How to create Planet Textures?

from Sins Forums
Hi there,
I´d like to create some new planet types and therefor it is very useful to use some other textures!
So I have a lot of Planet textures from another game, but I´ll have to rework them.
I´ve noticed that thare are always two textures for one planet type, one ends with _cl the other one with _da.
what are the differences?Also the texures seem to be very transparent, the gas giants are a good example, but ingame the look totaly different from the textures?  What else do I have to considder? ETC.

Any help and comment are very welcome, a basic tuorial would be nice?

Thanx in advance

Greetz

Dr.Zod

3,408 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Tutorial to make your own planets Here.

As for the _cl and _da, not sure what they stand for, but _cl is the light side of the planet, and _da is the dark side of the planet.

The planet textures also have an Alpha channel, which seems to effect its reflectivity. White will reflect light, good for the oceans, ice caps, and snow capped mountains. Black is non-reflective, grass and forests etc. Grey is in between.

Planets also have a cloud layer, which is defined in their file. At the moment they all use the default 'PlanetCloudLayer'. I have made a custom one for my next mod, and after that I'm going to redo most of the cloud layers, so they are different for every planet. These have no Alpha channel, but the darker the texture, the less visible. Completely black would be clear sky, and white would be total thick cloud cover.

I'm not sure what you mean by transparency, no planet should be opaque.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Thanx Uzii,

that was quiet helpfull.
With transparency I meant the texture itself, but ingame the Planets look ok.
I use the free program Paint.net, is there a way to seperate the layers like the alpha channel? What prog do you use.

Thanx again for your help Uzii

Greetz

Dr.Zod
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Photoshop CS2. I recommend it highly, takes days to get used to, but there are plenty of tutorials out for it on the web. You can use it for simple stuff, like the alpha channel, or really complex stuff with crazy blending effects and what not. I'll PM you details.