How can I show a big star?

wombat140

I'm putting together a little mission in which I'd like the player to be able to fly close to Sol. But there isn't a close-up-star prop as such in the Foundry, or indeed any star that I can find. What's a good way to show it? This question's been asked before ( http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/comment/10979464 ), but I can't work out how to do what they're describing - e.g. I can't find any object called a "supernova remnant", or a "white star" either. Hav they been removed since 2013, or am I looking in the wrong place?

duncanidaho11

Could try gas giant and a mission-specific light map/background that causes it to become very psychedelic/bright. I'm not sure which one would be most appropriate, I haven't tried this myself, but in doing a bit of experimentation (and getting what for a "planet" is an undesirable result) I'm sure its possible.

lincolninspace

There are supernova map backgrounds which look like a large star in the sky. They will work if you don't need a 3D object on the map.

zionus0

I think "Mirror Nova" the winner of the Mirror of Romulus foundry contest had you go into a supernova... If I recall right, it seemed like they used some glowing space assets (Maybe comets that reflect the many nebula clouds.

wombat140

I've just found an amazing thing. It seems you can customise space backdrops! If you click the "Backdrop" tab and then "Customise" it'll show you all the different effects that the pre-made backdrop you've chosen is made up of, and you can then pick and mix. So that's what Markhawkman meant in the other thread by "layering a supernova remnant over Vorn". It turns out that "Vorn" is not just the name of one of the pre-made space maps, but also the name of the supernova-remnant-like effect that appears in that map, and "Supernova Remnant" is another effect. It's even possible to add other objects that appear in the distance, like the "large white star" Markhawkman used, but I haven't got the hang of that yet - it didn't show up on the map when I tried.
The effects that make up the Vorn Space map are
1) Stars #5, 2) Green Clouds #1, 3) Stars - Big #1, 4) Darker Effect #1, 5) Vorn,
and I altered that to
1) Stars #5, 2) Supernova Remnant #4 (there certainly ain't no random green clouds in OUR Solar System), 3) Stars - Big #1, 4) Darker Effect #1, 5) Vorn. The effect doesn't look entirely like the Sun (too ragged, not round enough), but it's good enough and looks beautiful!

"Mirror Nova" sounds interesting, I'm satisfied with what I've got there but I might have a look at "Mirror Nova" just because it sounds a good mission.

wombat140

P.S. Thanks everyone for your advice, if you hadn't said that about supernova backdrops I'd never have gone guddling around in the Backdrops section in the first place!

markhawkman

It's also very important to remember that the backdrop layers are stacked on top of each other and may or may not hide each other. I guess the best way to visualize it is to imagine sheets of glass with stuff painted on them. Now the paint may be opaque or nearly translucent, it varies depending on which of the backdrops you are using. But when one of them is in front of another it at least partially obscures the one behind it. This can produce drastically different visuals based one the order in which they are layered.

It was a few years ago but I delved pretty deep into this stuff as part of the Beta Rana space map:
http://marhawkman.deviantart.com/art/Beta-Rana-Station-1-353732150
http://marhawkman.deviantart.com/art/Beta-Rana-Prime-349935867

IIRC, I actually used four layers.
front is the star thingy (this is called Vorn IIRC since it was copied from the Borg space map)
second is a rather subtle effect that adds blue squiggly lines to the horizon.
third creates a ring around the system
and the back is the briar patch BG(this one hides pretty much everything behind it)

The star effect has to go in front since the ring and squiggly thing are supposed to surround it, and thus it does not make sense for you to see them in front of it. The star effect is partially translucent though so if you look closely you can see the ring behind it.

The "large white star" you mentioned is not a BG layer but a distant object that you place separately.

wombat140

Thanks for the explanation Marhawkman. I thought it was something like that (I experimented with putting Vorn in front or Supernova #4 in front but with that one it didn't seem to make any difference), but wasn't sure.

I know the white star is a "distant object" rather than a background layer, I spotted it in the list of distant object shapes, but when I tried to put one in nothing showed up in the preview. Am I doing something wrong? Or is it one of those things that doesn't work in preview but appears when the mission's published?

markhawkman

It should work in preview, but... it's really small. Also, check the "distance" value, and direction values associated. You can place distant objects in almost any direction. It might be obscured. Also the distance value makes the object smaller.

wombat140

Hmm. Is it the small round object between the two planets (brown dwarfs) in the second picture? Because there is definitely nothing that size anywhere in my preview - I tried changing the azimuth direction, in case it was behind the supernova, but still nothing. I'll try monkeying with the distance values again, now I know it should definitely be in the preview if it's there.

markhawkman

yeah, I think so. Try placing one on a blank map just to get an idea as to how the object looks.

wombat140

Just tried. Not a dicky-bird, even with no sky layers (except the single Stars #1) and distance down to 10000 which is the least it'll let me enter. Glitch, possibly. I'll see what happens when I can test-publish it (it's currently got too many Unfinished Tasks to be able to do that yet).

markhawkman

I just tinkered with it and I see your dilemma.... I even went so far as to remove the BG layer entirely so that the ONLY thing to se would be the star and noting... literally, I was staring at a black void.