[MOD] Immersive environments 1.1 [09-11-2011]

[connary]

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IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS 1.1
NEEDS A NEW RESTART

Use at your own risk.

The final version than I can get for now. If nothing goes wrong its the final version of the entire game with the exception of the ANH sectors and Aldrin 2 (not a big deal imho).
I decided to release the mod today cause I want to compete with Skyrim, hahahaha.

MEDIAFILE 104 MB
DOWNLOAD




Thanks to all the tester and the patient pilots out there. SEE YOU IN SPACE


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SCREENSHOT EXAMPLES FROM BETA1 VERSION

Some sector examples (images taken in most cases with 90 degrees vision cone to see more background, this can distort a bit the edges of the image):

TERRAN SECTORS



PLUTO
The more distant planets receive less light now to create a better atmosphere.

URANUS
With some subtle planet reflection

MARS
With not so subtle red reflection to add dramatism



X SECTORS


OPPOSITE RED SECTORS (Rosette nebula)



DARK HORIZON SECTORS (M78-and-NGC2071)



MIDNIGHTBLUE SECTORS (Whirpool galaxy)
Now yellow gas, works perfect with Teladi imho


GREENVOID SECTORS (Pelican nebula)
You can see the Teladi have yellow window lights now giving a little more personality to the race using the same color that his metal designs


BURNING HORIZON SECTORS (Milky way)


STANDARD BLACK SECTORS (Well, black XD)
This shows the difference between my concepts and vanilla ones.
BEFORE
All the vanilla sectors i checked looks like this (Maximum level of white light):


AFTER
I changed the luminance depending of the sector. One example can look like this (A less intrusive bright white light):

I suppose the vanilla concept want to help players to detect easily rocks and other floating structures but i dont want to help you at all XD. Now the black sectors vary from pitch black (use your sensors) to the original white intense light.

GREENSPOT SECTORS (Omega Nebula)


DEEPRED SECTORS (Spitzer nebula)


WHITENEXUS SECTORS (Orion nebula)


GREEN OUTLAND SECTORS (Butler Nebula)
The watery house of the Boron


BLUE WELL SECTORS


FOG BLUE SECTORS
Now its blue not green. The fog here looks like a dense vapor, not like little floating nebulas.


DEEP BLUE SECTORS (Noctilucent clouds)
Noctilucent clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the "ragged-edge" of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice.


BLUE NEXUS SECTORS


BLUE DISTANCE SECTORS (Hydrogen clouds in the Carina Nebula)


CYAN CORNER SECTORS (ETA Carinae)


BRENNAN'S TRIUMPH SECTOR


PURPLE OUTLANDS (Bow shock near a star)
A bow shock is created in space when two streams of gas collide. The young star LL Ori Emits a solar wind, a stream of charged particles moving rapidly outward from the star. The material in the wind collides with the gas evaporating away from the center of the Orion Nebula, creating the crescent-shaped collision area



PLANET NIGHTLIGHTS
Screenshots taken with enhanced goggles X2 active


KHAAK SECTORS (Mammatus clouds)


KHAAK HIVE (Mammatus clouds)


RED DAWN SECTORS


XENON SECTORS
In fact there arent a background for the xenon sectors but the idea is to bring some coherence to the general look based on the idea that xenon look for shelter far from a solar energy and any kind of advanced biological life. Planets with nightlights has been changed, luminance decreased. Pitch black sectors, behind a planet (dark side), some original ones......


NEW PLANET RINGS
Filtered texture, double size


RED BORDERLAND SECTORS


GREENEYE SECTORS
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[e1team]

A very nice looking shots actualy! Will it require a new start?

[Robert Foster]

is this for a 360° view.?
or it this just a small section in the sector view.?
Its beautiful, and really cool, but if its only for a section of the sector.
then whats the point.
Not to piss on your parade, but many people do these backgrounds,
and when you look all around, the design is in a very small part of the sector.

I would like to see a full 360° view of these atmosphere's in the sectors
and not just small section of the sector.

But its really cool looking though.
Too bad someone did not figure out a way to make them move either.
would be really awesome to see backgrounds move.
and don't forget sharper stars with some glittering.

[connary]

e1team
MensajePublicado: Sab, 26. Dic 09, 00:16 Asunto:
A very nice looking shots actualy! Will it require a new start?

Well i dont know well this engine but i dont think so. Basically this mod changes DDS textures that dont need a new game for sure and also modify the X3_universe.pck that add the new lightning and repositioning of suns. I cant see any problem with a save game.

Robert Foster
MensajePublicado: Sab, 26. Dic 09, 01:49 Asunto:
is this for a 360° view.?
or it this just a small section in the sector view.?

Small section of the sector?¿?¿?¿?¿? No, no, no Robert
The backgrounds affect entirely the sector view in 360 degrees. The new nebulas are huge and you will need to turn your nose to see all the details. Also the lightning affects all objects in view, evidently.

[Robert Foster]

@connary

Ok, ill download it then, as soon as its available.
I've downloaded a few backgrounds before from other people, and
their backgrounds where great, but only affected either just one side of the sector,
or a very small portion of the sector, this is why I asked.

If these take up the entire sector of a 360° view,
then this is for me

Because the original backgrounds from egosoft suck. (sorry ego) but its the truth.
And their stars are blurry and backgrounds all muddy.
Even when the graphic settings are set to High on everything.

and thanks for the quick response.

Happy Holidays..!

[mark_a_condren]

Looking forward to trying this out when you release it.

If it adds to the atmospher of the game, then thats as important as scripts and mods that let you do things.

Thanks for the effort you have gone to and i hope you keep it up.

Regards

MarCon

[Elffin]

V nice work sir - much more subtle and beautiful...

[cnecktor]

This looks awesome how dose it effect performance?

[e1team]

It's getting better and better... Keep it up!

[HalcyonSpirit]

I like the idea, and your samples do look fantastic. I especially like that you seem to be adding in reflected light from nearby planets. But from the pictures you've posted I'm not sure I'll be using it. I'm someone who prefers scientific accuracy when possible (allowing for some artistic license, of course), so if you're not looking to keep it within those particular bounds, take my criticism with a grain of salt.

One of my main issues is with the Terran sectors; too much yellow nebula/gas/goop in the background, it just doesn't jive with what we know about our solar system. When at any of the planets, most of the sky is going to be taken up by black, starry sky, while the Milky Way band should be mostly white light with some color thrown in as well. There just won't be a large mass of nebula in the background of any Terran sector. And while the Sun is a "yellow" star, the light it emits, like many other stars, is mostly white with a hint of yellow.

As far as the X sectors, do try to strike a balance between highly stylized and relatively empty. There should be plenty of sectors that have virtually nothing in the way of background nebulae, plenty with a bit, and a few with 360 degree Nebula-Vision(TM). Also keep in mind that most yellow and blue stars are going to look white and only have some yellow/blue in their emissions; red stars are usually the ones that have a lot of visibly-colored light in their emissions (red, naturally).

I definitely encourage you to take artistic licenses whenever you want, but keep in mind that going overboard will turn off some people, particularly people like me who like to have some semblance of known reality in artistic work. If that's not what you're going for, that's not a problem, I just won't be using it.

Good luck!

[Shadow dream]

well it's hard to find a perfect match between realism and good looking one thing for sure: the good looking part is there I hope those backgrounds will replace my vanilla-ones soon

Shadow

[e1team]

well it's hard to find a perfect match between realism and good looking one thing for sure: the good looking part is there I hope those backgrounds will replace my vanilla-ones soon

Shadow

nuf said.

[connary]

I like the idea, and your samples do look fantastic. I especially like that you seem to be adding in reflected light from nearby planets. But from the pictures you've posted I'm not sure I'll be using it. I'm someone who prefers scientific accuracy when possible (allowing for some artistic license, of course), so if you're not looking to keep it within those particular bounds, take my criticism with a grain of salt.

One of my main issues is with the Terran sectors; too much yellow nebula/gas/goop in the background, it just doesn't jive with what we know about our solar system. When at any of the planets, most of the sky is going to be taken up by black, starry sky, while the Milky Way band should be mostly white light with some color thrown in as well. There just won't be a large mass of nebula in the background of any Terran sector. And while the Sun is a "yellow" star, the light it emits, like many other stars, is mostly white with a hint of yellow.

As far as the X sectors, do try to strike a balance between highly stylized and relatively empty. There should be plenty of sectors that have virtually nothing in the way of background nebulae, plenty with a bit, and a few with 360 degree Nebula-Vision(TM). Also keep in mind that most yellow and blue stars are going to look white and only have some yellow/blue in their emissions; red stars are usually the ones that have a lot of visibly-colored light in their emissions (red, naturally).

I definitely encourage you to take artistic licenses whenever you want, but keep in mind that going overboard will turn off some people, particularly people like me who like to have some semblance of known reality in artistic work. If that's not what you're going for, that's not a problem, I just won't be using it.

Good luck!

I understand you perfectly but finally playing with the editor i decided to open a little the graphic possibilities of the game expanding the colour palette and the fantasy themes.
One of the things that i dont like from other replacers is the fact that they use real photos (copy/paste) with minimal photo tweaking. I thing that the images need a lot of work to get the visual depth needed for a engine like this. Need to balance the nebula colors with the base colors and the desired final ambience of color and light to get a cohesive result, also clearing all the stars that fill the satellite images.
The inclusion of some techniques allow me to play in the fantasy way of things without breaking the sense of reality of the environment. I maintain the coloration of the majority of the sectors. Also i try to maintain the size and position of the original nebulas to avoid possible collision with planets (nebulas in front of planets).
I maintain too the empty sectors with the addition of a less intrusive white light in the middle of nowhere (very dark sectors).
In other side for me the terran sectors need a clear differentiation from the X vanilla sectors to generate the emotional change that demands reach such a important places. A massive amount of stars that we can see in the real milky only brings a blurred surrounding due how the engine compress the images. The stars appear always distorted.

Evidently if you search for a replacer that brings a real approach that how we can see thing in space this isnt for you. Basically cause i dont know how we see a nebula into the space. The real images that we see are coloured images by a NASA artist using a palette depending of the elements involved. I most fond right now to create emotional images that allow the imagination of the players to fly to distant galaxies.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Definitely understandable. Don't misunderstand, I can appreciate the artistic license to achieve the "fantasy" look you're going for. I even actively enjoy it in this game. I have nothing against all that. Hearing that you're keeping the balance of the sectors is great; sometimes people go overboard with enthusiasm and make everything as complex and highly colored as possible, ruining the feel, but it doesn't sound like you're going in that direction. I am still uneasy about the amount of yellow in the Terran sectors, but if that's only a portion of the sector, I might be able to live with it.

[Robert Foster]

All of these are just fine,
they have deep rich colors and bright colors too.
Way better than the vanilla. way better.

I just hope I can also use this inside other
mods like Transcend-II, DDTC and others.


@connary
can this be also used as a fake patch, so it can be used with other mods.?