Gas Giant Textures

[WolfyDoo]

Dear readers,

What's best to do for getting textures for gas giants? I know you can't really use PQS mods and SE (Space Engine) isn't the best choice either. I've really done enough research, but I still can't figure out what's best to do. Hopefully somebody can help me with this!

Thanks! Just leave suggestions down below.

[panzer1b]

I cant be certain but im pretty sure that most of the mods that have gas giant cloud layers use liquify tool in photoshop.  I know for a fact i did that in my mod (although its not intended to be entirely realistic, it does look cool and sorta like gas giant), and im pretty damn sure that it was used by atsronomer in his EVE packs as well as in SVE.

Basically the way i did it is start with a few stripes and then manipulated them to look more flowy and natural with the liquify tool, and then ofc used that layer as a multiply atop of a cloud layer that gave the texture some breaks and such.  Not sure how much help that is to you, but its more or less what i and some others ended up doing to make custom gas planet cloud textures...

This is my mod if you want to take a look at it, again, its not realistic at all since i went for a more sci-fi feel, but the basic idea of how i made the texture is there and you can easily use the same concepts to make a more real world looking gas planet texture:

If custom textures arent your thing, take a look at this site which has texture maps of certain planets in the solar system. 

http://planetscapes.com/maps/cylmaps.html

This has some real world images of the planets in this solar system pieced tyogether into something that can be used directly in a game.  Not my style but it may be what you are looking for...

Edited December 28, 2016 by panzer1b

[Poodmund]

Feel free to watch @GregroxMun's Gas Giant Texturing Tutorial video on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gregroxmun/v/86080269 

Maybe he can give some tips and tricks.

[WolfyDoo]

Thanks a lot. This really helps! 

[WolfyDoo]

Edited December 28, 2016 by ApertureGaming