Just a quick heads-up :
I got really annoyed of the old backdrops for the different nations that I made years ago when 4:3 and 5:4 displays where still the majority. So I finally decided to drop them and along also the odd water plane. Thoug the reflecting water plane was a nice shader showcase it always felt unnatrual and, depending on globe zoom and position, would obstruct the lower regions of the globe.
So I decided to give the game's main view a complete visual overhaul and create a gorgeous looking space skybox (with this great tool from Alex Peterson), you can see the first screenshots of it in action here :
Looks much better in my opionion and it also feels more natural to see the globe from space and to have a rotating backdrop. You may also notice that the globe looks a bit better now too, as I did some fine-tuning to the shaders and changed texture color and saturation levels to give it a more realistic look. The earth's shader now also (again) has a realisitc day/night transition and was enhanced to also render the clouds (that was a separate sphere up until now). So the shader now uses up to 6 different textures.
Note that this is still work-in-progress and a new beta will be released soon (no ETA yet). I also plan to add some dynamic objects to the background like the glowing sun and and orbiting moon that may even get used for a global project, so stay tuned
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