Stars on the water

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Hey...

I just had a crazy idea about something, and I need some help to figure if it's possible. The old gang here might gimme a hand...

I thought about making reflections of the stars on the water. I thought the stars were only part of the sky, fixed there, not real objects. If so, they can't have reflection.

But then I thought... "what if they're objects?"

Cos in Scene.dat, there's a node called "SkyObjRadius". The stars are included. So, if they are actually objects, they can have reflections on the water no problem. They just don't have a node. It's necessary to create a node called "Stars" and another inside, with definitions for "water reflection". Just like the moon.

The question is: Are stars objects? Is it possible?

If so, how do I do it? I never messed up with creating new nodes and fixing ID's. Well, once, months back, with Rubini, we were modding the lifeboats. But I forgot everything about it, and honestly I didn't had much time on the last few months for sh3. Just some hours, used to create simple mods.

So, any help is appreciated! :up:

[richardphat]

The great thomson has found something...... must help him!!
Reflected image on the sea cool!:rock:

[Commander Gizmo]

I don't have an answer for you PT, but I want to say go for it! I was going to request this feature as I think it is very noticible that it is missing. However, I didn't want to ask too much of you.

Just encouraging you to enrich our experience all the more.

[Sag75]

Hi, nice thought..:hmm: but I've never heard about stars reflection on water.. The water must be absolutely calm, the sky deeply black and clear to permit stars have enough light and contrast to reflect onto water surface..

so, we may ask to expert RL seamen if they can see stars on the water by night in the middle of Athlantic.. :D

[Madox58]

The Star base is hard coded information.
As such, they are not objects as we are use to working with.
If you add objects and call them stars?
You'll still have the original Star field.
Yours would reflect and the original wouldn't.

[Task Force]

This would be a pretty cool mod, and make the sea look even better.:D GO For it PT.:up:

(By the way, cool Avatar Privateer.)

[rik007]

Before you put all the effort in. As it is hardcode, will we then not have problems like: the stars don't move properly or the stars can be seen during the day?

[Contact]

Now stars reflection on the water is a ****y idea! Stars are too small to leave any reflection on the water in RL. Too much reflections stinks either! :P

[vickers03]

i thought the stars where listed in the materials.dat
and have a tga file:hmm:
anyways i gave them reflection ..nothing:lol:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

The Star base is hard coded information.
As such, they are not objects as we are use to working with.
If you add objects and call them stars?
You'll still have the original Star field.
Yours would reflect and the original wouldn't.

I kinda had that one comming.

But do you know if the stars even exist as hardcoded objects or it's just a "paint" in the sky?

I tried giving reflection to the entire sky node, but still a no go.

Guess we wait for Sh5, huh... :hmm:

Thanks anyway, mate! :up:

[Madox58]

I did not post to offend you.
It's a proven fact that the Stars are hard coded.

They are not objects in a 3D sense.
They are laid out in code as a mathimatical grid.

What you see is what you get.
The only way to change it is to hack the code.

THAT, as We all abide by, is a NO NO!

[Hartmann]

Is a good idea but in real life stars are too faint to make reflections in the water, except some planets like jupiter, saturn, venus, and stars like sirius . (up to +2 mag).

only venus is so brilliant that it can cast shadows sometimes and become visible at day if you know where you have to look.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I did not post to offend you.
It's a proven fact that the Stars are hard coded.

They are not objects in a 3D sense.
They are laid out in code as a mathimatical grid.

What you see is what you get.
The only way to change it is to hack the code.

THAT, as We all abide by, is a NO NO!

Don't worry, I didn't felt any harm intentions.
A grid huh... :hmm:
The sky is actually the lack of materia, the emptiness.
The blue of the sky is nothing but a paint, a tga file.
At night, no paint, just a pitch black empty space.
Just like in real life.
So the stars must be... holes in the emptiness?
Or little white dots painted, in the...
If it's emptiness, nothing can be painted at...
So my theory is wrong. Maybe it is a half globe 3D object painted in black.
The stars are not 3D, for obvious reasons. Just painted there.
If they are painted, by adding reflection to the whole "sky" object, we would have reflections of the stars at night.

So either the sky is not an object, or the stars physical appearance is acutally a lack of small spaces in the black globe, with a white "something" holding everything in the back.

Thinking autocad, what's behind everything we see in sh3? What's behind the sky, and below the land?

Forget it... I'm just too curious.

[Hartmann]

what file have the stars data ??

another interesting idea is increase the stars number and make the sky more realistic, like in real life.

i´m sure that in the dark night of the atlantic the milk way is visible.

[Contact]

i´m sure that in the dark night of the atlantic the milk way is visible.

It is not.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Even on the the surface of the water on its most glassy night, the water is ALWAYS in motion enough to destroy the reflection of the stars.

Adding the reflection of the stars on the water would not be very realistic at all. :(

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Even on the the surface of the water on its most glassy night, the water is ALWAYS in motion enough to destroy the reflection of the stars.

Adding the reflection of the stars on the water would not be very realistic at all. :(

Yeah...

I wasn't thinking about that when it came to my mind.

Now that I am, you're right. Makes no sense.

Thanks! :up:

[anzacmick]

ud be hard pressed getting a indoor pond to reflect stars:rotfl:

[flakmonkey]

The stars are objects, well sort of anyway.
Each one is just a poly plane with a texture of a single star in the same way the moon/sun are poly planes with textures applied, I think the actual model file is in scene.dat somewhere as i extracted it once just to see what it was.
Unfortunatly the positions and properties of the starfield geometry seem to be hidden or at least not accessable to modding.