Chocolate flavoured galaxy

erm, i still got no cities... 😮

Are you sure your running the right file? Because there is_no_way that the change should be in the second .exe.

Unless you just happened to have found a bug thats unrelated to the changes I made.

Its far more likely that Windows got confused and didnt overwrite the file because they are similar... Yes that does happen, windows is shit.

your'e right, happens when files get downloaded to C:..../local settings/temp (temp folder when 7zip opens the file).

Yeah basically because of my fuckup with including that silly bug in the first release, I had to use a newer more experimental branch which had a few issues, many of which have already been fixed or are in-line to be fixed and also a few things, like the target selection stuff, I forgot to include.

Both the 'bugs' you mentioned are actually oversights, and not really bugs.

Did you manage to get it running with visible cities then?

Btw I know I said HDR sometimes looks a bit odd, but you should still use it if you can as it fixes a lot of atmospheric problems.

Your right it does tend to look darker, but if you head to a big bright star with a high luminosity you will see what I meant 😉

Playing around with terrains for the new system 😉 :

[attachment=571:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-26 23-37-34-65.jpg]

[attachment=572:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-26 23-40-38-11.jpg]

That's really awesome s2odan! The mountains and lowlands look incredibly realistic, I can't wait to see that in-game! Keep up the good work!

Ditto Danvir! OMG! 😮

cheers 🙂

Here's something else I was messing around with, it was supposed to be rocks but it ended up looking like a load of sand-dunes:

[attachment=573:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 03-32-05-52.jpg]

[attachment=574:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 03-31-19-78.jpg]

The top pic is as I'd see it and the bottom is how it should be seen. I'm interested in the registration number of your ship. In alpha 7 I had a Viper named ED-. In alpha 8 I have a Viper named IF-. I named them according to their numbers. I kind of miss Ed. Anyway, what did you name your ship? 😆

Awesome new terrain pics. It seems the possibilities with this engine and a creative brain are endless. Can't wait to try this out. The bottom picture looks amazing as well, with those bumps in the terrain instead of the smooth, hilly and mountainous terrain we usually see in the game. This really looks cool! 😎

More rediculously detailed terrain:

[attachment=575:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 04-04-03-00.jpg]

[attachment=576:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 04-04-06-33.jpg]

[attachment=577:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 04-04-11-32.jpg]

Hehe, I didn't even notice that... but Technically speaking it should be FY not FU 😉

I like what i see 😀

Btw, when are we going to see a properly rendered water? (reflections and all)

Those newest pictures are a bit too ridiculous for my taste 😆 . Up close anyway, from a distance it actually looks kinda nice.

Yes I'm just pushing the engine to the limit, to see what it can do. 🙂 Its unlikely you will see this in-game as its looks pretty dodgy 😉 But something like that can be used to give roughness to all the smooth surfaces in pioneer.

By toning this down you can give the land a nice bumpy texture:

[attachment=578:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 18-37-31-55.jpg]

[attachment=579:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 19-07-42-77.jpg]

I still find it hard to believe that suddenly, out of nothing, there was Pioneer to spoil us spacesimfans... again marvellous terrain, s20dan. Your work is much appreciated. I still explore the galaxy almost daily.

Swooping down into a canyon:

[attachment=580:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 22-58-21-19.jpg]

[attachment=581:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 23-01-59-25.jpg]

[attachment=582:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-27 23-01-35-59.jpg]

that is looking superb. now if only textures could be used for that final stage of detail.... you could perhaps reduce the cpu overhead and have it looking even better. Typically i believe this is referred to as 'micro texturing'

Just for fun I was fiddling with some settings last night to try and increase the detail to excessive levels:

[attachment=583:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-02-28 00-14-42-47.jpg]

Yes textures would probably be a good thing. I was against them at first until I saw a video of Artlav's 'Spaceway' project, which uses procedural textures very effectively.

I don't know how it would reduce CPU overhead though, if anything I would think it would increase it, as its just yet another set of calculations that would have to be run in real-time.

I suppose it might be possible to reduce terrain quality a bit to compensate, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of increasing visual quality.

well, like your last shot there, you could get that level of quality and skip a few levels of detail with the fractals... Having built a procedural world or two myself, i know this makes a difference. I've attached a texture if you want to try stuff out, how you want to try it out, or not, is up to you. it was meant to represent perhaps a few square metres, but it might work better over a larger area.

Some grayscale noise might be enough to break the evenness... and only visible on low altitudes or you'll start noticing patterns.

I agree. A simple detail noise will be enough to deal with the "silk fabric" effect on cliffs. Though, having something like Photoshop render > fibers filter instead will be better.

[hsimg] [/hsimg]

This plus debris (rocks, boulders) scattered around over the terain, and we might get a tangible sense of scale at close-ups.

Nevertheless I like all the improvements that are made. Good work, S2odan!

the variance looks good the procedural fractual generation might be a goer will we be seeing this in alpha 9 ?