Planets and Asteroids (06/20/06)

[Rabbit, White]

So I discovered that there's no need for bones and animation files if you just want to do a simple animation that doesn't have to be called on event (take a look at the space elevator file), and since there seems to be a rising need for some planetary bodies, I decided to give it a try.

First up is the Earth and the Moon.
Since it's so simple to create I decided to go crazy and give you a bunch of options. In particular, there's the model of earth in high and low poly version (_lp), same for the moon, and then there's... drum roll please ... the moon rotating around the earth, also in high and low poly. Naturally, the separate earth and moon rotate around their axes as well. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, that the earth has a layer of clouds that rotates at a slightly different rate.

I only did screenshots of the earth and the moon together as the rest are fairly straightforward (notice the location of the moon changing).


Polycounts and couple of technical details

Spoiler :

Polygons for high/low versions
Moon - 528/224
Earth - 1056/448
Earth & Moon - 1176/496
(the moon in the earth & moon combo is not the same moon as the stand-alone moon, it's has fewer polygons and uses smaller texture)

Texture sizes (I kept the main ones pretty big so that there's the option to use nicer looking textures. Obviously for performance you can always downsize them.)
Earth, Moon, Clouds - 512x256
Moon_low - 128x64 (This is the texture used by the moon in the earth & moon combo.)

What I'm going to do next is provide few generic planets and asteroids with various rotation speeds and satellites, plus a bunch of textures, so you can just make different planets by using different combos of NIFs and DDS's.

Enjoy

 

[woodelf]

Wow, this is super work Rabbit. Can you add Rings to one?

 

[RogerBacon]

Very beautiful.
I can't really make use of them by theirselves but I'm sure the space mod makers will find a use for them.

When you say "I discovered that there's no need for bones and animation files if you just want to do a simple animation that doesn't have to be called on event " do you mean python events? I've noticed some animation effects work ok calling them in python and some don't but I couldn't figure out why. Have you figured out why?

Roger Bacon

 

[Rabbit, White]

What I mean is that in max, if I create a simple animation for the object (like moving it or rotating it), without using bones or any frame labels, and then export it, then the NIF file will have and play that animation. In fact you can play that animation straight from the NIF viewer, which you can't do with unit animations. And of course that animation also plays in game.

Now, I haven't tested it but my guess would be that it's impossible to animate vertices that way, which means that you can't distort objects in the process of animation (which is what happens with skinned objects obviously). Also, whether it's possible to animate vertices or not, because there are no bones you can't tie this kind of animation to in-game events, such as attack, die, destroy, etc., so it will always play in game, in a continuous loop. Basically, without access to the core graphics engine, the only thing you can do with these animations is watch them.

P.S. You might be able to export such animations from blender as well, if the exporter supports it.

 

[GeoModder]

Hey Rabbit, while you're at it, how about creating an independent "ring around the world" graphic? It's for that inevitable Worldring wonder/project.

 

[Rabbit, White]

Hey Rabbit, while you're at it, how about creating an independent "ring around the world" graphic? It's for that inevitable Worldring wonder/project.

Er... do you mean a huge-a$$ ring that will go around the entire worldmap, or you just mean a planet with rings around it?

 

[Ploeperpengel]

I'm all dizzy. Crazy job

 

[Sevo]

What I mean is that in max, if I create a simple animation for the object (like moving it or rotating it), without using bones or any frame labels, and then export it, then the NIF file will have and play that animation. In fact you can play that animation straight from the NIF viewer, which you can't do with unit animations. And of course that animation also plays in game.

Wow! You've certainly established yourself as the Rabbit authority on the NIF files around these parts. Obviously I'm playing with 3DS quite a bit myself and everytime I read another post about something you've figured out with the system I'm more impressed. Keep it up!

 

[Padmewan]

This is crazy ridiculous.

So, basically, one could imagine a space mod with all the terrain having the same art def (space) but some of them are actually planets, put the "bonus" or "feature" of a planet on that space, and voila, planets floating in space...

NICE

 

[A Silly Goose]

Don't forget asteroids and nebulas

Personally, though, I'd rather see sci-fi space mod have each "land" tile be a cluster of stars (effectively making each "continent" a galaxy), while "ocean" tiles would empty, and represent the vast expanses of empty space between galaxies. Terrain features would include asteroid belts as "rivers", "forests" of nebulae, stellar nurseries, and black holes.

 

[Shqype]

So are you saying that we could have an improvement in Star Wars that is a "moon" which will keep rotating no matter what?

 

[Rabbit, White]

So are you saying that we could have an improvement in Star Wars that is a "moon" which will keep rotating no matter what?

Unfortunately no. I just realized that these will not work as improvements because improvements have regular animations (kf files) and without them the planets can't replace improvements. Now, obviously they need to be animated with bones, just like units, the problem with that is that I don't know the animation codes or their lengths, because Firaxis didn't provide us with flow charts for improvements. Plus it's causing problems with textures. Anyway, I'm definitely gonna look into it but I'm gonna delay making any new planets until I figure this out.

 

[GeoModder]

Er... do you mean a huge-a$$ ring that will go around the entire worldmap, or you just mean a planet with rings around it?

I meant an artificial ring around a planet, with tiny threads going down to the planet's surface to represent space elevators... but while you're at it, natural rings like Saturn has are good too.

 

[Vadus]

hey, am I supposing right, that this planet is a unit ?
Thats a very cool solution for the static terrain problem in space mods !
Can it be done to cover a whole terrain tile with a planet-unit ?
And when I build a city on this planet, the planet must still cover the ground.
If this is possible, I can jump a big step forward in developing my space mod !

EDIT : ok, the unit must not be as big as a "normal" terrain tile, since they can be changed to a small spot on the ocean

 

[The Great Apple]

That's really cool! I can't believe I missed it for so long!

 

[Vadus]

When I want to use this as a unit, I have to take the moonearth.nif as the <NIF>
and BoundShape.nif for .. <SHADERNIF> ??
Or how can I include this into the game ?

How did you include this to get this screenshot ?

 

[Rabbit, White]

I put it in as a replacement for a building. Unfortunately right now there is no easy way to put it as a unit or a resource. I'm working on it.

 

[woodelf]

As a resource and you'd get instant hero worship from the space mod community.

 

[Vadus]

As a resource and you'd get instant hero worship from the space mod community.

I need more
using this planet as a terrain cover like a wood would be one nice solution and I can place still resources on it. But the wood might disappear when building a city on it... Don't know, if I can disable this in the xml..
So the other solution is to have a second "barbarian" civ, which is allied with all other players. This civ has the planet-units. Because of the ally you can found cities on the same tile.. hmm.. but I guess you can not conquer the city then
so ok : @rabbit : is it possible to take this planet as a forest ?

 

[Rabbit, White]

so ok : @rabbit : is it possible to take this planet as a forest ?

I've no idea.

It shouldn't be hard to get them to be compatible with resources, it's just that it'll require some research and time.