The possible textures are in the individual planet entity files (planetTerran.entity, planetIce.entity, etc), so you would need to add yours in there.

I'm not sure if there are any limitations to how many you can have it pick from - Uzii has been doing planet modding including re-texturing, so he would know more than I do

You need to make new meshes for each planet to add new textures.

I did this with a new moon "planet" (colonizable moon).

For instance, if you want to add a new texture to the Ice planets, what I did:


Look for Planet_IceX.mesh (where X is a number, 0-3, etc).
Copy one, rename it Planet_Ice4.mesh (or whatever you want really, I just kept it sequential).

Open the file, and change the bolded parts (it's at the top of the file):
Material
DiffuseTextureFileName "C:\PlanetIce01-cl.dds"
SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "C:\PlanetIce01-da.dds"
NormalTextureFileName ""

Change them to reference your texture names.

Then you have to add the new mesh to the planet_ice.entity (found in the gameinfo folder), find:

TXT
entityType "Planet"
meshInfoCount 4
meshInfo
typeNameStringID "IDS_PLANETTYPE_ICE"
asteroidTemplate "Sparse"
dustCloudTemplate "IceSafe"
meshName "Planet_Ice_0"
cloudColor ffdafcff
nullMeshRadius 0.000000
nullMeshParticleEffect ""
hudIcon "HUDICON_PLANET_ICE0"
smallHudIcon "HUDICONSMALL_PLANET_ICE0"
infoCardIcon "INFOCARDICON_PLANET_ICE0"
mainViewIcon "MAINVIEWICON_PLANET_ICE0"
undetectedMainViewIcon "MAINVIEWUNDETECTEDICON_PLANET_ICE0"
picture "PICTURE_PLANET_ICE0"



Copy everything from "meshInfo to the "picture "PICTURE_PLANET_ICE0" line, and paste it AFTER the last mesh item.

Once you do that, chage the "meshName "Planet_Ice_0"" line to "meshName "Planet_Ice_4"" (or whatever you named the new mesh).

Don't forget, for every new mesh you add to the planet's entity file, you need to change the meshInfoCount number. Add 1 to it for every meshInfo item you add.

Hopefully that's not too confusing.

If it is, I'll try to make a somewhat "proper" tutorial, with pictures.

Yep, go for it. I can't believe I missed this topic, but good to see others know how it works too. Foodro got it spot on.

I couldn't see the thread you mentioned above either, "Realistic Planet Types", could you post a link please?

wrapping around is fine, in Photshop; Filter -> Other -> Offset -> Horizontal. Just don't forget to put it back before you save.

The poles is another matter. I tried warping the mid section around it, but to no avail. Someone mentioned about using; Filter -> Distort -> Polar Coordinates, but it takes some tweaking to get right.

I've tried the offset thing, but apparently I suck at it.

Actually, looking at my new textures, it's just the poles (go figure).

Looking at the standard Sins' textures, it appears there's a 5-6 pixel wide band on the horizontal part of the "+", I tried to mimic that, but it didn't do anything.

Hey man, nothing to do with your work. I like what you did with the new planet types, in fact plan to incorporate it with the Last Stand, especially the bonuses. I just meant that when you have a very detailed texture, such as a city-world one, even the tiniest misalingment shows, and very much so. Since, as you know, I am experimenting with resized planets and hi-res texturing, I need to make my own textures, and hence have the aforementioned problem.

It would be nice. I've got a ton of X3 textures, just begging to be used for more variety (for public release if/when I get their permission).

Ok I know this info is somewhere, if so please point me to it.

I am ready to add my new planets to the game. I went ahead and made A complete copy of uzils mod. and want to make the entity files for 4 more planet types. (no research needed) i'll try all that later. Is their A main file in the Gameinfo folder that I need to add to before I add Entity files for my 4 planets.or will they just show ?I really just want them to be choices to populate random maps or that i could just change via text editing the galaxy file . Do I need to modify the pictureplanet brush file in any way? or any other brush file for that matter?

So lets say I went and copied A mesh for each type 3 times for each planet type and named them 0,1,2, ect.

I made the textures and named them PlanetCarbonrich01-da.dds , 02.da.dds , 03.da.dds
ect for the 4 types

Took An existing entity file and copied,altered to point to the new cloud/planet textures and new planetnames and planet info
few questions there, #1 an icon ,where would i get one,could i use any icon(I got Desktop x..)
#2 do I need an Icon?
#3 is their A main file . somewhere. (kinda like the solarsys.scc file in celestia) that I need to alter before their can be these new planets?

Do I need to modify english String file in any way?

Did i miss anything? any tips

Very good to hear that, Diablo, I will give that a try in a minute.

Edit: Pah! It bloody works! Great spot, that probably would have taken me a few hours or more to find. Thanks a lot Diablo.

Correct, the planet does look very fucked up when you do that. The point, however, is to paint the spherical areas at the top and bottom so that they match up with the middle strip. Then you throw away the donut-shaped middle that you got from the polar coordinates filter and put the original one back in. If you've done everything right, you should end up with a seamless texture.

Well, no, the top part got cropped in the prnt-scrn.

Apparently, I'm dense as a rock...

Color-coded:

http://www.apexf1.com/soase/planet2.jpg (big)



Green is the "strips" and then I polar coord the blue? I know I'm making this WAY harder than it is, and it's frustrating the shit out of me.

ps 7.

The "donut" goes on the top + bottom? Or the middle "band".

That's where I'm getting confused. Here's one with the polar coord filter applied:

http://www.apexf1.com/soase/planet3.jpg (big)




wtf.