Fix for planet transparency glitch thread

Modders needed to "ugly up" my planets

from Sins Forums
A good number of users (myself included, using a radeon 9200, laugh now) with older graphics cards have a transparency problem with planets. It's only the planets with atmospheres (stars are fine, asteroids are fine). This glitch makes the surfaces of the planets transparent. (Yes, drivers are updated)



Here is what me and more than a few others see when we look at a Terran planet. Desert, Volcanic, Artic all the same, only different color see-thru.

Would it be possible to remove or disable some layers or transparency or reflectiveness so the planets look somewhat normal for us deprived ghetto graphics card users?

I am willing to post a reward for this (yes, $) details to follow. If anyone has any ideas, please post them here.
modding
3,612 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Well, I have no idea if it would work, but you could remove certain aspects of the planets texture, cloud layer, glow, Alpha Channels, and see if any of them give you the fix you want.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I tried removing the "planetglow" and "PlanetCloudLayer" textures, that didn't help. Possibly removing relectivity from the textures or messing with alpha channels might help. I don't have much knowledge in the 3d modeling department though. WHat other files could I try?

Is it possible to make a texture for a planet with no reflectivity or other fancy effects without changing the game engine?

Thanks for the suggestion, any help is welcome.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
(correct me if I'm wrong)
Spec textures add the 'shiny' value to planets, telling them where to be shiny.
Bump mapping makes the object look more complex than it really is; such as 2-d mountains looking 3-d from a distance
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Yes, thats what I was talking about ;) Although I don't know how to remove the bump mapping.
If you have Photoshop, open the planet textures (make a backup first), and just delete the Channel 'Alpha'. If you don't have Photoshop, I could make a small mod for you, removing the alpha from the Vanilla planets.