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

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Mon, 4. Jan 10, 23:36

Wow... I'm loving these screenshots... awesome stuff here can't wait until the mod is complete

Gripen · Post by **Gripen** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 00:12

djrygar wrote:I am not kidding.

I loaded it and there is:
<alter_sector>, params are: background, size, population, musicid, security

and second: <load_map>, description of it: "Loads data from a map file into current universe"

also there is whole set of commands like <create_planet>, <create_sun> and they might be useable - I think x3_universe.xml can be loaded and parsed as any other file. So, it seems doable. But never been playing with that so cannot be sure.

Go ahead then, do magic! The MD makes my head spin

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 00:12

Requiemfang wrote:Wow... I'm loving these screenshots... awesome stuff here can't wait until the mod is complete

What he said...

djrygar · Post by **djrygar** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 00:32

I'll wait until this mod will be released. I am using "Sector Size and Background MOD" myself. While I like new sector sizes and fabs, 'the 'improved' backgrounds look terrible for me, so I already planned to join them together anyway, when Connary will finish his work, as I feel his backgrounds really seem to be improved, and I see some good taste and approach here. But I'll wait, SSBM looked nice on pictures also, but very bad in actual game, so I want to check it first.

lettuceman44 · Post by **lettuceman44** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 01:32

Connary?
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.
.
.
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As in the Connary making the Compendium for TES?

Your magic has gone to X3 as well!!!!

connary · Post by **connary** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 10:50

Hello Lettuceman¡¡

I need some rest for the sword and magic side of things.
Fly trough space its a very pleasant change in the meantime.

djrygar
I'll wait until this mod will be released. I am using "Sector Size and Background MOD" myself. While I like new sector sizes and fabs, 'the 'improved' backgrounds look terrible for me, so I already planned to join them together anyway, when Connary will finish his work, as I feel his backgrounds really seem to be improved, and I see some good taste and approach here. But I'll wait, SSBM looked nice on pictures also, but very bad in actual game, so I want to check it first.

Right decision. I will upload a beta then all of people interested can take a look and discuss the possible improvements and the fiascos that need some change.

It is possible for you to take an approach and make available the universe scripts? This will be an important add on for this mod but also for others. If you answer its no i will make a request topic using the info you put on here.

Robert Foster · Post by **Robert Foster** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 16:37

The Khaak sectors are just awesome.
definitely put a smile on my face.
nice work

djrygar · Post by **djrygar** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 21:30

seems it bit more complicated. I did not found any way to load separate map, so script cannot just read and ajdust suns/planets etc to new data (so all those <create_sun> and similar commands will be unusable), as I initially thought
But I have another idea.

<load_map> probably resets whole universe, fabs and etc to the state defined in new x3_universe.xml (I will check it, but i guess it's exactly how its done), so it will probably destroy all player's fabs.
so maybe it should work like this: record all fabs owned by player (with its positions), then load new universe, recreate fabs. Player must reconnect all fabs to hubs (cheat - fill TL with 30 complex contruction kits). BIt of hassle, not fully automated, but still player will save all progress he made in plot missions, save ships etc. I guess reconnecting fabs will take much less time than starting all over again.

But this is bit more complicated, and I am new do MD, and poor scripter in general (im in graphics departament in general

), so this approach may be too complicated for me - I'm still on the level of designing simple missions

well, when you post beta, I'll check how <load_map> actually works.

lettuceman44 · Post by **lettuceman44** » Tue, 5. Jan 10, 21:45

Hey Connary. I understand what you mean about needing to get away from swords and magic. I need to myself.
I was just surprised to find you here.
I'm just happy that you are using your talent for X3.

Now for some feedback.
Overall, things are looking great!
A few things I'd like to compliment.
The Khaak sectors. It really fits with the Khaak, it has this very alien feel to it. Its great.
The nightlife textures for the planets look immersive.

Actually, I'm trying to find something that doesn't look right, and I really can't find anything. Except for maybe some extreme redness, but thats ok

connary · Post by **connary** » Sat, 9. Jan 10, 00:21

I started with some fog sectors. Im changing the bod scene of this backgrounds cause the original work only with the same low res dust texture for the background and the floating dust. I like more the results using a scene from other sector and applying a new dust/vapor texture on top of a high res background but using more dust bodies into the sector.
The new dust design looks like fly through a dense vapour without the flashing nebulas in front of the ship nose.

Added the blue fog sector. The vanilla one is green and we can find two green fog sectors very seemed. This is the reason i decided to work with a blue color like the name of the sector.

adecoy · Post by **adecoy** » Sat, 9. Jan 10, 13:13

when do you think your mod will be ready for a beta/release?

connary · Post by **connary** » Sat, 9. Jan 10, 22:37

When its done. Sorry Adecoy i cant give to you a release date.
I decided to check every sector before to release the beta to avoid a long quantity of updates for a mod of 300 Mb.
I will create my desired and finished mod and then i will start a short beta period to get the peoples help trying to find some mistakes or bad decisions.
Its not a long way to go.

Mod update: I changed the planet clouds. In the original texture appear a mistake that clonates the clouds side by side creating a ugly effect of repetition. Clonated clouds has been deleted.

connary · Post by **connary** » Tue, 12. Jan 10, 14:19

Purple outlands, deep blue and blue nexus sectors added¡¡

Gripen · Post by **Gripen** » Tue, 12. Jan 10, 17:48

Hmm for some reason i no longer can see the thumbnails... no big issue though...

Commander Zane · Post by **Commander Zane** » Wed, 13. Jan 10, 14:07

Outstanding work, looking foward to this.

enenra · Post by **enenra** » Wed, 13. Jan 10, 14:44

Some great improvements there. I really like the look sector nebula now. I did some attempts at improving them myself but didn't manage a result like yours. I'm very interested in how the texture of the nebula planes spawned in the sector look.

About the planet clouds - are you sure you want to remove tiling? It does eliminate repetition but the cloud texture is pretty good and the tiling is barely noticeable anyway. No tiling makes the texture look pretty bad ingame because it has to be displayed on such a large area.

connary · Post by **connary** » Wed, 13. Jan 10, 18:47

Thanks to all for your kind words¡ Deep blue sectors added¡¡

enenra wrote:I'm very interested in how the texture of the nebula planes spawned in the sector look.

Spawned? sorry i dont understand what do you mean, my english is poor.

enenra wrote: About the planet clouds - are you sure you want to remove tiling? It does eliminate repetition but the cloud texture is pretty good and the tiling is barely noticeable anyway. No tiling makes the texture look pretty bad ingame because it has to be displayed on such a large area.

Im not changing the UV mapping of the planet and the texture tiling, im eliminating something wrong that happened whit the clone tool in some part of the texture creating weird effect of repetition. This image will show exactly what im talking about:
[ external image ]
i modified the texture eliminating the repeated clouds. I hope this can clear the subject.

enenra · Post by **enenra** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 12:14

connary wrote:Thanks to all for your kind words¡ Deep blue sectors added¡¡

enenra wrote:I'm very interested in how the texture of the nebula planes spawned in the sector look.
Spawned? sorry i dont understand what do you mean, my english is poor.

Well, my spanish is much worse so I won't even try that.

Basically, the nebula which appears in sectors and is not in the background texture (which is applied to the inside of a sphere, encompassing the sector) is composed of planes which are generated around the object in the sector, the player is looking at. These planes have the nebula texture on them. As I have been experimenting with making them look better myself, I'm interested in how your textures look and manage to get this feel of a "nebula soup" across.

enenra wrote: About the planet clouds - are you sure you want to remove tiling? It does eliminate repetition but the cloud texture is pretty good and the tiling is barely noticeable anyway. No tiling makes the texture look pretty bad ingame because it has to be displayed on such a large area.
Im not changing the UV mapping of the planet and the texture tiling, im eliminating something wrong that happened whit the clone tool in some part of the texture creating weird effect of repetition. This image will show exactly what im talking about:
[ external image ]
i modified the texture eliminating the repeated clouds. I hope this can clear the subject.

Not quite sure what you mean just yet but I'll check out the texture again and see whether I can spot that area.

Moonrat · Post by **Moonrat** » Wed, 27. Jan 10, 19:15

Any news you can share, this background mod' looks really interesting...

connary · Post by **connary** » Fri, 29. Jan 10, 13:21

Hi Moonrat¡¡ Well, a lot of news in fact. A huge quantity of systems modified, more backgrounds included and some of they improved.
Im checking every corner of the galaxy for rarities to kill them all.
The fact its that due the lack of interest for a mod like this i stopped teasing and im working more slowly but definitely better. I suppose that a new start its not an option for most people here.
I dont have any release date for the moment. I will wait for egosoft news about its current beta works.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

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