custom sky suggestion

[superon]

thinking it would be great to have an option for "custom sky" for use in alternate "dimensions": custom milkyway .png maybe custom planets and custom satellites too?

[Abastro]

Custom textures per dimension? Cool, it would be added on the next version. But custom planets feature would take time to be added since it is very tricky.

[superon]

i figure the planets would be a pain, i had the mag limit set to 0.1 (because setting it the zero made the milky way disappear too, although planets are still visible) and milky way brightness set to 2, also noticed the client-side "contrast" option which really helps making the transition between night and day smoother. noting that the milky way looks to be and image which spans the whole sky other stars and planets have their positions calculated separately. adding a "custom sky" option (similar to the milky way overlay) would make a great difference to anyone that has mystcraft or any alt-dimension creating mods.

[Abastro]

You mean that sky overlay which can be also seen on day would be good?

[superon]

well, when you put it like that, how could it not be awesome?:)

[Abastro]

Dimension-dependent textures are added as features on the latest versions. Please reopen this issue if you have additional suggestions related with sky texture customization.

[superon]

cooolbeans, well since you ask, i'm thinking a static horizon layer would also be really neat, the idea is to add distant mountains or such, and possibly do something about the sky visible through the ocean (unless that's actually fixed by the "B:Hide_Objects_Under_Horizon=true"... it does appear to be);)

EDIT: also perhaps less of a suggestion and more of a query, why not use a flat image for the moon? seems to me it would be simpler, quicker and more pliable for options (moon resizing with little loss of quality). accurate moon "wobble" isn't really a big deal to me... might seem "accurate" to have a moon the size it is but that's only accurate to our time-slot here on earth, precambrian moon might have something to say about that.. suggesting a moon resize option to be super.

[Sunconure11]

There is a setting to change the moon size, but if you want lunar cycles to end up being changed as a result of it being closer or farther, that is currently not in this mod as far as I am aware. Look for any settings dealing with moon size, and toy around with them.

[superon]

ahh, yes, i thought there was but couldn't find it in-game, upon rechecking i see it's in the server "common" section;) thanks

[superon]

my inability to find the option to resize the moon aside, the aesthetics would still benefit greatly as i imagine it if the moon was flattened. as it is it looks like you're using a sphere to raycast for phases. also the horizon suggestion is still a solid idea;)

[Abastro]

@superon No, moon is sphere in real, so it should be rendered as sphere. I'd not follow vanilla mechanics there.

[superon]

yes, the moon is a sphere (roughly speaking), this is no reason to render it as such though:/ if you really want it spherical you could try using a smooth/interpolated mesh?

even so, a more accurate analogue can be created with a flat image using the vanilla mechanics than using an image mapped onto the surface of a "sphere", not so many calculations required here. also adding things like "blue moons" could be made additional much easier.

i think unless you're intending to add heavenly bodies that reflect off the surface of the moon (super bright UFOs, or super-close supernova perhaps) or being able to travel/move around it (to view it from other angles) i fail to see how modelling a spherical moon isn't just making things more difficult for yourself and the computer handling the graphics, sorry.

either way, we may still disagree here.
what are your thoughts about the added horizon layer?

[Abastro]

No.. blue moon is not easy even with flat image. The problem was totally not about rendering. Also I already applied smooth/interpolated mesh, the effect you saying might from refractions. there would be viewpoint planet settings too.

Anyway. I am positive with horizon layer. Maybe with next update? EDIT: If you are still interested in this issue, please 'reopen this issue'. There is button saying 'Reopen issue', but why are you not doing it?

[superon]

ahhh cool, does that mean one of your other mods which lets one view the moon as if from a different planet? if so then that is nifty indeed;) or was that just meaning getting a corrected rotation depending on Earthly latitude?

happy to read you're considering the horizon layer. i feel i should add another suggestion so how about adding animation to halos via tweening images, fading transparency and/or revolving the single image?

[superon]

also maybe a few cloud layers (all sorts of different clouds that may appear randomly or set by weather), sounds simple though probably not.

[Abastro]

Cloud layers are very difficult, and there are already a mod controlling that part. So I'll not work on it. (If you want to keep discussion, reopen 'this issue'.)

[PitchBright]

@superon What makes you think the moon is 3D?

https://github.com/Abastro/StellarSky/blob/1.7-v0.1.25/src/main/java/stellarium/render/CelestialLayerMoon.java#L116

It's 2D, with the texture meshed to fit the circle (not sphere). I believe 117,120,123,126 are the 4 corners of the moon.

There's only X & Y coords there, no Z coords (therefore, no "depth", hence "not a sphere").

[superon]

hey hi PitchBright, now you should know better than to think i know how to understand that code enough to relate meaning;) thanks for posting it though, always an interesting read... i initially thought it's 3D because of the appearance of the texture used: