Well, if we use a curvature, we should not use scrolling since if it looks curved you are too far to see the planet "moving"...Using no curvature at all, let you use a paralax scrolling for some things, we could even do the clouds scrolling in mode 7... it would look awesome to me...like the Castlevania Symphony of the Night beginning with the clouds and clock tower, but not that fast... just slower as a detail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_BjPqg8I4 First 5 seconds of this video shows what Im saying =P
Although I like the conceptual idea of adding nebulae and stuff to the 'sky', I think you need to be careful that it doesn't look like the clouds are 'smoking' like they do now; at the moment it doesn't look like they're 1000s of light-years away, but actually coming from the Earth itself. And since we know Sonic really was set on Earth, my suggestion is to show us some recognisable constellations!
It was always Mobius, will always be known as Mobius, have the name Mobius, and therefore IS Mobius. Mario lives in Mushroom Kingdom, Sonic in Mobius. Earth is irrelevant. I don't want to discuss any of this, young man!
Whether or not is nicer isn't that important. What matters is how distracting it is for the end user.
I like the idea, but I would recommend using less glow. It looks like if I was Sonic, those lights would burn holes through my eyes! A little less glow and I think it'd be terrific =)
Those cloud pics are looking good, but here is what I think... First of all, while Sega eventually deciding to put Sonic on Earth, this was not the case when Sonic 2 was created. Mobius is not Earth, however it is likely meant to be thought of as a dystopian version of Earth, sorta like the Simpson's. Also, Mobius appears to have physics similar to Earth, I think this because despite Sonic's ability to jump high, this is largely not the norm within the Sonic world. Sonic and his gang are meant to be talented in this respect, but if we look at other characters and Robotnik, as well as the rate at which objects fall, fluidity of motion and relative weight, we can see they are similar to Earth. From what we have seen of the mobius interior, its mantel, etc, it appears Mobius is of a similar composition to Earth. Granted there are things we must simply take as axiomatic, such as floating platforms, in general I think most of us can infer that logically (to what degree we can be logical) Mobius = Earth. [EDIT] and obviously Sonic Team didn't see the jump from Mobius to Earth and the relative technical/physical implications as something incongruent. Therefore, we should try to make the space panorama similar to Earth. This means, if you choose to add a curve to the horizon you need to reduce the height of the atmosphere, because relative to the planets size (with Earth-like properties), the atmosphere would not extend that high. I think the atmosphere should be reduced anyway for several reasons. First, as current it is too bright and distracting. Second, it makes it look as though the Death Egg has yet to reach orbit, as we know, Sonic falls from space back to mobius, as a comet would (without the burn-up). Thirdly, it must be evident that Sonic is in a perilous situation, all alone now. So he should look further out in space, I.e. less atmosphere, more distressing. In terms of the nebula's and what not, I don't like it one bit. We can keep a little, but when you start making it all wacky like this, it starts to look more like the 21st Century Acid-Sonic world, which we have all come to hate. I don't wanna think about Sonic extending his adventure into a dense wilderness of space, to be honest I didn't even wanna think of Mario (Galaxy) in this way. I've always been only concerned with the Sonic world, this wacky space just personally goes beyond the scope of the Sonic world. I see it sort of like explaining where sonic was born, and why Robotnik hates him, I don't wanna know, I don't care, it's just background noise interfering with Classic Sonic, it's why Mario and Zelda don't speak, why they're still relevant, why Sonic is now watered down. Sega went the opposite direction with Sonic, and it was the first step in the wrong direction. Most of you probably won't see the connection here, I guess I just have my own formula to Soniclore. As for the Castlevania example, that looks rather Sonic CD into menu, which I personally always thought looked cheap. This is similar to what I had in mind (maybe not that high up)...
Both Sonic bibles (the one created by SoA and the one created by the SatAM people) say Mobius is the home planet. According to the SatAM bible, Mobius is actually Earth in the future by several thousand years (or something like that.) I don't know if the Sega Sonic bible agrees with that or not. The Sonic 2 manual doesn't even mention Mobius. It isn't until Spinball that Mobius gets mentioned. Anyway, not to get off-topic, but I thought I should fill in some of the missing details.
True, but if it was Mobius after, it naturally follows it was Mobius before, unless the planet changed names during Sonic's lifetime, which it BASICALLY did once already! Regardless, thanks for filling in the details, very interesting stuff! Does anyone have anything in contra to put forth from my assertions? Just curious how others might be interpreting things.
According to the original Japanese canon featured in the game manuals or any other source, no mention of the word Mobius is present in any form whatsoever; rather, it's a fabrication entirely of the US—and by extension, SatAM—canon. Since the games were originally based on the Japanese canon and the US one was simply slapped on for arbitrary localization, I think we can safely come to the conclusion that even if the planet Sonic lives on is not Earth, it certainly is not called Mobius.
This is a screenshot taken from Google Earth, with atmosphere lenght. Although there is some curvature, that high on the sky and looking so...horizontally the atmosphere goes up a LOT, that's why its high in my pic, If you look the earth from up, you'll not see the atmosphere after all, to get the same horizontal feeling its imposible without the atmosphere like that, also, I tried to keep the curvature to minimum while showing the earth like the original background.
can't we just have a very slight [smooth] 'bend' at the edges of the screen? let's not forget that the far-background doesn't move as fast the foregrounds do.
Taking the liberty to get a relevent screenshot: It's from the program Celestia which aims to give the most realistic portrayal of space available... within certain limits (like the fairly low-poly ISS). Note the atmosphere appearing as a thin band at this height, and also the curvature. Having said that, apply a little discretion.
Double-post for some actual top-of-atmosphere and orbital photography: Alright, so lower down, the blue haze still remains, pretty high up.... ... literally at the TOP of our atmosphere, you get this. Awesome, no?
It is indeed. That's my desktop background. XD The first image is a good reference for what the cloud cover would be like. The second image has given me an idea. Why don't we have the moon in the background?
I guess this would fall under the category of Aquatic Ruin Mockups, for the consideration of the midnight society *POOF* The Job That Wasn't Finished
lol, I see you posted this over here as well, and yeah, this should be in here, so just read what I said in the other thread and post further revisions here.
This is just the form of the pillar I'm working on, no aging here or stone texture. Nor is the form complete. What do you guys make of the ring in the center of the pillar, what is it made out of, metal, stone? looks like it may have bolts in it? Little help please.
