Just a simple Bryce-generated starfield, all volumetrics textures and stuff. I'd like to get some feedback on both the color scheme and the detail? Sorry it's not a landscape...!

shadowdragonlord, I like it. the detail is about perfect, some of the stars seem a little too large notably in the lower right hand corner. The red stars in the upper right should be dimmer or smaller, although if you're trying to depict Mars, it should be slightly more towards yellow(a dull orange). Jupiter is white or yellowish and the other gas giants are a dull yellow to my recollection. The 'milky way' should be less brown more towards grey and cover a broader band in the sky. (I can almost see Betelgese and Alnelan.) There used to be a dos program called starview that would map out star positions but it never looked this good. - TJ

Seems like Bikermouse knows space a little better than I do, but I'd say that I like the red stars. I'like the whole image. Space always looks beautifull.

This doesnt necessarily have to be our galaxy! Shadowdragonlord may very well have discovered a new one here! So, what are you going to call it? :) Great starfield! Love those gas clouds!

Nice job here Shadow, and here I thought a decent starfield in bryce was all but impossible.

Great job. B4 or B5?

This in done in BR5, although it would work just fine in BR4. I didn't use any new techniques, just a few fun volume textures and a bunch of spheres...! TJ, I remember Starview! I miss that little app, it taught me sooo much, especially about Sirius and all the Orion stars. I recently found a similar star program and used it to map orion for a scene I was working on... Skymap Pro 7 I think, but it's on my machine at home so I can't be sure...! Still, for no postwork I was kinda stoked how this one worked out. Thanks for all the comments, everyone! Rochr, let's just say that all of my work happens on or around Shila, the so-called destroyed homeworld of the Saaur... Beauty in chaos!

the old starview still works on XP in command prompt! unfortunately none of my screen capture apps do. I think I've found starview again(an updateded database). give me a few minutes to check out the download. I'll be bock. - TJ

shadowdragonlord, Alas no, If it is - somebodies really screwed it up. It's now an online database that is difficult to use, data references, sky positions etc in list form only no graphical representation that I can see, and you have to be online to use it. sorry to raise your hopes. I will find a good windows based astronomy program - I keep telling myself. - TJ

There's an old DOS program on the computers at my school that could be what you're looking for. I'll have to wait until the 19th(that's when school starts again in my place) If the computer specialists haven't f*cked up the network again I can try to put it on a disk and mail it to you when I get home. Usually a computerspecialist should be fixing the network, but when they first tried to enhance the security at the network they made it from hackable in 30 minutes to hackable in 2 seconds using IExplorer! These guys that call themselves computerspecialists can't even get a sruck piece of paper out of a printer! (8D They said they where going to re-organize the whole network, so I have not muc hope on getting a stable computer at my school. :)

Attached Link: http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html

I found one very similar to the old starview (once you get past the bells and whistles). I think this would probably be good enough. - TJ

I think your starfield is marvellous!! How many hours of render to achieve this? Can you put a little tutorial?

Sure, Vasquez, I'll put up a tut tomorrow... it's tedious, but the actual render time was jack since the image is so small. The first take actually had more detail, 'cause I turned AA off completely. But I liked the slightly softer look better (imagine that!). And, Groin, now that I think about it what happened was that I made the scene at work, on my Pentium 2/266/64MB machine, in Bryce 4. Slapped it on my little Smartcard (which by a twist of fate also is 64 MB!), brought it home where I only have Bryce 5 now and let it run on my home network... It seems to be the way of things these days, as I'm more creative in my spare time at work than at home, drunk, and distracted... (smirks)

looking forward to your tut! B5 starfields are bugging me and I AM REALLY curious how you did that! Nice job.

I too am waiting breathlessly for the tutorial. My humble hat is off to you! Superb.

sorry, bikermouse, but I've gotta contradict you, with all due respect. Those 'red-giants' in the upper right corner could certainly look that bright, depending on how close they are to the viewer (the second brightest star (from Earth's vantage) in the constellation Orion is Betelgeuse, a red giant. Jupiter appears pinkish white until you zoom in enough to see the bands. Saturn is rather yellowish, while the other two (Neptune and Uranus) are a beautiful aqua-blue. Also, material through which the light from stars is passing will affect color. A nebula containing hot hydrogen gas will reflect red light (very similar to the upper right corner of this image. Other gases reflect blue (such as in the Pleides cluster). Cosmic dust will reflect just about any color, most notably a brownish yellow, or block the light completely. Enough of Astronomy 101, I think this is an excellent image. I used to have this prog called Universe (or something like that) which would supposedly create astronomical images, but could never get it to render anything half as realistic as this (which is why I said "used to have"). Put me on the list of people that would like to see how you created this image. BTW, one critique I would have would be... if one is viewing a deep space field through a telescope (as this appears to be, rather than viewing by eye from Earth, because of the number of 'galaxies' you've included), there would be stars which are closer to the viewer that would appear very large in comparison. Just a few would give a feeling of distance to the image. (as in the pic I included.. the bright stars with the defraction spikes are much closer than the galaxies in the background) Super image.

another BTW... I know exactly what you mean about being more creative at work.. been thinking about getting me a notebook and putting just my 3D stuff on it to take to work with me. My job is incredibly tedious, with short bursts of action interrupted by long stretches of mindless tedium. Having Bryce on a computer there would certainly be a blessing.