Hey everyone,
I have made a modification to Matt McIrvin's Jupiter clouds texture. I made it so that the blank zone for the red spot is not as prominant for use with other gasgiant texturs that don't have great storms on them. I have posted a .avi movie of the clouds so you can see how they look. check it out at http://homepage.mac.com/donedwards/.cv/ ... i-link.avi
You will need a to have a Divx codec installed to see it. I will be posting the texture as soon as I talk with Matt about it.
Animated Gasgiant clouds
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Matt McIrvin
- Posts: 312
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- With us: 22 years 9 months
OK to post it
Go ahead and post the texture-- it's all right with me!
(The Jupiter cloud texture was a quick hack, basically just a modification of Chris's original Jupiter texture with opacity keyed to brightness and the Red Spot blank lane crudely hacked out of it. I was surprised at how well it worked for all that.)
(The Jupiter cloud texture was a quick hack, basically just a modification of Chris's original Jupiter texture with opacity keyed to brightness and the Red Spot blank lane crudely hacked out of it. I was surprised at how well it worked for all that.)
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Topic authorD.Edwards
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Gasgiant clouds
With Matt's permision the gasgiant cloud texture is now ready for download. grab it here. http://homepage.mac.com/donedwards/.cv/ ... p-link.zip
In the avi I had the cloud speed set pretty high so the movement would show up clearly. I had it set to 1000. You set yours for your taste. Have fun with it.
In the avi I had the cloud speed set pretty high so the movement would show up clearly. I had it set to 1000. You set yours for your taste. Have fun with it.
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Topic authorD.Edwards
- Posts: 136
- Joined: 25.05.2002
- With us: 22 years 6 months
- Location: Oregon/USA
New Gas Giant Movie
I tried some interesting tweaking and came up with this idea. First check out the AVI at http://homepage.mac.com/donedwards/.cv/ ... i-link.avi
We need to see if Chris can implement multi layered moving textures. First step is to setup the atributes for the planetary body (gas giant in this case) size, orbit, rotational direction, and so on. Then we need to be able to place the first texture on the planet and set the texture on the planet to rotate in retrograd direction. Then place the high cloud texture on top of that one and rotate that texture in the proper direction. That is west to east. Then all put together with the jupiter clouds I reworked you get a very convincing efect. The white bands move west to east and the darker bands/lower clouds move east to west. I don't know if Chris can just add the ability to have 2 seprate rotating cloud layers but if it could be done, I think we may have found a way to make Gasgiants look alot better.
Let me know what you all think of this idea. It does work my main concern is the way I did it makes the planet itself spin retrograde and I don't know if this efects obital mechanics in anyway.???
We need to see if Chris can implement multi layered moving textures. First step is to setup the atributes for the planetary body (gas giant in this case) size, orbit, rotational direction, and so on. Then we need to be able to place the first texture on the planet and set the texture on the planet to rotate in retrograd direction. Then place the high cloud texture on top of that one and rotate that texture in the proper direction. That is west to east. Then all put together with the jupiter clouds I reworked you get a very convincing efect. The white bands move west to east and the darker bands/lower clouds move east to west. I don't know if Chris can just add the ability to have 2 seprate rotating cloud layers but if it could be done, I think we may have found a way to make Gasgiants look alot better.
Let me know what you all think of this idea. It does work my main concern is the way I did it makes the planet itself spin retrograde and I don't know if this efects obital mechanics in anyway.???
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Topic authorD.Edwards
- Posts: 136
- Joined: 25.05.2002
- With us: 22 years 6 months
- Location: Oregon/USA
Animated Gasgiants
My work on animating the gasgiants has come to a close. The reason being know seems interested in it. I read back some time ago that there was an interest in achieving this but alas no one has given me any kind of feed back. So thats that.
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Axel
Stop ...
... quitting!
I asure you many ppl want to see advances in the texture area, nicely animated gas giants being one prominent of these.
I tried this for a similar project (http://www.openuniverse.org) but never reached a good result at the time due to my and the applications limitations.
Ok, here's my 2 cent: Don't create several spheres to carry the various cloud layers. I would talk directly to Chris and suggest to put flat belts with configurable rotation time and position around them. Add an alpha channel to these and you're on your way.
I did an nice screensaver some time ago and used a similar approach to do a hurricane. Worked very well.
The only remaining prob would be to place these belts correct, but that should be able to be handled by code.
Keep up you work on this,
Axel
I asure you many ppl want to see advances in the texture area, nicely animated gas giants being one prominent of these.
I tried this for a similar project (http://www.openuniverse.org) but never reached a good result at the time due to my and the applications limitations.
Ok, here's my 2 cent: Don't create several spheres to carry the various cloud layers. I would talk directly to Chris and suggest to put flat belts with configurable rotation time and position around them. Add an alpha channel to these and you're on your way.
I did an nice screensaver some time ago and used a similar approach to do a hurricane. Worked very well.
The only remaining prob would be to place these belts correct, but that should be able to be handled by code.
Keep up you work on this,
Axel
Actually its a matter of placement in the texture and combining the correct elements...Damn I wish you guys would try GIMP...You might be pleasently suprised...Fridger may seem a little vauge, but maybe he does it to get you off your ass and look at the possibilities...Its not as hard as you make it out to be...trust me 
How long have I been doing this now...Looking at my signup date will tell you...I may quit for a while due to lack of productivity or having crappy hardware...but I always return and never truly give up...All a part of life...Got to enjoy what you do more...Might help!
How long have I been doing this now...Looking at my signup date will tell you...I may quit for a while due to lack of productivity or having crappy hardware...but I always return and never truly give up...All a part of life...Got to enjoy what you do more...Might help!
I'm trying to teach the cavemen how to play scrabble, its uphill work. The only word they know is Uhh and they dont know how to spell it!
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chris
- Site Admin
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I try to answer most of the questions here, but I've been insanely busy lately . . . (and if it wasn't for all the people on this forum helping out with answering questions, it would be completely hopeless.)
I am interested in doing work to make gas giants more realistic. Allowing multiple cloud layers would be a simple addition, though the additional rendering power required may make two the practical limit for most graphics cards. I'll have to get to work on seriously optimizing the rendering of planets.
--Chris
I am interested in doing work to make gas giants more realistic. Allowing multiple cloud layers would be a simple addition, though the additional rendering power required may make two the practical limit for most graphics cards. I'll have to get to work on seriously optimizing the rendering of planets.
--Chris
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Guest
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Topic authorD.Edwards
- Posts: 136
- Joined: 25.05.2002
- With us: 22 years 6 months
- Location: Oregon/USA
On Animated Gasgiant Textures
Ok! ok!
I'll keep working on them!
The idea of having multiple bands of counter rotating clouds is a good one but I think we may be asking a lot of Chris and the Celestia engine. If we don't have some kind of transparacy and alpha blending at cloud band boarders the efect would be real disapointing and would not look authentic. My atemp, by having clear zones in the clouds so that the lower texture shows through the clear zones and rotates in the oposite direction of the upper clouds achieves the same thing and it cuts down on making the engine do all that rendering of many multiple textures. If the multiband idea went fourth and worked it would probably only work well on Geforce4 cards with 128mb DDR video RAM. Not all of us can do that right now as these video cards cost an arm & a leg so to speak. I do all my work on a lowly Gforce2MX with 32mb of SDRAM. By far not one of the fastest cards out there. But I am able to use my cards FSAA 2x mode for smoothing out the graphics. If any of you take look at any of the pictures I have posted at my site you can see that theres a great deal of antialiasing going there. I give Chris a big thumbs up for making a great OpenGL program that is capable of keeping up with a video card thats being loaded down pretty darn hard.
Theres one more thing that I need to state about my idea of rendering the gasgiant clouds. If you have ever seen any real good close-up pictures of Jupiter I mean real close there is a real sense of depth to the clouds layers. I have seen video of the clouds like this too and you can definetly tell the uper clouds from the lower clouds. Believe it or not my clouds over texture idea actualy achieves this to a point. There is real sense of depth to the clouds as they rotate. I will do a few more screen captures so everyone can see what I am talking about. Its a very subtle efect but its there. If anyone has any better ideas let me know but for now as Celestia stands I am going to keep working in this direction and pass what I do to you and let you all make the choice. If anyone wants me to post a demo .ssc file so they can load it up and take a look at what I have talking about give me a message back here and I will put it together for everyone. My bigest problem right know is finding a real good lower texture that is clear and sharp and shows great detail in the darker cloud bands of a gasgiant. This would be the equivalent of the dark stripped areas on Jupiter. If any one has any really good textures of Jupiter or other gasgiants they have made and you think they may be what I am looking for please let me know.
Ok enough blabing from me for now.
I'll keep working on them!
The idea of having multiple bands of counter rotating clouds is a good one but I think we may be asking a lot of Chris and the Celestia engine. If we don't have some kind of transparacy and alpha blending at cloud band boarders the efect would be real disapointing and would not look authentic. My atemp, by having clear zones in the clouds so that the lower texture shows through the clear zones and rotates in the oposite direction of the upper clouds achieves the same thing and it cuts down on making the engine do all that rendering of many multiple textures. If the multiband idea went fourth and worked it would probably only work well on Geforce4 cards with 128mb DDR video RAM. Not all of us can do that right now as these video cards cost an arm & a leg so to speak. I do all my work on a lowly Gforce2MX with 32mb of SDRAM. By far not one of the fastest cards out there. But I am able to use my cards FSAA 2x mode for smoothing out the graphics. If any of you take look at any of the pictures I have posted at my site you can see that theres a great deal of antialiasing going there. I give Chris a big thumbs up for making a great OpenGL program that is capable of keeping up with a video card thats being loaded down pretty darn hard.
Theres one more thing that I need to state about my idea of rendering the gasgiant clouds. If you have ever seen any real good close-up pictures of Jupiter I mean real close there is a real sense of depth to the clouds layers. I have seen video of the clouds like this too and you can definetly tell the uper clouds from the lower clouds. Believe it or not my clouds over texture idea actualy achieves this to a point. There is real sense of depth to the clouds as they rotate. I will do a few more screen captures so everyone can see what I am talking about. Its a very subtle efect but its there. If anyone has any better ideas let me know but for now as Celestia stands I am going to keep working in this direction and pass what I do to you and let you all make the choice. If anyone wants me to post a demo .ssc file so they can load it up and take a look at what I have talking about give me a message back here and I will put it together for everyone. My bigest problem right know is finding a real good lower texture that is clear and sharp and shows great detail in the darker cloud bands of a gasgiant. This would be the equivalent of the dark stripped areas on Jupiter. If any one has any really good textures of Jupiter or other gasgiants they have made and you think they may be what I am looking for please let me know.
Ok enough blabing from me for now.
If you keep the textures small you should be able to get away with having 5-10 texture layers for clouds...This would give the effect of depth when textured correctly...
Im talking about 512 x 256 and maybe somehow enabling jpeg to be used and alpha out the black in the coding...should be possible...in a future version
Im talking about 512 x 256 and maybe somehow enabling jpeg to be used and alpha out the black in the coding...should be possible...in a future version
I'm trying to teach the cavemen how to play scrabble, its uphill work. The only word they know is Uhh and they dont know how to spell it!
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Topic authorD.Edwards
- Posts: 136
- Joined: 25.05.2002
- With us: 22 years 6 months
- Location: Oregon/USA
more on animated textures
I persaonly don't use any textures below 1024x512 unless there is no alternitive. With higher texture size you can get in closer to the planet before the texture blurs or starts to look pixelated. When I finsih the HD 28185 system it will be comprised of mostly 1024x512 textures. I may consider a lower res package but at present I'm justing trying to finish the thing first. I had to use a few built in textures until I can throw something else together. This little project of mine has grown quite a bit. I can see what you were talking about when it came to the whole extrasolar ssc file. I just can't stop tweaking and adding things. But there has to come a point were enough is enough and you have to call it finished. I am delaying another week but I promise its worth it.
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Guest
Hi,
I just loaded the gas giant clouds, and am greatly impressed with the results...it is a major improvement..Please keep up the great work! I hope to learn and catch up enough about what is going on that I can offer some useful input into this project at some time. Speaking for myself silence does not necessarily mean "apathy" more often than not it is the simply the sound of humbled ignorance.
I just loaded the gas giant clouds, and am greatly impressed with the results...it is a major improvement..Please keep up the great work! I hope to learn and catch up enough about what is going on that I can offer some useful input into this project at some time. Speaking for myself silence does not necessarily mean "apathy" more often than not it is the simply the sound of humbled ignorance.