Planets and polys

[Tethys]

So reading the recent discussion on the old BC max poly topic got me thinking; Is it possible to create a higher quality planet model? As it is now, when you get very close to planets, you can see they are not round, but have "faces" due to being a lower quality model (especially very large planets). I would like to know if it is possible, if it has already been attempted, and if there are high poly planetary models available for download. I know there are high res textures, this is not what I am looking for. I have textures covered. Many, many textures...

Additionally, I would like to know; if there are no high quality planetary models available, and the project is possible, would someone be willing to create a smoother planetary model that I can test for stability and performance in BC? Thanks.

[King Class Scout]

JLstudios got around THAT problem with the delta quadrant pack.  they made the planets as stations, and they look gorgeous, even now.  i'd have a look there to see how big those are.

[Tethys]

Thanks, I do have that pack, courtesy of Mr. Larkin (thanks man!). I had successfully retextured a mesh of some kind of anomaly or wormhole in KM, added it to the shiplist and to construct, modified the build iteration, and it can "build" random aliens ships instantly (basically a simulated wormhole travel). I'm going to make one for the Borg as well (transwarp conduit), with some delays on ship "travel" time so that ships dont continuously flood the set.

I understand that planets can be increased in size easily in the planet/system py files. However this is only part of my inquiry. The other part is of the overall smoothness of the sphere itself. If you look closely in BC you can see flat faces. It's a minor annoyance, so I probably won't spend very much time on it if it gives me trouble. I'm still fiddling with orbit values as well; I need to insert a few checks and an equation to adjust the ships orbit dynamically (calculations will ideally be based upon the "actual" planet size in the planet/system py files)

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check it out when I have a break from more important KM projects ;)

[King Class Scout]

I can tell you right now a new planet nif would help.  the original is almost exclusively isosceles triangles when unwrapped and is a bit too square.

[Morgan]

The planet .nifs for the DS9FX planets are more rounded.  You can simply edit them in NifSkope to replace the stock ones.

[Tethys]

I suppose I cannot just copy and rename the nif and give it a texture? I thought the planets texture folder locations were scripted somewhere, and the texture mapping is referenced in the nif? I have replaced and edited countless textures, but never got into modeling, so I never had to map a texture to a model. Sphere maps in my experience are easy to replace as long as the texture aspect ratio remains consistent.

[King Class Scout]

oh look, I'm actually needed!

basically, you export a copy of the UV for the item in question, and simply drop texture over the top in the correct size.  if you goof the ratios, it blanks out.

the planet textures are under Environment in the base game

that reminds me, we need a proper unwrap for Pluto and Charon, now that we have the actual appearance.

[Morgan]

I suppose I cannot just copy and rename the nif and give it a texture?

Actually you can!

I thought the planets texture folder locations were scripted somewhere, and the texture mapping is referenced in the nif?

It's not any different than ships.  Just open the NIF in NifSkope, rename the texture to one of the stock ones, and overwrite the original NIF corresponding to it.  I did this with all the stock planet NIFs and had no problems.

[Tethys]

It's not any different than ships.  Just open the NIF in NifSkope, rename the texture to one of the stock ones, and overwrite the original NIF corresponding to it.  I did this with all the stock planet NIFs and had no problems.

I see, this is nice. I had a look inside a .nif with my hex editor and found the location for the associated TGA texture file. I probably will not need NifSkope for this process unless I wish to significantly lengthen the TGA filenames. I will do some tests to see which DS9FX .nif has the best performance/quality (unless someone here already knows) and use that as a base for all HQ .nifs. Eventually, I may create a mutator that will switch from HQ .nif to Std .nif if players wish to remain with the stock models or are experiencing performance issues. Unrelated; I did somehow get a planet model into the ship list, it's some type of Borg planet that I think came with the DQP. And a nonfunctioning wormhole "base" that constructs alien ships.

[Morgan]

The DS9FX NIFs don't have any performance issues at all - they've been in use since as far back as 3.0.  If you're not encountering performance problems in any of the DS9FX systems, then you're not going to have problems using those planet NIFs to replace the stock ones.

[Tethys]

I rarely play QB. I have played DS9 in limited capacity. It was a long time ago, on a computer far far away

I can't recall any performance issues at the time. If you say there are no issues, then there are probably no issues. So I will pick the one with the longest texture name and begin the replacement process. Thanks for all the info.

[Morgan]

I rarely play QB. I have played DS9 in limited capacity. It was a long time ago, on a computer far far away

I can't recall any performance issues at the time. If you say there are no issues, then there are probably no issues. So I will pick the one with the longest texture name and begin the replacement process. Thanks for all the info.

Anytime man!