Starfield in jMonkey?

Engines, Libraries and Tools jMonkeyEngine
#1

Just had a quick question about the best way to do a starfield in jMonkey. Obviously, I’m planning on making a space combat / “space trader” type of game, and this is going to be an integral part of making the world look good. I have a pretty good handle on moving the ships around, and dealing with very large, very far off objects, (planets, stars, etc.) but the background . . . not quite so sure.

I’ve gone through the very basic tutorials on the site, but haven’t really found a good way of doing it yet. I tried playing with a SkyBox with quite unsatisfactory results, but I may not be using it correctly.

Basically, I’m thinking that using a texture that’s high enough resolution to look good is going to be hideously big, and I’m not really sure quite how to play nice with something like that. I have SOME ideas, and could probably make it work, and I’m sure there’s a “right way” to do this. I just don’t know what it is.

I’ve been impressed with jMonkey so far, and have a pretty good idea of how to tackle this project. But this one thing . . . Grr . . . very frustrating.

Can anybody help, or even point me in the right direction? I’d be greatly appreciative of any advice anybody could offer.

Thanks in advance,

Nate Nelson

#2

I am actually currently developing a space game myself and the way I’m currently handling the space environment is a modified version of this:
http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/wiki/doku.php?id=stardust

and I’m using a stars texture for my skybox and I have it locked to my camera’s position so when I fly around the position stays locked but I can rotate around and I get the effect of looking around at stars.

BTW, our combat demo will be released within the next few weeks…you can see our really lacking teaser site here:

http://www.galaxiesbeyond.com

#3

Hmm . . .

I mean star dust is okay. I’m sure I’ll want it when I get around to actually making this thing.

My problem is more the sky box itself. I mean, I haven’t put a TON of effort into it, but I really expected it to look a WEE bit better than what you might see if you hung a ship on a string inside a cardboard box that a donkey vomited into. ::slight_smile:

In any case, the quest continues. I’m not sure what’s wrong . . . too low-res images, I should be using something other than a skybox . . . something like that . . . who knows.
I’ll get it figured out, I’m sure, I was just hoping for a bit of help to make it easier.

Thanks for the stardust though.

#4

I’m just using the Skybox spatial inside of jME. Here’s a screenshot:

http://www.galaxiesbeyond.com/download/hud_01.jpg

You need to remember to turn off lighting effects for the skybox or it won’t look very “backgroundish”.

If you need more information I’d suggest going to the jME forums as an extremely small number of the users of jME ever visit this forum.

http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/

#5

Interesting. I’m doing a space game myself and I have been wondering about this problem also. Gonna try that StarDust thingy.

Other idea I had was multiple skyboxes…layered. So you have far-distant stars, not-so-far stars and stars that are close. (or more layers). It might give some depth, but I haven’t figured out how to make the skyboxes transparent so they don’t hide the skybox in behind.

I was also thinking about particle effects… but, hm, there are many many stars :slight_smile: needless to say, I think it’s a overkill to have each star as a white triangle or something.

Also, I was thinking about animation… stars do “blink”… doable with particle effects… but also with a skybox that gets alternated.

#6

jeez, we’ll soon have a bunch of space games :slight_smile:

do they blink? Looking at them from Earth they can seem to blink due to light passing through atmosphere, but does that apply for space also?

#7

You can include me in the list too :slight_smile:

Although mine has been on the go for 10 years using various techs, so don’t expect anything to get completed :slight_smile:

I went for the static star field to start with, the sorts of things you can never get too, I’m talking background stars rather than dust in space type stars that seem to be the topic here.

Mine is more of the space ship on a string inside a box a donkey vomited on though :slight_smile:

Endolf