More stars possible?

[artao]

Hey all, been gone for awhile now due to lack of 'net access ... now back to find GWX III and many other updated mods, AND LOVIN 'EM!!

I would like to find a way to contribute to this sim, but it seems everything has been done, except ..... better night sky. It's nice to see all the major constellations there, but out in the open sea at night WAAYY more starts would be visible, especially through any optics. Being an amateur astronomer, I feel I might be able to make my contribution in this area, if possible.
IS it possible, or are the stars hard-coded? IF possible, how would I go about it? Graphics files? Config editing? Clueless here as to how to even BEGIN working on this.

thanks,
l8r,
artao

[Torplexed]

There was a thread on this subject once in the SH4 mods section that pretty much implied that this aspect of the game is indeed hard-coded and would be a major under-taking to change, especially without the SDK. I wouldn't know where to start either.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143255&highlight=stars+constellations

[artao]

Thanks, interesting read. My interpretation is that there MAY be some hope, i.e. - adding a 'stars layer' to the clouds or moon implementation.
How would this be done tho? I've made one 'mod' for my install to replace the useless convoy routes map (considering I've got fold-out one) with a sheet of sunrise/set times and moon phases; but it has to be replaced for each year which makes it a bit of a PITA; but I REALLY missed this info in-game (where's the calender from SH2?!?! captain's room is absolutely useless!!), as it's fairly important and useful. Perhaps I could 'perfect' that as well, make it JSGME-ready (or SH3 Commander, as it can change stuff based on date; any input on that?), and put that up too if anyone's interested.

I know the stars thing would be time-intensive, but as I have nothing BUT time these days (unemployed and on-the-dole as it were), not a problem for me. I would need some guidance as-to HOW it would be implemented however.

[artao]

bump .....

I'd really appreciate it if anyone could at least indicate where I might start on this. What files to look in/at, etc ... as far as implementing this as a cloud/moon layer, maybe even add another layer if possible. I'll mess with it in base 1.4b install first (quicker load for experimentation) and see how far I can get.
Any tutorials on working on mods? what the cfg, dat, etc ... files are for, syntax, what can safely be edited/added? no luck searching ... yet.

I REALLY appreciate everyone else's work on this sim, and would like to contribute; but this will be my first real effort at modding ANY game, aside from the simple sun/moon-rise/set thing. Speaking of which, I originally wanted to add that to the F1 screen, but had no idea how/where to do so so my map-replace fix seemed easiest. Anyone interested in that as well, I'd be glad to put effort into it to upload it here :yeah: