Giant Planets

[Gibbon]

This tutorial explains how to make BIG planets, of course this can also be used to make smaller planets as well

Firstly, I opened up the folder that holds the kind of planet i wanted to enlarge (in this case data\solars\planets\planet_earth\') I then copied the existing sph file (planet_earth_3000.sph) and renamed it using the radius of the planet i wanted to create (i was making a planet of radius 50000, so i named it 'planet_earth_50000.sph'.

Next I used utf-edit to open this new file and found the node called radius, I then edited the data in this node as a float array and changed it to 50000.000000.

Then I opened solararch.ini and made a copy of the 'planet_earth_3000' entry and changed it:

[Solar]
nickname = planet_earth_50000 <-- changed this
ids_name = 60203
ids_info = 60204
type = PLANET
DA_archetype = solar\planets\planet_earth\planet_earth_50000.sph <--and this
material_library = solar\planets\planet_earth.txm
material_library = solar\planets\detailmaps\detailmap_rock01.txm
material_library = solar\planets\detailmaps\detailmap_ocean.txm
material_library = solar\planets\atmosphere.txm
material_library = solar\planets\planet_earth\planet_earth.mat
mass = 1000000
solar_radius = 50000 <--- and this
shape_name = NNM_SM_MEDIUM_FOREST_MOON

I then created a new system and added this:

[Object]
nickname = LI06_planet_1
ids_name = 524290
spin = 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000
rotate = 0, 0, 0
pos = 394, 0, 0
archetype = planet_earth_50000 <-- note this
atmosphere_range = 50500 <-- and this
burn_color = 255, 222, 160
ids_info = 66069

This planet hasnt yet got a death zone yet for testing purposes

[jusefd]

dude, you really are amazing , i just did that, and it really looked x3'ish www.xfire.com/profile/jusefd/screenshots/?view#106430295

[Gibbon]

The real trick is to use custom textures and then add atmospheres which if you do it right, really does look cool. There is a way to add seperate moving cloud layers although i don't know how to do that but i've seen it done

[jusefd]

ye, like in Crossfire. right now , i'm actually experimenting in creating an X3 reunion envoirement, the only downside is that our custom textures for ships dont support bloom which really is a bummer for our mod... when you are bored, you're welcome to join our useless cause

[Gibbon]

Yes, i was thinking of Crossfire. Thanks for the offer but i have enough trouble motivating myself to continue with my other mod. Not enough interest. Bloom you can enable by using ENB plugin.

[jusefd]

oh really, thats cool, i'll tell the others.


god!.... stupid monkey banana is annoying


EDIT: well, thanks for the ENB plugin, but that wasnt the problem, the problem was that everytime when we use that plugin with some of the models, it crashes, probably something to do with the textures or something, if you had any idea why, help would be welcome