[Split] Planet City Lights

[Disembodied]

There might also be a place for planets with "volcanoes" in their description to have some splashes and streaks of orange/red …

To be honest, though, I'd be happy with a more-or-less linear link between tech/population and quantity of city lights, and choosing a colour - e.g. yellow - which helps differentiate it from the starfield. Arguably, high-tech planets might not leak nearly as much light pollution into the sky as we do, and some alien species might even be nocturnal. But there's a lot to be said for simplicity: having a high-population, high-tech world with its nightside continents ablaze, as compared to a low-tech backwater with only a few (if any) prickles of light, would make those differences immediately obvious. Too much subtlety and there's a risk of losing the obvious!

[Redspear]

high-tech world with its nightside continents ablaze, as compared to a low-tech backwater with only a few (if any) prickles of light, would make those differences immediately obvious.

That's what I was getting at, except I'm not convinced that higher tech = more lights. Higher population, yes, but once tech is high enough to have lights then I'm not sure what difference higher tech would make.

Perhaps higher tech makes more of the landmass habitable, in which case a low tech world of similar population would have intense clusters of lights, and high tech a more even spread. Or perhaps we ignore it alltogether?

Perhaps taint the city lights matching the star hue if the population is alien (I'm assuming they are native rather than colonial, so they evolved under that sun light and should be confortable with it's color).

Makes sense to me.

[cbr]

If I understand correctly, all planet effect are rendered from pre calculated/made textures?

Somehow in my brain/mind I envisioned the citylights to be a realtime calculated effect ( )

So I took an old screenshot
Select in this case the green land and pasted this as a new layer in Gimp.
The new layer representing the area where one would likely find community lights.

The new layer is changed from Green to White with filtering ( noice ed) and is added as lighten only layer.

Result in this animated gif, not actual gameplay
picture 1 original image, this one has gif conversion artifacts
picture 2 simulated darkening
picture 3 simulated darkening plus added citylights layer
picture 4 simulated darkening

[another_commander]

If I understand correct, all planet effect are rendered from pre calculated/made textures?

Just to be perfectly clear, all default planet effects are generated by textures calculated and created internally in real time.
All effects for custom planets (i.e. planets that define a "texture" property in their planetinfo entry) are generated by pre-made textures, supplied in planetinfo.plist.

[Disembodied]

high-tech world with its nightside continents ablaze, as compared to a low-tech backwater with only a few (if any) prickles of light, would make those differences immediately obvious.

That's what I was getting at, except I'm not convinced that higher tech = more lights. Higher population, yes, but once tech is high enough to have lights then I'm not sure what difference higher tech would make.

Perhaps higher tech makes more of the landmass habitable, in which case a low tech world of similar population would have intense clusters of lights, and high tech a more even spread. Or perhaps we ignore it alltogether?

True, the amount of lights would tail off at a certain tech point - although a planet's TL isn't universal: our own nominally TL7 planet still has places where the local TL is closer to 4 or 5. Maybe a really high TL planet represents one where the technology for city lights is much more widespread.

Alternatively, perhaps at high TLs, the lights become less constrained by geography - as well as coastlines and clusters, there could be huge grids and concentric mandalas, etc., representing not just cityscapes but huge automated industries.

[Redspear]

True, the amount of lights would tail off at a certain tech point - although a planet's TL isn't universal: our own nominally TL7 planet still has places where the local TL is closer to 4 or 5. Maybe a really high TL planet represents one where the technology for city lights is much more widespread.

I think it's not clear what would happen with regards tech level and so I'd be inclined to either randomise or ignore

Alternatively, perhaps at high TLs, the lights become less constrained by geography - as well as coastlines and clusters, there could be huge grids and concentric mandalas, etc., representing not just cityscapes but huge automated industries.

Er, yeah...

Perhaps higher tech makes more of the landmass habitable, in which case a low tech world of similar population would have intense clusters of lights, and high tech a more even spread.

[GearsNSuch]

The new planet textures and city lights are fantastic!

I saw it mentioned before, but in my opinion the simplest, clearest way for them to reflect tech level is to shift from dim fire-reddish at low TLs to incandescent-yellow at the middle and LED bluish-white at high TLs.
The other suggestions about tinting them to match the star or the species are interesting and could look pretty neat, but if the lights are meant to be an indicator of the planet’s qualities above all else, this color tinting method are, in my opinion, clearest.

Also has probably been said before, but perhaps lights on an agricultural planet could be spread out (think farms & cottage industries) while industrial planets have them bunched together in cities. Not necessarily a difference in quantity, but spread.

I really appreciate all the work being put in to the details! They are what make the immersion.

[cbr]

Coloring to reflect TL would be a nice way to differentiate


Heres a simulated low TL with reddish lights

[Disembodied]

I think it's not clear what would happen with regards tech level and so I'd be inclined to either randomise or ignore

I think the question shouldn't be "what would happen?" so much as "how can the differences between planets - e.g. population, technology, and economy, which tend to be intertwined - be signalled visually to the player?" So TL1-4: from no lights to a few reddish-orange flickers and patches; TL5-8: increasing volumes of orange to yellow clusters, becoming dense in places depending on population; TL9-12: larger yellow to white clusters and connecting networks; TL13+: larger yellow to white clusters, connecting networks, and grids/concentric circles/structures.

I think it's work keeping a yellowish tinge to even high-tech city lights, if only to differentiate them from background stars. Something something passing through the planet's atmosphere something pollution …

Perhaps higher tech makes more of the landmass habitable, in which case a low tech world of similar population would have intense clusters of lights, and high tech a more even spread.

yes, great idea!

perhaps lights on an agricultural planet could be spread out (think farms & cottage industries) while industrial planets have them bunched together in cities. Not necessarily a difference in quantity, but spread.

Yes, good point. There would still be cities/clusters, but more of a tendency towards a thinner scattering.

[Redspear]

I think the question shouldn't be "what would happen?" so much as "how can the differences between planets - e.g. population, technology, and economy, which tend to be intertwined - be signalled visually to the player?"

The complication here, I would argue, is that because it's implicit rather than explicit it would need to be an intuitive association.

More people = more lights is pretty intiutive but as for higher tech I don't think it's intuitive at all. Demand for light is determined by population, inhabitants and (perhaps) economy. Tech level would have more to do with supply but for a trading world again, that would likely have more to do with economy (rich or poor). I've been to some very poor yet well lit places...

yes, great idea!

Should I be flattered?...

I think it's work keeping a yellowish tinge to even high-tech city lights, if only to differentiate them from background stars.

Yellow might be the common colour today but we've been moving towards white for some time now. White is less distinct from a starfield background however.

[Disembodied]

I think it's work keeping a yellowish tinge to even high-tech city lights, if only to differentiate them from background stars.

Yellow might be the common colour today but we've been moving towards white for some time now. White is less distinct from a starfield background however.

It's increasingly obvious that one or other of us is a sockpuppet account, and I've got a horrible feeling that it might be me …

[Redspear]

It's increasingly obvious that one or other of us is a sockpuppet account, and I've got a horrible feeling that it might be me …

[GearsNSuch]

It's increasingly obvious that one or other of us is a sockpuppet account, and I've got a horrible feeling that it might be me …

[Disembodied]

It's increasingly obvious that one or other of us is a sockpuppet account, and I've got a horrible feeling that it might be me …

It's a fair cop …

[cbr]

Again for studying texture/lighting here I took a povray planet texture G1.

Added een mask in de alpha channel of the diffusemap.

Created a normalmap and in it's alpha channel added a 'citylights' map/channel

As the citylights information is stored a an alpha channel it means the whole planet uses the same citylights color

Replaced these in the citylights example.oxp