My new 64k Earth texture set...

[t00fri]

Hi all,

after working hard for several weeks, I have just finished an exquisitely matched set of 64k Earth texture tiles, including the BMNG base, the 64k spec texture as /alpha/ channel of the DXT3 encoded base texture, a really noiseless 64k normal-map and a completely redone, matching nightlights texture with latest data from 2003. By combining the base RGB texture and the spec (gray) texture into one RGBA file, the memory needed for the spec texture comes "for free"...

I have generated all textures directly from the 16bit/3*8bit 84k raw data. Note that the base texture is unshaded=flat. The normal map is identical to the one that was used for static shading of BMNG by Reto Stoeckli/NASA (with whom I communicated a lot). It produces amazing shading effects as function of the sun's position due to it's exceptional detail , low noise and the flat base texture. The normal map is properly normalized (r*r+g*g+b*b=1) and in form of 1k PNG tiles since DXT1,3... format was way too bad.

All are 1k tiles with optimized reduced resolution for polar latitudes! This saves disk space and strongly reduces the harddisk search noise/delay without affecting quality in any way. I bought a special, fast 250GB SATAII harddisk acting as a huge pixel cache for those immense image manipulation jobs...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here are a few 1600x1200 shots for you to click .


http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/2.jpg
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/4.jpg
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/5.jpg

look at those sand dunes...
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/3.jpg

and a small part of the new nightlights file with tremendous detail (Egypt)

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/kairo-night.jpg

Of course these textures will NOT be for download at the Motherlode. I am currently evaluating various possibilities to make them available elsewhere...

Bye Fridger

[ElChristou]

Very nice indeed!

With this level of details, it would be really nice to have some hires rotating cloudmap casting shadows... arrghh I know, impossible... ... one day perhaps...

[Fightspit]

Very beautiful !


I just want to know if it is possible later to download only the Normal texture not the both textures (base and normal)?

Have you planed for a 128K ?

[t00fri]

Very beautiful !


I just want to know if it is possible later to download only the Normal texture not the both textures (base and normal)?

Have you planed for a 128K ?

Fightspit,

it would be a pity not to download the combined base texture with the spec file in the alpha channel! It saves lots of memory in the card and also --unlike your spec file-- mine matches perfectly with the base texture. Also --unlike yours-- my base texture is /unshaded/ and only this way allows for a proper dynamical shading by means of a normal map.

Your base or spec texture obviously picked up a misalignment by a few pixels from somewhere (probably since you started from the smaller PNG textures). I always used the full 84k RAW texture files with all the corresponding pixel accuracy to start. Also in confirmation of Chris' recomendation 1k tiles are much preferable over your 2k sizes. The latter tend to exhaust the memory tremendously north and south of the equatorial region where many tiles are loaded simultaneously. In addition all my tiles have optimized resolution in polar latitudes, saving harddisk space and strongly reducing the hardisk noise/delay during loading of tiles!

As I explained several times, I consider a 128k texture blown up from the 84k data a vaste of almost everything. Certainly I will not get involved with this, since my first priority is QUALITY not size.

But for people with more modern graphics cards (Geforce 6.x, 7.x, and corresponding ATI cards) Chris is just about to modify the code in the CVS such that the texture sizes don't have to be a power of two anymore! That means one might directly prepare a 84k texture set and use it in Celestia!

Bye Fridger

[Fightspit]

Chris is just about to modify the code in the CVS such that the texture sizes don't have to be a power of two anymore! That means one might directly prepare a 84k texture set and use it in Celestia!

If you want, I can try to made a 84K base texture with 4 or 5 levels but I want to know when the new version of Celestia (maybe 1.4.2) will be aviable ?
I can start to do it waiting the new Celestia.

[t00fri]

Chris is just about to modify the code in the CVS such that the texture sizes don't have to be a power of two anymore! That means one might directly prepare a 84k texture set and use it in Celestia!

If you want, I can try to made a 84K base texture with 4 or 5 levels but I want to know when the new version of Celestia (maybe 1.4.2) will be aviable ?
I can start to do it waiting the new Celestia.

No idea....But people can always download from CVS and just compile the new upgrade. It's really no big deal. I will certainly make a 84k upgrade of my textures soon or later, since all my respective scripts are there. Unfortunately, I cannot use non-power-of-two textures myself.

Bye Fridger

[tech2000]

Hi Fridger.

Will this beautifull texture of yours be available for the public?
(My finger are itching to download this)

Bye, Anders

[t00fri]

Hi Fridger.

Will this beautifull texture of yours be available for the public?
(My finger are itching to download this)

Bye, Anders

Anders,

I wrote everything that I can presently say about this matter already below my post above.

Of course these textures will NOT be for download at the Motherlode. I am currently evaluating various possibilities to make them available elsewhere...

Bye Fridger

[danielj]

Are these combined textures too heavy?I wonder if it will run in my system:Athlon 64 3000,1 GB RAM and VGA 6600 GT 128 MB.

Hi all,

after working hard for several weeks, I have just finished an exquisitely matched set of 64k Earth texture tiles, including the BMNG base, the 64k spec texture as /alpha/ channel of the DXT3 encoded base texture, a really noiseless 64k normal-map and a completely redone, matching nightlights texture with latest data from 2003. By combining the base RGB texture and the spec (gray) texture into one RGBA file, the memory needed for the spec texture comes "for free"...

I have generated all textures directly from the 16bit/3*8bit 84k raw data. Note that the base texture is unshaded=flat. The normal map is identical to the one that was used for static shading of BMNG by Reto Stoeckli/NASA (with whom I communicated a lot). It produces amazing shading effects as function of the sun's position due to it's exceptional detail , low noise and the flat base texture. The normal map is properly normalized (r*r+g*g+b*b=1) and in form of 1k PNG tiles since DXT1,3... format was way too bad.

All are 1k tiles with optimized reduced resolution for polar latitudes! This saves disk space and strongly reduces the harddisk search noise/delay without affecting quality in any way. I bought a special, fast 250GB SATAII harddisk acting as a huge pixel cache for those immense image manipulation jobs...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here are a few 1600x1200 shots for you to click .


http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/2.jpg
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/4.jpg
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/5.jpg

look at those sand dunes...
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/3.jpg

and a small part of the new nightlights file with tremendous detail (Egypt)

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/kairo-night.jpg

Of course these textures will NOT be for download at the Motherlode. I am currently evaluating various possibilities to make them available elsewhere...

Bye Fridger

[t00fri]

Are these combined textures too heavy?I wonder if it will run in my system:Athlon 64 3000,1 GB RAM and VGA 6600 GT 128 MB.

My texture set is much more optimized for performance than e.g. Flightspit's texture. That's what I was trying to argue above. So there is NO reason whatsoever why you should not see a very speedy performance with my tiles.

I get close to 100fps at all zoom levels with my new texture tiles, despite my card being older than yours (FC5900 ultra).

Bye Fridger

[tech2000]

Hi Fridger.

Will this beautifull texture of yours be available for the public?
(My finger are itching to download this)

Bye, Anders

Anders,

I wrote everything that I can presently say about this matter already below my post above.

Of course these textures will NOT be for download at the Motherlode. I am currently evaluating various possibilities to make them available elsewhere...

Bye Fridger

Hi again Fridger.

Yes I've heard that you don't like the motherload, my question was abit fuzzy. I meant, is there any chance to get my hands on your awesome textures?

Or could you upload it to my private FTP server?

Bye, Anders

[t00fri]

Hi again Fridger.

Yes I've heard that you don't like the motherload, my question was abit fuzzy. I meant, is there any chance to get my hands on your awesome textures?

Or could you upload it to my private FTP server?

Bye, Anders

NO. I am exploring a solution of which ALL interested users weighting exquisite QUALITY more than "exhaustive quantity" will be able to profit.

Such a solution will also have a scope going way beyond my own present 64k texture set.

Let's say a TRUE alternative to the Motherlode , in all respects.

Bye Fridger

[t00fri]

Or could you upload it to my private FTP server?

Bye, Anders

Here is another possible solution: I might bring it to you in person . I will probably be for some days in Valparaiso during December...

Bye Fridger

[tech2000]

Or could you upload it to my private FTP server?

Bye, Anders

Here is another possible solution: I might bring it to you in person . I will probably be for some days in Valparaiso during December...

Bye Fridger

Well, its a long wait until December... but if you come to Valparaiso, give me a call so I can atleast pay for this nice texture with freash cup of java.

BTW, business or pleasure trip? Are you by any chance going to visit Hamburg bar in the Plaza de cultura?

Cheers, Anders

[t00fri]

Well, its a long wait until December... but if you come to Valparaiso, give me a call so I can atleast pay for this nice texture with freash cup of java.

BTW, business or pleasure trip? Are you by any chance going to visit Hamburg bar in the Plaza de cultura?

Cheers, Anders

Who knows where I will show up in the evening? During working hours I will be at Valparaiso University. Since I have nothing to sell ==> no "business" trips but rather "official" trips.



Bye Fridger

[BrainDead]

Who knows where I will show up in the evening?

You certainly know how to make a point Good Doctor.

Fabulous work.

[danielj]

Yes,but don??t understimate yourself.Your system is much better than mine.Only my video card is faster than you,but has only 128 MB of memory.You have a very fast HD(10000 rpm,I suppose) and your RAM memory is 3 GB,the triple of mine...
Anyway,I can??t use 100 Hz ,because if I did it,the screen become stretched and the planets and moon looks weird...
I think my system will run at 40-60 fps,and things will be a little better if I manage to get a 7600 GT 256 MB next week.
Do you know if the mesh,cloud and ring is related to the memory size?If I get an 256 MB video card,will I be able to display 8k rings,clouds and meshes?
Another question.The Geforce 6800 GS 256 MB is almost the same price as 7600 GT 256 MB.The 7600 GT is faster and newer than the 6800 GS,but the 6800 GS is 256 bit and has a bandwidht of 33,6 GB/s,while the 7600 GT is 128 bit and has a bandwidht of 22,4 GB/s.Which is the better choice to Celestia?



My texture set is much more optimized for performance than e.g. Flightspit's texture. That's what I was trying to argue above. So there is NO reason whatsoever why you should not see a very speedy performance with my tiles.

I get close to 100fps at all zoom levels with my new texture tiles, despite my card being older than yours (FC5900 ultra).

Bye Fridger[/quote]

[selden]

Anyway,I can??t use 100 Hz ,because if I did it,the screen become stretched and the planets and moon looks weird...

You should be able to adjust the monitor's horizontal and vertical size so they look OK. Most modern monitors remember the different adjustments for different refresh rates.

Do you know if the mesh,cloud and ring is related to the memory size?

They are not.

If I get an 256 MB video card,will I be able to display 8k rings,clouds and meshes?

No. The maximum texture size is limited by other features in the graphics hardware design.

Another question.The Geforce 6800 GS 256 MB is almost the same price as 7600 GT 256 MB. [...] Which is the better choice to Celestia?

The 7600 has additional OpenGL routines that the 6800 does not have. Celestia may take advantage of those routines in the future. The details of access to the graphics memory make no difference to Celestia.

[abramson]

Beautiful, Fridger! And all while I was still downloading the raw...

Note that the base texture is unshaded=flat.

Oh, I suspected that Fightspit's was shaded! But somehow he answered that it wasn't when I asked... I still like like it, Fightspit, yet unshaded is a better choice to use with a normalmap.

Cheers,

Guillermo
(in Buenos Aires for a few days...)

[Fightspit]

I think that I agree with you because I believed when I was a "newbie" in celestia that the word "shaded" represent a "3D effect" in base texture (NormalMap reproduce it on base texture) but this word means that some "shadows" appear near of montains.
So my textures are shaded and that why I noticed in the moon there are problems of shadows when Normal and Base Textures shaded are together...
I think t00fri can confirm it.

Sorry for my "little" bad english to explain this word
Thank you, abramson, to remind me what you have noticed.