GFX: More Realistic Starfield

[eRe4s3r]

Well, i actually do like the nebulas, but i don't like black and white starfields  

This is probably a taste thing - i don't like the large stars in-between small stars, so this change (which is based of my own 4k*4k star field) makes them go away, it also gives stars distinct colors (Red/Blue/Yellow) instead of white, and no Green (there is no such thing with suns)

The stars look pretty impressive on a high end lcd that way, and you won't see your dead pixels anymore either ;p


Install - Extract the rar in your AI wars/Image folder

Alternatively, overwrite 0-11.png in your starfields folder with the files in the starfields folder

- Addendum

The Pattern in the background is because the single files are not shifted - A starfield would need to have 2 layers to make the pattern go away. I can't do that (and from the 11 files 2 tend sometimes to repeat next to each other)

[tals]

This is exactly my point from the post in the beta thread - I agree with you and thank you than looks exactly what I want

[tals]

ere you may want to take a look at this thread

http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,977.15.html

eRa, mind if I also use your stars mod as one of the styles?  I'd probably call it "Colored Stars" mode, rather than "eRe4s3r's Stars" just because the latter won't be very informative to people who don't know you. Wink  But of course a credit in the release notes, etc, as usual.

[eRe4s3r]

Thanks, yeah i was grabbing some food stuff

I noticed you saying that and this was a pet peeve of mine as well, the original stars had a lot of noise in the bg which cuppled with the nebula made them grayish, not black/contrasty

That was something only coming up with nebulas so yeah, this should solve that ;p

By the way, this only came up because i made a starscape ( http://ere4s3r.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-Spacescape-Version-134819891 ) which uses the exact same kind of stars, so i had pretty decent source material and just needed to save it 11 times ,p

Not that anyone thinks i used the original files or something ,p

Edit: by the way, for further star field updates - its always a good idea to have a level modifier in photoshop set to maximum contrast so that you can see how it looks when additive stuff blends over your stars. If you have BG noise thats not part of what you want to display = grey tone

[x4000]

Beautiful scene, there!  And thanks for the tip on PS.

[eRe4s3r]

hehe I think now its clear why i work with a 21" Color Proof/Certified CRT and not with my fancy LCD ;p I can't wait till OLED comes out, this silly LCD tech has to die a quick death. For graphic whores like i am i can't stand screens that glow in the dark with 0.23 cd as black value (Black is supposed to be 0.00cd) this is also why black is not a color by the way.

Ah well... At least knowing this and having both screen types here i can compare and make scenes that look stunning on a lcd as well ;p (Like that star scape, which i think looks great on a lcd)

[tals]

hehe I think now its clear why i work with a 21" Color Proof/Certified CRT and not with my fancy LCD ;p I can't wait till OLED comes out, this silly LCD tech has to die a quick death. For graphic whores like i am i can't stand screens that glow in the dark with 0.23 cd as black value (Black is supposed to be 0.00cd) this is also why black is not a color by the way.

Ah well... At least knowing this and having both screen types here i can compare and make scenes that look stunning on a lcd as well ;p (Like that star scape, which i think looks great on a lcd)

So do you think it is people with better monitors that found the new stars irritating or worse ones, I had thought mine was not bad

[x4000]

I think that people with higher contrast found it worse.  Although, Phil has a really good monitor and likes it, but he has even more contrast than I do on mine.  Both LCDs.  I don't know if it's a LCD versus a CRT thing or what.

[eRe4s3r]

Can't say if its better screens or worse really

The fact the stars are also less dense and there is more black may fix the other issues inadvertently... I got a lot of feedback on DA about how the stars look in previous submission and most common complaint was "Don't do large, blurred out stars" and "make them realistic" (3 colors and brightness variations).

I can only speak for myself, but i couldn't do any 3d-work on a lcd. I am just so used to the perfect gradients i got on mine trusty old crt (Brilliance 207p 202p) which is architecture and photography/print proofed (even has a SRGB hub) and stuff like that. On lcd all gradients are wacked, always, even if SRBG calibrated (which doesn't calibrate white to black gradients at all)

A common misconception on LCD calibration, you can't calibrate photography proof, because photography is not additive (like lcd's are) at best you get a close approximation.

Aside that - I guess this is one of those issues one just has to live with. There is crap and good screens on the market, but the amount of people with a PROPERLY calibrated/proofed screen you can probably count on 1 hand So best bet is to just shoot for the median i guess.. its a big issue on DA even more than in game development

[x4000]

Aside that - I guess this is one of those issues one just has to live with. There is crap and good screens on the market, but the amount of people with a PROPERLY calibrated/proofed screen you can probably count on 1 hand So best bet is to just shoot for the median i guess.. its a big issue on DA even more than in game development

Good points!

[Admiral]

I can't wait to try this.

I use a 30" Apple Cinema Display (work and gaming) that I calibrate every now and then because I'm also a photo nut and use a fully color-corrected workflow. LCD isn't as good as CRT - but I'd never trade the space requirements and use a CRT ever again if I can help it. Imagine a 30" 16:10 CRT on your table!

Maybe people living in Peoria (Joe the Plumber?) but not here in NYC...

[eRe4s3r]

You just need a larger table, i can sleep on mine ;P (actually 3 people could sleep on my desktop table) comfortable (although high and airy) ;p

But i agree, lcd has its superior sharpness and brightness, but hopefully both crt/lcd will be dead in 5 years, i want to have PROPER screens again. Not this mess we have now

[Echo35]

Imagine a 30" 16:10 CRT on your table!

At LAN party I once ran a tournament at, I saw someone with a CRT that looked to be about 25" or so. It was a monster. He had a cart just for it!

And as far as the starfield goes, most of the time I play AI War is on my laptop, and my laptop's display is rather washed out to begin with (I haven't gotten around to tuning the contrast yet, since it was just recently formatted) but the stars are SUPER obnoxious. It basically looks like a mostly flat grey background with little white spots everywhere, and the occasional splotch of black.

[eRe4s3r]

Heh, to me that star field is a black as the darkest darkness i ever seen.   It feels as if beyond them there is truly nothing - well i do have that as reason why i never touch any lcd. The Blackness of black on a crt is just.. pretty amazing.