Blue shadows on planets

[LordSutekh]

I have created some planets which look great as a jpg, but in-game they all have a blue shadow.



They shadow in the jpg is actually #0000, not just dark blue, so I don't know what's going on. Any ideas?

[Atarlost]

3. Recolor those pixels yourself in the darkest nonblack value available of the planet's hue. Planet shadows should not be 100% black, but receive some minimal illumination from starlight.

[george moromisato]

Is is just me or did my previous message get lost?

[Aury]

It seems your previous message got lost because I don't see a prior message from you.

[Atarlost]

Sorry. I was trying to delete mine because I realized it was redundant shortly after I posted it.

[george moromisato]

No problem. The only other suggestion in my message was to use an 8-bit mask.

[LordSutekh]

As opposed to a 1-bit mask? 'Cause that's what I'm using now. I didn't think that the bmp mask affected color. I mean, several of the stock planets have a nice black shadow (ie ringed planets) and they use 1-bit masks.

[Vachtra]

I haven't had this problem but I though 1 bit masks were standard.

[george moromisato]

As opposed to a 1-bit mask? 'Cause that's what I'm using now. I didn't think that the bmp mask affected color. I mean, several of the stock planets have a nice black shadow (ie ringed planets) and they use 1-bit masks.

The problem is due to a limitation in the engine. If you use a 1-bit mask, the engine optimizes by treating all bits with black (color=0) to transparent. If it finds any areas on the planet that are color=0 but that are not supposed to be transparent, then it re-colors them to non-black (in this case, blue).

You can avoid this by using an 8-bit mask or (as Atarlost suggest) by recoloring the black parts of the planet to a different color (slightly less black).

[LordSutekh]

Bingo! That fixed it!
*All hail the Mighty George!*

[LordSutekh]

Alright, I was wrong. That almost fixed it. With an 8-bit mask the planets look great except on the map. On the map and the radar, the shadow is rendered as transparent, giving an odd half-planet look especially around asteroids. I took Atarlost's suggestion and re-colored the shadow, but apparently there is some leeway in the game engine because an almost black (ie off by a couple of bytes) will still render as black. By the time I get far enough away from black for the game engine, I have a slightly blue or yellow shadow that looks horrible.

I know it's possible. Look at the vanilla ringed planets. They have a black shadow (truly black- I checked) and they still render fine, even with a 1-bit mask. At this point they are taunting me. I might end up having to re-render all my planets without a shadow.

[Vachtra]

I have to say at first I was scratching my head trying to figure out what you were talking about. Even now I have to strain my brain to see the difference between the two images. If this is just me then sorry to all but I think you might want ot adjust your monitor(s), I'm using two. When you do a flyby you won't even notice.
Something I always though was wierd was the shadows that don't match the orientation of the sun. So this blue shadow thing really doesn't bother me at all.

[george moromisato]

Alright, I was wrong. That almost fixed it. With an 8-bit mask the planets look great except on the map. On the map and the radar, the shadow is rendered as transparent, giving an odd half-planet look especially around asteroids. I took Atarlost's suggestion and re-colored the shadow, but apparently there is some leeway in the game engine because an almost black (ie off by a couple of bytes) will still render as black. By the time I get far enough away from black for the game engine, I have a slightly blue or yellow shadow that looks horrible.

I know it's possible. Look at the vanilla ringed planets. They have a black shadow (truly black- I checked) and they still render fine, even with a 1-bit mask. At this point they are taunting me. I might end up having to re-render all my planets without a shadow.

Can you attach your image files? I can take a look and see.

[LordSutekh]

Here is the image file. The purple planet is the one I've been doing most of my tests on.

[LordSutekh]

And apparently it won't let me attach a .bmp. "The extension bmp is not allowed."