Milky Way panorama as skybox for TextureReplacer

[uschi0815]

Searching for a replacement of the Kerbol Galaxy and inspired by this thread, I grabbed the original image and made also some cube maps out of it, this time inclined.

 

 

There are two inclinations in two sizes available: 60° for the Stock Kerbol System, 83.5° for RSS and both versions with 2k or 4k images. Both sizes are made from the same 6000 x 3000 pixel panorama shot. The only difference between 2k and 4k is the amount of pixels. More pixel made it easier for the tools to create the cube map and for Unity to display the textures. As soon as one gets a native 16k x 8k panorama, we can go for a real 4k milky way cube map.

Meanwhile also a more natural version is available. It aims for the naked-eye vision. You got less colors, less stars, less details in favor of more night sky. To give you an impression some screenshots, The first three are stock, the last from RSS.

 

You can further tweak the appearance if you use the possibilities given by the mod Distant Object Enhancements, there you can adjust the maximum Skybox brightness.

 

Installation

Like stated in the title you'll need TextureReplacer. Then download the desired version, extract the files and put it into <KSP install folder>/GameData/TextureReplacer/Default/.

 

Download

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8751jbku32kdy6p/AABZK4rEHSlOBvi7D-rOGeKya?dl=0

short explanation:

The 60° variants are for stock KSP, the 83.5° ones for RSS, NE stands for Naked Eye. As texture size does (nearly) not matter any longer, the NE-versions are only available as 4k version.

 

License

Those pictures get licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License like the original one.

 

Enjoy

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by uschi0815

[sDaZe]

Nice, finally one that isnt pixelated 

[Errol]

Been trying to find something like this for a long time. Thank you so much!

[Motokid600]

I like this nice job. I usually go for something more realistic, but I think I'm gonna try this. Can never have a high enough resolution skybox I find.

[uschi0815]

3 hours ago, Motokid600 said:

I usually go for something more realistic

More realistic than a panorama of our own galaxy? Now I'm curious.

 

PS: Oh, I guess you talk about the two "bright" stars; they are already in the original image. The one near the center must be Altair, the other one I think is Fomalhaut. The question is how they are look in the not available full size panorama. Maybe the author had to cover some processing artefacts.

Edited January 1, 2016 by uschi0815
additional thoughts

[Mitchz95]

I dowloaded the 83.5/2048 one but I can't figure out how to unpack it. My computer says it's in an "unreadable format".

EDIT: Never mind, I got it to work. Looks awesome, but you might want to convert them to dds.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Mitchz95

[Delfinus]

Neato, If possible could you do one of Andromeda? Since it's my favourite galaxy and in my headcanon is where the Kerbol system is located.

Edited January 2, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[Motokid600]

7 hours ago, uschi0815 said:

More realistic than a panorama of our own galaxy? Now I'm curious.

 

PS: Oh, I guess you talk about the two "bright" stars; they are already in the original image. The one near the center must be Altair, the other one I think is Fomalhaut. The question is how they are look in the not available full size panorama. Maybe the author had to cover some processing artefacts.

Realistic as in what the human eye would actually see. This is a long exposure photograph. You wouldn't actually see much color.

[uschi0815]

7 hours ago, Motokid600 said:

Realistic as in what the human eye would actually see. This is a long exposure photograph. You wouldn't actually see much color.

Ok, got it. Maybe I can tweak it that way. I could lower the saturation, raise the contrast and darken it afterwards to fade out all invisible stars. Do you have an example pic of the milky way like the human eye would see it? I can't get the impression on my own; it never gets dark in middle europe these days.

[uschi0815]

I've  found one: http://petapixel.com/2015/04/04/what-the-naked-eye-sees-in-the-night-sky-compared-to-what-the-camera-can-capture/

Edited January 2, 2016 by uschi0815
typo

[Mitchz95]

If you do change it, please keep the originals up! I like having a colorful skybox, even if it's not perfectly realistic.

[Motokid600]

It's up to you but don't go out of your way because of me lol im sorry. It's a lovely picture regardless. Check out Proot's new skybox that's a perfect example of what you'd actually see in space.

But the variety is good. This is the first one I've seen that's a good middle ground between realistic and fantasy ( leans more toward realistic ) Because you have skyboxes like Raredon ( I don't think that's spelled right ) that's even more colorful and then you have Astronomers which is straight up of sci-fi with nebulae clouds and such. Something for everyone.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Motokid600

[Benji]

Sadly the link seems to be broken.

[Breadland]

On 2016-02-28 at 1:22 AM, Benji said:

Sadly the link seems to be broken.

Yep :/

[uschi0815]

I had time to complete the "naked eye" version.

As my image processing capabilities were not sufficient to manipulate the original image to achive this, the new background is made from stars rendered according Tycho2 down to magnitude 7 on top of the galaxy image. Sadly the texture compression destroys the smoothness of the cloud gradients. If someone knows how to avoid this - give me a hint.

As mediafire got banned, you find the new skybox and the previous ones now at dropbox.