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DirectX Space....

Started by sathenzar Jan 19, 2005 at 4:59 PM 10 replies 2.2k views

Original Post

Jan 19, 2005 at 4:59 PM

Hey, I'm programming in C++/DirectX on a Win32 project and I was wondering how I could make it look like space in the background. I just don't know how to slow the stars down enough to make it look like space. For now I just use a for loop of 250 and use the SetPixel command to plot pixels that are white. When I ran the test, they flash so quickly on screen (I put them in the render function of DirectX I made) you can't tekk what they are and it looks like crap. Does anyoner have any idea on a better way?


void render(void)
{
	if(pd3dDevice == NULL)
		return;

	pd3dDevice->Clear(0, NULL, D3DCLEAR_TARGET, D3DCOLOR_XRGB(0,0,0), 1.0f, NULL);

	for(int i=0; i<250; i++)
	{
		SetPixel(hdc, rand()%640,rand()%480,RGB(255,255,255));
	}

	pd3dDevice->Present(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
}

Mykre

Jan 19, 2005 at 7:30 PM

You ,ight be able to try using a SkyBox, then you could texture the Skybox with the backgrounds that you need.

jacksaccountongamedev

Jan 19, 2005 at 8:56 PM

A sky box is a large box (or sphere) that is always centred on the player’s position (it moves with the player). If you texture the interior surfaces with a space texture you can create quite a convincing illusion of outer space. You may want to assign different textures to each surface for greater variation.

Jackson Allan

bit64

Jan 19, 2005 at 9:05 PM

I found this tool to be very helpful in my space shooter. There is a stand-alone executable and a plugin for photoshop. The program is shareware, but you can purchase it for only 25 dollars.
Check it out.

Khaosifix

Jan 19, 2005 at 9:09 PM

There are several galaxy renderining algorithms that you might ought to use, thought I might warn you, some of those algorithms may be too complicated to initially grasp. I too suggest the usage of a skybox or a large textured quad[and then translation the texture matrix to create a scrolling effect].

MasterWorks

Jan 20, 2005 at 3:17 AM

Yup a skybox does wonders for a space game. Rotate it (or the camera) around somehow for maximum effect. Consider using billboards, etc. for suns/planets/other non-star objects. Finding a good resolution for the stars texture can be tricky and depends primarily on the camera FOV. Remember to disable ZBuffer/AlphaBlend before drawing the skybox and you don't need a d3ddevice.clear anymore.

bit64

Jan 20, 2005 at 2:07 PM

Not that exciting I know, but this uses a skybox that was textured with textures from the app I mentioned above and a billboarded 'sun' .

dpspace4.png
dpspace1.png
dpspace3.png
dpspace2.png

Edited by Coder: You inlined 4 images, ~180Kb each. That'd kill a guy with a dialup [grin]. A link would do

[Edited by - Coder on January 21, 2005 5:07:15 AM]

turnpast

Jan 20, 2005 at 2:16 PM

Quote:
Original post by MasterWorks
Remember to disable ZBuffer/AlphaBlend before drawing the skybox and you don't need a d3ddevice.clear anymore.

If you use the z buffer for other objects in the scene you will still have to clear it with the D3DCLEAR_ZBUFFER flag.

MasterWorks

Jan 20, 2005 at 7:35 PM

Good call, I forgot that part.

sathenzar

Jan 20, 2005 at 8:53 PM

well I'm using a 2D view though. So mainly you're looking at the top of the action. So all I need is a white dot placed randomly around the screen that slowly scroll vertically

bit64

Jan 20, 2005 at 8:56 PM

You would get much better performance by drawing a quad the size of the screen and texturing it with little white dots. Then just transform the texture vertically.

paulecoyote

Jan 21, 2005 at 4:58 AM

I think Frontier used a miniture particle system just outside the ship to show movement through space. There are tons of examples of those kinds of particle systems around.

[google] provides:
http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~hastings/index.php?id=opengl
http://www.yov408.com/html/projects.php?page=3

I'm sure if you looked you could find different more DX friendly examples, including some in the SDK that could be adapted to your needs.

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