gives more detailed explanations of what everything does. let me know if I need to elaborate further http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=832036944
I've been playing with planet creation a bit myself, thought I might offer some insight: Code: ColorChange: YFadeCenter: 80 YFadeRange: 40 YFadeMin: -0.05 YFadeMax: 0.2 While I have no idea how precisely these affect the terrain, they do appear to have some kind of color-shifting effect on the planet. By changing the values, I was able to turn the "AlienBlack01" texture stark white, or in its current form, pitch-black. (The glowing emissive bits of this texture are unaffected). Code: ColorChange: YFadeCenter: 0 YFadeRange: 100 YFadeMin: 0 YFadeMax: -0.01 This is what caused the planet surface to be pitch-black. Further experimentation is needed, since it's extremely difficult to "eyeball" subtle visual changes, meaning extreme alterations are needed to nail down an observable effect. EDIT: More playing around. It seems the "SkyColor" parameter will affect Fog colors as well.
Building onto that same "Terrain" section: -There appears to be a large-scale Normal Map that affects various landscape textures (not all are affected equally, it's very inconsistent) by applying a sort of "roughness" to them - this creates a directional shadow effect on the terrain. -NoiseStrength enhances that effect. You can make very flat, even-looking terrain by reducing this to very low values. Setting NoiseStrength high will create very sharp, black shadows across the ground texture. -I'm not certain how YFade parameters fit into this little puzzle, any speculation I have right now would be pure guesswork.
So I figured out last night what "ColorChange:" properties do. Turns out they were actually stupid-simple. It applies a light/dark gradient to the "default" surface texture. (The one specified in MainBiome) Not all textures work for this. I've found most "rock" and "stone" patterns are affected, but cliffs seem to ignore this. Or, since cliff textures are essentially two textures in one (a flat-surface and a sheer-surface for steep inclines), perhaps it's only affecting the cliff's "flat-surface" texture and I'm simply missing it. YFadeCenter: The altitude of the gradient's center. YFadeRange: The range (in altitude) that the gradient shifts between YFadeMin / YFadeMax. I am not sure if this is total range (20 = +10 up and -10 down) or range from center (20 = +20 up / -20 down). I suspect the former, however. YFadeMin: / YFadeMax: Both of these set "light" or "dark" parameters. Both positive and negative values will work for both - however, they are extremely sensitive and positive YFade values can easily cause the texture to "wash out" and become stark white, while negatives will cause it to go pitch-black. Surfaces with emissive properties, like lava or AlienBlack01, will retain their glow. I recommend values no higher or lower than +/- 0.2 for either one. Both Min & Max are independent of each other - the name is a little misleading. Min: 1 / Max: 0 would result in a mountain that starts stark-white at the bottom and darkens to its default color at the top. As a side-note, the MainBiome texture is also the one affected by NoiseStrength.
Good job on this dude, really neat layout, will no doubt help alot of people. I use the colour chart cos its the easiest to find, Im linked now, handy dude, we thank you. Maybe update the Empyrion wiki database if your bored and get time, if you havent already that is !
