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

[mr.WHO]

Hahaha, i have a very bad news for you mr. Who, the terran sectors are in the works, i hate the black background and finally im applying a new background for all terran sectors. Neptune will look like this:

Shame, I really like the dark Neptune - ir really gives you a feeling that you're at the edge of Solar System.


BTW:
LooManckStrat's Legacy - there is NO light source at all which with heavy asteroid field is a great recipe for major FUBAR. Please add very (I mean very very) weak light source.

[connary]

I tried this mod and it looks really great.

I have something to add too: Brennan's Triumph is located in the Alpha Centauri system. It is a binary star system but I only see one star. (It has actually three stars. Two large and one small star)

The first info about this Fallen. There aren't any info in the description about the location of the system. It only describes the vicious and dangerous it is. I changed the pink nice look of vanilla for a very vicious looking sector, plenty of red gases emanating from the nearest lava planet. Due the density of the gas cloud you cant see the far nebula. You can role the fact that the nebula its hidding behind the planet, i think.
Evidently if there are any consensus that this sector needs another treatment i will take another approach.

[connary]

Hahaha, i have a very bad news for you mr. Who, the terran sectors are in the works, i hate the black background and finally im applying a new background for all terran sectors. Neptune will look like this:

Shame, I really like the dark Neptune - ir really gives you a feeling that you're at the edge of Solar System.


BTW:
LooManckStrat's Legacy - there is NO light source at all which with heavy asteroid field is a great recipe for major FUBAR. Please add very (I mean very very) weak light source.

I never said that it will be easy traverse a pitch black sector. Its a trap sector in every point of view. I want you to feel the pain. Like i said before if there are some testers consensus that a sector needs another approach i will make the changes needed.

If you have a minimal knowledge about galactic editor i can show you how to change the Terran sectors to standard black backgrounds.

[connary]

Was above to post about the sector east of Zyarth's but got beaten to the punch.

Music plays fine for me in Preachers Void and Brennan's Triumph.

Havn't noticed any other sectors other than Akeela's with excessive star lighting so far, just took a little time to get used to the change.

Possible - Stars not quite right in Reservoir of Tranquility? They seem to have a diferent look to the rest of the universe, but maybe intentional.

Another good finding, Reservoir of tranquillity needs to be worked. A red gas here dont seems adequate. Also the stars dont have the resolution of the others.

[Beermachine]

I like the black sectors personally, makes sense for the pirates to set up a base in a sector that's perfect for ambushing ships.

The environment as well as enemy ships should be a danger to the player, just means that rather than running through every sector in the game full speed without a worry slowing down could be a good idea in some...

[mr.WHO]

The environment as well as enemy ships should be a danger to the player, just means that rather than running through every sector in the game full speed without a worry slowing down could be a good idea in some...

That reminds me not to fly with supertuned fighter on full speed in heavy fog sector , <asteroid coming out of the fog, hard turn, shi.... dead>

[TrixX]

Looking good mate, love the dark black sectors and the Xenon ones.

Look forward to a patch update

[Igor.tverd]

Been warping around enjoying the much improved universe. No bugs to add to the ones already mentioned, just couple of suggestion:

1. Might I suggest you add a destroyed West gate to Elenas Fortune + a deactivated East gate to Olmankentars Treaty. I know it has nothing to do with graphics, but fits the lore perfectly.
2. If you are planing to make a version(s) of lava planet, Consecrated Fire couple use an upgraded planet with big volcanoes. Perhaps move the planet closer, or make it bigger as well.

[The-Last-Communist]

realy good , but
the fogparanid textur needs to be redone (maybe its me but it seems cut on 3 levels)
all sectors are gr8 simply amazing !
and also i would say that tarka sun , needs its orbeting sun back , and the new sol system texture is good but the old one was better . but it is amazing ! and iv finaly gone back to explore an univers that was getting old! thanks again

[Moonrat]

Here’s my first feedback, all comments purely personal and meant as constructive I hope…great job keep it up. I've not listed all sectors, only those with observations. If you're not sure of any of the comments just drop me a PM for a more long winded excuse regarding my "input"

X:TC 3.0 + BP : 1440x900, Gamma 127, FOV 90

• Uranus - Fog good, planet way too bright.
  Uranus 2 - Occasional flashing between levels of brightness on rings depending on direction + with VE Goggles rings have “change” mis-match part way around.
  Uranus 3 - No problem with rings as per Uranus 2 – dark boundary step on shadowed planet side?
  Pluto - Make sun slightly more yellow? (a problem in a few Terran sectors)
  Titan – Land mass rotating (too) faster than clouds, might look better the other way around or slower?
  Jupiter – too bright and orange. Sun needs to be more yellow + two of the (lower) atmos. bands are identical and in matching position.
  Saturn 2 - Sun more yellow.
  Jupiter 2 – (see band comment against Jupiter) sun more yellow.
  Saturn 3 – Too bright, sun more yellow? Has dark edge on side furthest from sun.
  Jupiter 3 – Brightness OK, (see bands comment above).
  Mars – Sun more yellow.
  Venus – Sun more yellow, no cloud movements? It’d be nice with an atmosphere + surface detail.
  Mercury – Make sun more yellow + very much bigger (poss. better detail on planet surface?).
  Moon – background nebula over lays moon surface, no cloud movement on distant earth.
  Earth – Kept getting whacked by you know who, didn’t have a proper look!!
  4 Unknown sectors (West of Oort Cloud) – All identical?
  Menelaus Oasis – Part of nebula over planet.
  Sanctity of Corruption – Planet too bright + missing sun?
  Company Strength – Planet (without shadow) too bright/pale (change?).
  Bright Profit – Wow!
  Contorted Dominion – Fantastic!
  Pontiflex’ Seclusion – Tone down red lighting a little?
  Consecrated Fire – Really nice.
  Unholy Descent – Bright light cut off edge from nebula nr. planet too straight/linear.
  Unknown Sector x2 –(W of Unholy Descent) – Great, really different approach!!
  Spring of Belief – Increase visibility a little, lots of ghost roids’.
  Priest Refuge - too similar to Cardinal’s Domain.
  Reservoir of Tranquillity – Fog too “blocky + background has “cut” at edge (facing South East) in at least one place.
  Great Reef – Move one moon (further away)? The current two are too similar in size & position.
  Mists of Elysium – Medium sized moon has strange bright patch which fades as you zoom in.
  Dark Waters – Two dark green (nebula background) "bars" on blue planet look odd, move planet slightly?

[Beermachine]

Covered nearly all of the map except for the terran sectors and plot related ones, primarily looking at the stars. No other bugs found, and only some very trivial things that are hardly worth mentioning:

- Patriarchs keep and Dukes Citadel for slight brightness reduction? Very border line (especially Dukes) and I don't mind them how they are.
- Faded Dreams. Perhaps a very slightly different shade of red for one of the star group colours.
- Zyarth's Dominion, Pontifex Realm, Profit Share, Antigone Memorial, Treasure chest, Tharkas Sun, Cho's Defeat and Patriarchs Retreat (all share the same/similar star pattern/colour). Maybe a slightly less bright white star? I quite like it though as it signifies being in deep space away from the main solar systems.
- Ocean of Fantasy. Blue halo at top right of planet, possibly not right for a dead looking planet with no atmosphere. Could be some domed atlantis like civilisation or other mystery though.
- Unholy Descent. Nebula on planet doesn't look quite right (I like it's look though), can't work out exactly what's wrong with it.

As I said, so minor and subjective that most likely not worth mentioning.

So many great little touches everywhere, sections of the map giving the impression your travelling through a closely packed solar system / star cluster, others that your travelling great distances between gates, and a few that have half a solar system in them or high orbit of the planet. Was making a list of the sectors I really liked, gave up as it was getting far too long.

Love the Xenon section that gives the impression that they have destroyed the planets / suns into small chunks of asteroids, and that your flying through one big planetary graveyard.

Some of the southern sections are truly outstanding, the two unknowns next to Unholy Descent are jaw dropping and really give the impression they are both within one big gas filled asteroid belt.

Like how the darker sectors highlight the engines of the ships better (Xenon P's look great), and trail mods looks superb in those sectors also.

[mr.WHO]

In unknown sector, west to Unholy Descent there is a Paranid Carrack M7 - normally I wouldn't bother but I noticed that you had it on your screenshots so I figured out that this might have something with Immersive.

If Yes, then I recoment swithing to Deimos.

[Sorkvild]

Here's my brief feedback based on a few sectors I visited so far.
Bravo for Connary at first for creating the immersive environments:)

****
The SOlar System. There is a sun issue in most of the Sol systems. WIth this greenish nebula things look strange. The previous look was better in my opinion.


Moon - Sun is too cold bright while the light ambience almost orange. Earth is too large (still stock) when seen from the Moon.

Venus - Very good planet surface. No rotation which is GOOD - Venus rotates once every 243 Earth days!

Jupiter - Clouds and layers look very good!

Saturn - Bit too bright but I think it's due to Glow/shaders.

Mars - looks good. Is it possible to replace these moons with two larger asteroids ? http://www.outerspaceuniverse.org/media ... deimos.jpg

Uranus - Too bright (should be steel grey), looks more like Neptune. Too much clouds in sector.

Uranus 2 - Strange nebula here, why ? Flickering rings.

Uranus 3 - I find rings kinda off like placed in the upper parts of the planet instead in the middle.

Titan - Huge fat yellow sun (stock ego). This guy rotates like crazy. Too fast. Day on titan equals 15 days on Earth. Slow down dude.

OOrt, Kuiper Belt, Unknown - Ok, distant, far away from the Sun, nothing out of ordinary which is ok for me. A background from this sectors should be in all Sol sectors with no fancy nebula's and clouds.

Asteroid Belt - Huge sun
*****

Other sectors. Only visited 7 of them personally I'm not a fan of tiny millions of glimmering stars on the backgrounds. The rest look awesome and unique.

X534 - Very hot and clouded. I love it. Flying through requires constant attention, these Xenons may pop up in any moment.

Menelaus Paradise - yes, yes, yes. Just like I imagined all Boron sectors. Dreamy and hazy. It's really immersive when navigating through this sector. And name of the planet - Oceania fits perfectly.

Ocean of Fantasy - Look of this sector really goes well with it's description. Absolutely amazing.

X597 - I couldn't believe what I see here. These huge chunks really give a claustrophobic feeling to this sector. Planet here - not necessary. The remains of the planet are these huge chunks seen in background. Stars seem to sit on these, not necessary.

X596 - Welcome to hell only to see this pulsating and alive sun. Frightening awesomeness.

Maelstrom - Atmosphere/description 10/10. Guess I'm not the only one who saw the station 50km far :/

Loomanckstrat Legacy - This place is really dark. I you look carefully you will see a unlit, dark planet. Excellent but I'd like to see even less stars in the background

[connary]

Wel, i cant do miracles about the brightness of some planets, its dependent of the reflective material of the mesh but i will try to make some trick with the texture.

Sorkvild, the background on X597 was changed by mistake. This rocky blue dont go in this zone. The two consecutive xenon sectors must share the same vicious red fog. Thanks for the info.

I will start to check every point, thanks.

[Beermachine]

X597 - Planet here - not necessary. The remains of the planet are these huge chunks seen in background. Stars seem to sit on these, not necessary.

Agree with removing the planet to add to the planet destroyed by Xenon effect. Edited - Just saw it was not intented, ignore. IMO definitely worth reusing this background in other sectors (aswell as the 2xunknowns) with possible different colour / lighting, it really is immersive to being in a big asteroid belt / destroyed planet.

Loomanckstrat Legacy - This place is really dark. I you look carefully you will see a unlit, dark planet. Excellent but I'd like to see even less stars in the background

Agree also. Think that some of the dark sectors (Loom's being the main one) should have slightly less contrast between the black shapes in space that are objects and the background stars. Lesser star density / illuminence seems a good way to do it.

Additional - To answer question below, just browse this thread, there are many screenshots, but my advice is to not spoil yourself so you have the wonder of exploring this "new" universe for the first time in a real game.

[riky69]

Some screenshots?

[connary]

To the Moonrat post:

- Fixed Menelaus Oasis nebula over planet. Some new changes.
- Fixed Sanctity of corruption planet and sun position
- Fixed Company strength, changed fake bright planet, urgh ugly one
- Fixed Pontifex seclusion, toned down red light (cut by half), im with you, excessive
- Fixed Unholy descent, rearrangement and change of planet
- Fixed Spring of belief, I cant fight with ghosting of things, long range detection its not an option. The solution was change the position of sun to a near eclipse with the planet. The dark side of planet hide the ghosting.
- Fixed Priest Refuge and all the surrounding sectors that don't had been worked. I changed the background to the deep reed generic of this lands. I only want the annoying red gas in special vicious places. I made some changes to make different the experience in this sectors. I added a second sun in Priest refuge due its huge quantity of solar power plants there
- Fixed moons on Great reef. More changes to this sector
- Fixed moons on Mist of Elisium. More changes to this sector

Dark waters and near sectors need a second revision
Solar System needs a hummmmm.....needs a new system

About screenshots i think its better do not spoil the mod. If any tester needs to show me a rare thing with a screenshot please send me a private msg.

[riky69]

If your final goal is to increase the environments variety take a look at this link
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... ht=turrets

[mr.WHO]

@riky69:
I think you missuderstanded, it's a background mod, not a ship mod.

[riky69]

I apologize to connary. I made this proposal perhaps for my little selfish. I have no idea how to mount these turrets in the game and I did not even have time to learn how to do it. I still think connary probably would know how to do and i still think my idea would be welcome by most of you.. or not?