Screenshots

[Tichy]

That cockpit is looking good - I want one!

Me too! Also... is that a B5 jumpgate? Is there an OXP of this?

[Cody]

<nods> Hopefully! Fancy docking with an Omega-class destroyer?

[Redspear]

Looking good Frame, looking very good

[Cody]

[another_commander]

Nice one Cody. Since we are doing planets today, here is one from recent experiments with the Perlin3D generator, complete with clouds.
Note: This is not a Povray planet.

[Vincentz]

Wow. That looks amazing! Since its a generator, does that mean you can go very close and it will still look highres?

[pleiadian]

Wow. That looks amazing! Since its a generator, does that mean you can go very close and it will still look highres?

If I understand Perlin noise generators correctly, this is precisely what you can do.

[Astrobe]

But that's a heavy process done entirely by the CPU (not the GPU). So right now it is "just" a texture generated on the fly when you enter a system (and on the F7 screen too).

Personally I have recompiled the game so that it generates them with a higher resolution using the current method (which is faster than Perlin) - 4Kx2K pixels instead of 2Kx2K - but I already get a half-second "hiccup" caused by the generation on my Intel i3.

While it does look better at close range (less blurry and block-y) , it doesn't replace the "features" that pre-rendered textures offer (forests, cities, craters, deserts, rivers, etc.). On the other hand, those in turn don't have the lighting features that ours have (liquid surfaces and relief notably). That's the real conundrum.

[another_commander]

More experimentation, with everything planet texture related turned up to 11. Looks good, but the performance price will not let it be part of the game yet.

[another_commander]

Moar experiments. Lots of potential, if only we could optimize the texture generation times a bit...

[Cody]

Lots of potential, if only we could optimize the texture generation times a bit...

Looking good, Admiral. How slow is the texture generation time?

[Griff]

wow, those planets look really really great, massive high five to everyone who's been working on them, really great stuff!

[another_commander]

@Cody: It's just that little bit slower than one would feel OK with. This is on a very modest Core2Duo system, but there is also another little thing that I noticed: When running with the event driven music Orchestral Demo installed, every time a new planet is brought up on F7, there is a very noticeable music stutter of two seconds or so while it computes the texture. That breaks immersion and can be a bit annoying. It doesn't happen with the normal planet textures because those are generated much faster. So it would be nice to try and speed up the Perlin high-res stuff or maybe farm the texture generation work out to other threads (that's tricky btw) and then maybe it would be fine.

If you want to test it on a better system than mine, here is a 32-bit exe. It has Perlin noise enabled and 4K textures with 2:1 aspect: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwG6R5 ... sp=sharing
Edit: It also has a low albedo value on the planet textures (0.2 instead of the standard 0.7). The planets will look generally darker and the contrast of the specular reflections will be increased. But you can still check the performance and see what I mean.

[Redspear]

Those last two look great!

Crazy idea: Disguise the delay in texture generation by gradual reveal.

E.g. Heavy cloud or atmosphere effects until reaching a sufficiently close distance to the planet.

Alternatively, current texture model is generated upon system entry and is gradually (or suddenly if distance is sufficient) replaced with new detailed version.

Another one: witch point is close to the sun (using solar glare to mask an early texture swap (gameplay issues here of course).

Alternate way to use glare: system slowly fading into view after hyperspace entry. I'm imagining a slowly fading high glare effect with visibility gradually increasing from near 0% to 100% over a period of several seconds.

Flawed or potentially workable?

[another_commander]

Alternatively, current texture model is generated upon system entry [snip]

It's exactly the time needed for this generation during system entry that hurts (plus the fact that sound effects that might be playing at that time (or when going on F7) get borked a bit).