[Backslash]

After being inspired over the last month or two by various discussions about Lightspeed's nebulae and the FS2 campaign missions nebulae, I thought I'd take a closer look at the state of things, especially looking at Lightspeed's 'Not a Real Release' templates and notes.

Turns out, building on this work, combined with the backgrounds in some of Blaise Russel's campaigns (especially DerelictSCP), we've already got most of the systems covered! (The ones in the campaign, at least.)  And some of the backgrounds in Ransom Arceihn's campaigns (Sync and Transcend) will work too with a couple modifications.  (Of course, I am asking permission from both.)

So, would anyone like to help make the last few?

The only ones that need background just about from scratch is Capella.  If I add the Freespace Port, there's also Betelgeuse and Ikeya.  But some other systems could use some touch-ups perhaps.

If you are interested, post and we can start discussing things.  This can be cool!

[Muriac]

I'd love to help, but I don't even know what the process involves. Plus I'm half-drunk right now because school is over.

But the good news is I might be buying a new intel iMac tomorrow, so I'll be able to run Windows and whatever programs one uses to deal with star system backgrounds.

[Backslash]

Mind, I'm not an expert in the process... but as far as I know, all you need is FRED.  Though, a recent CVS build of FRED can help.  Who knows, there might even be one for Mac.

You don't even need to mess with mediavps if you don't want to... all you need is Lightspeed's NaRR pack of nebula for starters.  Inside that is two files, NFDevB041104.zip and FinishedSystems.zip .  The former contains all the image files of the nebulae, while the latter contains the mission templates for the systems.  Supplement the mission templates with my attached collection of systems from Blaise Russel's campaigns.

Extract the nebulae TGAs (and PCX if you're using non-SCP FRED) to data\effects.  Open FRED, open a mission template and look at it.  Go to the Background Editor in Editors menu and mess around.  Try things, look at examples.  Don't worry, all this is easy... the hardest part (at least for me) is just arriving at something that looks good and sort of 'realistic'. 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Muriac]

Cool. I'd be very interested in doing that, and I did end up buying the iMac. It's been shipped, so I guess I'll see it sometime this week. I'll look into FRED then.

[Kie99]

I seem to remeber Singh planning on doing something like this a while back.

[Singh]

yes, yes I was a very, very long time ago.

How many backgrounds sets you short, Backslash? if its not too many, maybe I can open up fred and try and do the sets for you one shot. Please also specify if any of these background sets need planets and how many - remember, each set needs to match according to where the mission takes place, so you cant have gamma draconis being blue nebula one mission, and then suddenly shifting to red nebula the next. So if your using the other campaign nebulae, make sure they match, otherwise it wont look right.

[Backslash]

Exactly, Singh. Already thought through the each-set-matching thing.  I'm following Lightspeed's old proposed templates, i.e.
  Betelgeuse          Red Giant          Fiery (#7 G)          *FS1 campaign
  Capella          Yellow Giant, Yellow Giant, Red Dwarf, Red Dwarf          Fiery (#7 G)          *FS2 campaign, highest priority
  Ikeya          Violet          Black Clouds (#5 E)          *FS1 campaign
  Sol          Yellow          Trace of Blue (#6 F)     ** FS1 end credits/cutscene, lower priority
etc etc.  Found in NaRR_Nebulae.txt of his Not A Real Release zip.  Which you helped him with a very, very long time ago 

These templates don't mention planets, but I think the original planets from the campaign with a few tweaks should be fine.  (Plus each mission is at a different distance from the planets anyway.)

Thanks for the offer!  I need the systems listed above.  (* notes are by me)  Also Alpha Centauri is still just a WIP of yours , perhaps look at it (attached), see if it needs any touch ups.  (Or maybe you have a newer version already?)

Actually now that I look at your "Hell's Inferno" template from your background emporium thread, that might make a good Betelgeuse (or perhaps Capella) if the H sets were removed to make it a bit less busy.  (Not both!  We want each system to be unique...)  Might save some time at least.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[StratComm]

The idea would be to set up the nebulas first, then go back and add the plants and sun (as the position of the sun should vary from mission to mission too).  The template would just be the much-greater-than-system scale stuff like nebula in the background.

[Singh]

Exactly, Singh. Already thought through the each-set-matching thing.  I'm following Lightspeed's old proposed templates, i.e.
  Betelgeuse          Red Giant          Fiery (#7 G)          *FS1 campaign
  Capella          Yellow Giant, Yellow Giant, Red Dwarf, Red Dwarf          Fiery (#7 G)          *FS2 campaign, highest priority
  Ikeya          Violet          Black Clouds (#5 E)          *FS1 campaign
  Sol          Yellow          Trace of Blue (#6 F)     ** FS1 end credits/cutscene, lower priority
etc etc.  Found in NaRR_Nebulae.txt of his Not A Real Release zip.  Which you helped him with a very, very long time ago 

These templates don't mention planets, but I think the original planets from the campaign with a few tweaks should be fine.  (Plus each mission is at a different distance from the planets anyway.)

Thanks for the offer!  I need the systems listed above.  (* notes are by me)  Also Alpha Centauri is still just a WIP of yours , perhaps look at it (attached), see if it needs any touch ups.  (Or maybe you have a newer version already?)

Actually now that I look at your "Hell's Inferno" template from your background emporium thread, that might make a good Betelgeuse (or perhaps Capella) if the H sets were removed to make it a bit less busy.  (Not both!  We want each system to be unique...)  Might save some time at least.

Righty o then. I'll get to work on it ASAP. I'll see if I can finish the Capellan one first and post it, since that's priority. I'll see if I can finish that Alpha centauri one as well.

[Singh]

Ok, a small problem. Despite getting the latest CVS build of FRED finally working and checking out my tables thoroughly, im having a wee bit of a problem. I cant get FRED to show the G and H nebula sets in the background editor, and I'm only seeing A-F. I've checked hte files and the maps are all there, and the tables clearly list from A to H sets, so that can't be the problem. I'm running the files and tables from a -mediavps folder, which has hte media vps, and the SCP Derelict edition as well. Any idea how to fix the problem?

[Wanderer]

Check for the stars.tbl again and check also within vp files... atleast from main data directories and also from mediavps directories

I'm using self-converted (tga -> dds) LS nebulas (A to H) and game nebulas and they show up just fine with FREDs background editor.

[Singh]

both my main tables data directory and mediavps tables directory have the correct version stars.tbl within them, so I doubt that can be the issue, actually. Unless of course, it somehow accepts any .tbl files in vps over that of the directories?

[StratComm]

Are there pcx/dds versions of A-F and not G or H?  I honestly can't remember, but those two were released "unfinished" and may not have everything you expect.  You're running FRED with -jpgtga, correct?

EDIT: Wait, do they just not graphically show up or do they not show up at all?

[Singh]

they do not show up in the FRED2 drop-down box at all. None of the nebulas after the F series shows up in the box at all, sadly.

[karajorma]

I do seem to remember that you used to have a dodgy stars.tbl which only had some of the nebulae on it. The version I've got seems to work well enough. Want me to extract it for you to test?

[Singh]

Only if you dont mind, of course.

[karajorma]

Here you go.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Porthos]

Seem's to have been pretty silent in this thread for a while, any work still being done?

[Backslash]

A good time for a bump, kinda forgot about this... plenty of other things to do

I've put together a pack of what I have organized/collected so far, attached.  The ones labeled WIP could use a look through.  Later, for FS1/port, we'll need Antares (WIP) finished up, and a new Ikeya, and maybe Betelgeuse.  I'm hacking together a Ribos and Beta Cygni in my spare time (but I suck at FRED ).  ...And who knows, someday we might do all the rest.

I think in most cases we should have systems with multiple suns have the suns reasonably close together... for example suns at 180* angles would mean that you are BETWEEN the suns, which is probably quite unusual.  Then again, it's scifi... what do we know?    (As for the annoying double-glare of multiple suns close together, I may tweak something in the SCP to compensate, if I have time.)

If someone is bored and has time and feels like it, they can look through the other files without prefixes (like Delta Serpentis, etc) to make sure they look """realistic"""  , keeping in mind the above.  Also, Deneb, I dunno, might be nice if it had a bit more orange or red or purple, to resemble the intro... but other stuff should be done first.

Another little minor thing that would be nice would be to rotate Gamma Draconis so that, if you paste it into the missions with the Knossos, the Knossos "lines up" with a far off colorful nebula. But totally icing on the cake... -- and I don't know how hard that is to do (rotating without ruining the setup).  Maybe just add another set in the right spot would be easiest.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[CaptJosh]

Thing is, they're not even sure if this nebula is in the same galaxy, so how do we know it's NOT lined up?