Earth-Clouds.dds"
}

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
}

RotationPeriod 23.9344694 # 23.93419
RotationOffset 280.5 # offset at default epoch J2000
Obliquity -23.45
Albedo 0.39
}

You could probably select and copy and past this into your solarsystem.ssc file or print it out for future access.
Ok here is the link for the cloudmap that is now included with the updated NewEarth-1-12-3.zip.

http://63.224.48.65/~impulse/New-Earth-Clouds.zip

The clouds are in a .dds format for now but will also available in the whole NewEarth package as a .png as well. Hope this helps everyone out.

Don

[Rassilon]

One step further...multiple cloud layers each with the ability to have emissive true or false....Then the aurora would be seen in the sky instead of the surface...I am assuming its this way since you used a nighttexture...which unfortunately is the only way it will work currently....

Nice work Don...

[granthutchison]

Don:
The aurora looks great, but for strict accuracy it needs a little adjustment in size and position.
It should be centred around the north geomagnetic pole, which lies in the strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, about 78.5N, 69W. The radius of the circle that shows maximum auroral activity is about 2000km - so there's a line of auroral activity passing though central Alaska, northern Canada, clipping the tip of Greenland, across Iceland, touching North Cape in Norway, and then running across the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. The southern auroral ring is a mirror image, centred on 78.5S, 111E.
What you've got looks great though, and I pass this on just in the hope it'll be of interest - I've no idea how hard it might be to implement such an off-centre circle of aurora.