Greyscale Mir texture complete

Finally the greyscale texture is done. I will increase the contrast in the cloth covers but that is about it.

The next step will be to add the colour and final details.

MIR textures rework

I have been looking for better reference for the MIR space station.

I have found quite a few good pictures so I have decided to rework the textures to make more sense of what it really looks like.

Once I had the reference there is no way I could ignore that the textures I made were so far from reality.

The new textures are still an interpretation but are much closer to the real thing.

This is just a quick taste of what is coming at MIR

MIR texturing

After a lot of other work I have started making the final paneling in the MIR.

Here are some shots of the core section. The details are a free interpretation of the real thing.

Earth Images

I think this is a good time to show some shots of the earth used in the game

They have been rendered using several layers.

The first layer is the diffuse earth colour which has the photographic information and some bump map to add volume and shadows.

The second is the cloud layer. This is made out of two spheres with the same texture but different settings. The bottom of these two layers has a blur factor on the alpha mask to create extra volume under the top sharper layer. These layers cast shadows on the bottom diffuse sphere.

The top is the atmosphere layer. It is made out of a flat bright blue colour made visible using a falloff effect. This effect means that the layer is only visible at shallow angles. The result is the blurry atmosphere at the edges of the earth.