Rings

I want to know what the rings.fx do. because, the customplanets.xml file in the Saturn section, says a specific number of outer and inner rings settings, but in the game it's totally different,

The settings in CustomPlanets don't determine the number of rings, just the distance from the planet and width of the rings' spread. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the size you want, but aside from that you just specify the ring image, which is used to draw them. If you want more rings, just use an image with more lines on it.

Rings.fx has to do with the lighting, shadowing, etc., AFAIK. You shouldn't need to mess with that just to customize the rings on a planet.

I don't know if some of you can answer this but Kryo may... anyway, I wanted to know more about this FX file in the Gfx folder. because I want to know how to change the rings settings! although I'm pretty sure it's not moddable, I want to know what the rings.fx do. because, the customplanets.xml file in the Saturn section, says a specific number of outer and inner rings settings, but in the game it's totally different, and it's a bug that still continues in the 1.4x version. so what should I do? any comments?

.Master U. I have collected some pics. for new rings. I played with them a little and got a few that i might use your welcome to them if they will Help.

it is a big file zip it is 92mb unzip about 360mb if you want to look at it. i`ll upload it on one of the sites that let you upload files

here are two rings i modded

WWW Link

Kryo:

that's not true, at least for me, the rings in the game are not as I decided in the customplanets file. and I'm pretty sure of it. I got a new mod, I did like 20 Ctrl-N's just to get the rings right...

Sir Nasty:

I got a Ring mod, which have Jupiter texture map and Saturn texture map with rings.
I'll upload it if you want. but I got an image here:



so Kryo, what do you have to say about it? you mean the game controls my rings and not me?, plus I'll have a mod soon so watch it

Master U. make a new mod folder make a new customplanets file rename your planets and rins and stuff the when you save it save as and replace. not just save.


sometimes i have to delete perfs.ini to get the changes to show up in game

mack backups of Prefs.ini


the game does not like to show the changes to the planets and rings . lol


master u did you look at my rings ???

that's not true, at least for me, the rings in the game are not as I decided in the customplanets file. and I'm pretty sure of it. I got a new mod, I did like 20 Ctrl-N's just to get the rings right...

What exactly about them isn't working as expected?

I've modded my own Sol system very much like that screenshot you posted.

Sir Nasty:

yes I did, looks great!

Kryo:

well, the game ignores my settings and creates a ring, but as the game wants, not like what I wanted...

well, the game ignores my settings and creates a ring, but as the game wants, not like what I wanted...

Please be more specific than that. What are you changing, and in what way is it not working?

ok like this:

<rings>gfx/planets/saturn-ring.png</rings>
<orbit>1.25</orbit>
<innerradius>0.2</innerradius>
<outerradius>20</outerradius>

now the game ignores me and it's random, like I never typed anything. sometimes it's thick, sometimes it's wide, sometimes the rings are not there at all!

Yes, to my knowledge in making my High Res Planets Mod, the game (DA at least) completely ignores any specifics you input about rings (aside from the texture) in customplanets.xml. The rings on any world are always randomly sized, no matter what i do. The sizes change randomly upon making a new game (not sure about loading a savegame). But i know one thing for sure, there is no way to precisely set the diameter of planetary rings. Whether or not that's a bug is for you guys to say .

Just did some testing and it appears that while Orbit is indeed ignored as you say, the radius settings work fine. I'll drop a message to Cari.

Just did some testing and it appears that while Orbit is indeed ignored as you say, the radius settings work fine. I'll drop a message to Cari.

Ok, i just checked, color me incorrect. Kryo is correct. I was basing my observation on the Iconia and Toria Rings, and i had forgotten those do not have any settings in custom planets. I forgot to look at saturn which does. So in short, Kryo is correct, i was not, Orbit settings do not work, ring settings do.

Actually, i take all that back, i'm actually wrong about being wrong. I thought i was right, and i am. Kryo, take a look at this screen cap, taken less than 5 min ago. This clearly shows Saturn's rings incorrectly sized, even though i have made no changes to the rings settings in customplanets.xml.

The rings themselves are just as broad as in the screenshot you posted on your textures thread--it's just that the randomness of the orbit went on the low end and buried half of the rings inside the planet.

So, in one shot, the rings were like this:

Saturn           Rings
           )       |.........|

And in this one, it's like this:
      |....)....|

Ok i'm so confused now. I didn't think orbit had anything to do with the rings??? I thought the inner radius set how far away from the planet the rings start, and outer radius set where they stopped??

Ok i'm so confused now. I didn't think orbit had anything to do with the rings??? I thought the inner radius set how far away from the planet the rings start, and outer radius set where they stopped??

Logic don`t think so hard you`ll get a headache

yeah that's right, all the rings in the game are messed up, and you Kryo should know, because I remember that day when I told everyone that if there is a new upgrades to the game, the rings and the planets should be fixed too, but everyone rejected me and said to me that it's not such important as a stupid 5% bonus to moral in the stock exchange improvement, which could be change in a simple XML work. but nothing was done except the planet city lights, which doesn't work well anyway.

now the DA is released and I hope all this will be fixed in the 2.1 version

mmm... sorry if I was a bit offensive

Ok i'm so confused now. I didn't think orbit had anything to do with the rings??? I thought the inner radius set how far away from the planet the rings start, and outer radius set where they stopped??

Orbit determines how far from the planet the rings are. I'm not sure exactly how inner and outer radius interplay to set the rings' thickness, but they do work. The higher you set them, the thicker the rings are (even if the Orbit issue places them halfway inside the planet sometimes).

here is another set of rings i did

looks nice! I like the blue shape! but I couldn't notice that you still have those game coulds, please E-mail me to get an High-Res clouds, or you can look at the "Screenshots of Mods in action" stick post and then E-mail me to see it in action!

There's no need master U, i will be releasing my High-Res mod alongside DA, then he and everyone else will have that and much more .

actually i have both so the game uses the old as will as the new ones but thank you,.. both of you. Logic did you like the rings ???

yeah, they look great! although the colour is a too light, you need to consider that the rings are just a hugh group of millions of asteroids, so the colour should be darken!

Logic, you are making a mod with hi-res textures too? that's not fair I thought of it first!

actually i have both so the game uses the old as will as the new ones but thank you,.. both of you. Logic did you like the rings ???

The look good SirNasty, but you might want to make the blue a little less saturated (grayer) so it looks more "natural". Other than that it looks fine.

Logic, you are making a mod with hi-res textures too? that's not fair I thought of it first!

Yes i am. I dunno if you thought of it first exactly . You can visit my thread for a list of what's being modded. I doubt we're doing the exact same things. In short tho, i'm updating everything that has to do with the planets, stars, space, etc... Including all new Race homeworlds with matching Raw terrain, using mostly 2048x1024 textures for very high resolution.