Planet pictures

Commodore Sics D'fore · Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:40 am

Here's a little nitpicky thing:

How does everyone feel about the image of the planet that comes up on the planet info screens now in 1.65? Sure, it looks nice, but it adds a slight delay in the screen coming up, whereas it used to come up instantaneously upon hitting the button. I don't know that the planet image is worth it, as it causes this "hiccup" and adds no useful info to the screen.

Like I said, this is a nitpick. I really like the game, and appreciate all the work that Giles and others have done on it!

Wolfwood · Post by **Wolfwood** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:48 am

The slight delay is certainly a small negative point - I wonder if the image could be added after the screen itself has come up, so that even if it appeared with a short delay, it would not affect the usability of the screen?

On the other hand, once we get some "prettier" planets in Oolite, I bet this screen will look very good with the pic in it!

lex_talionis · Post by **lex_talionis** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:10 pm

i do remeber this function being useful once - when there was a game glitch and my screen told me the name of the planet was one thing, but the picture told me that i certainly was not at the planet i thought i was.

on second thoughts, i'm still not sure how useful that was...

...but i still think the picture looks nice

CWolf · Post by **CWolf** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:23 pm

Planet Picture? We talking about the rotating planet? That has been there longer than 1.65...

Odo987 · Post by **Odo987** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:58 pm

Wolfwood wrote:
I wonder if the image could be added after the screen itself has come up, so that even if it appeared with a short delay, it would not affect the usability of the screen?

And if a green wireframe sphere was used as a placeholder image (for the second before the pretty planet was displayed), it would look really nice.

Murgh · Post by **Murgh** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:11 pm

that would be handsome if it would match the final planet, but maybe not so easy considering the planets come in different sizes.

CWolf · Post by **CWolf** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:45 pm

Hmmm, if it was a true wireframe image then it could match any size. Maybe have an option for wireframe/solid planets.

Odo987 · Post by **Odo987** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:45 pm

The goal would be to get a placeholder image onscreen quickly, so just a bitmap scaled to the right size should do the job quickest and with minimal work.

The visual effect of a wireframe replaced moments later by the rendered planet would look very Hollywoodish. People not reading this thread would think it's a cool effect, not realising that it's there to correct a bug.

Also, the above image is freely available in Photoshop or Illustrator:
http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/nasa ... ndex4.html
So one doesn't even have to recreate it.

CWolf · Post by **CWolf** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:40 am

I think the worry is with using a bitmap that different planets are different sizes, so you would have the wireframe and then it would shrink/grow when replaced. Looks messy. Another way around it would be a vector graphic as offosed to a bitmap, that could be scaled to match size without issues. However I have no idea if that could be done without just making things worse.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:14 pm

Scaling the wireframe to the size of the planet would be trivial, regardless of whether a bitmap or an OpenGL rendering is used.

Incidentally, that pic isn’t green. ;-)