So many white stars - why ?

Iron Body

Iron Body
I'm currently out in the black, somewhere between Colonia and Sag A., in other words close to the core.
I have recently upgraded to a 1080ti, and increased the star counts using Dr. Kaii's excellent profiler.
So I have lots of stars to see out of the cockpit, thousands in fact. But 99.9% of them are pure white.

Now, if I open the galaxy map and switch to a "realistic" view, all the stars show in their true colours, and sizes, and it is magnificent.

The question is, why does the map look better than the "real" thing ?
 

dekot

D
I'm not an astronomer but I think it's the same reason why stars in our night sky mostly show up as white. Maybe something to do with frequency and how our eyes perceive yadda yadda
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
Because the map mode is exactly that...a map. Colors are used in the map to designate any applied filters such as allegiance with the Federation=red, Empire=blue, etc. Being out in deep space where there are no populations they are all white.
 
Last edited:

Vandaahl

Vandaahl
A combination of white stars shining much brighter than yellow/orange/red ones, and (I believe) more dust towards the center blocking less brighter stars.
 
Last edited:

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Okay, let me give a serious answer: in the galmap you only compute local stars (of all types). The galaxy background is computed differently. Only a set number of stars are processed, and preference is given to (AFAIK) brighter stars. These tend to be white. As you get closer to the core, the number of bright stars quickly hit the limit of total number of stars the game will compute, so almost all stars will be white. The fix is by upping the count, so that after all white stars are done the game has still 'place' left for the other stars. This must be done in the INI, and cannot be done in the settings. Compare the following:

Default star count
2pTBXpk.jpg


Increased star count
RiBIknv.jpg
 
Last edited:

Iron Body

Iron Body
I still think most stars are red dwarves or yellow or orange, with only a small percentage being truly white. Obviously, I haven't actually been to the galactic core, but it doesn't make sense to me that 99% of stars should look exactly the same white and only about 3 levels of brightness. There should be more tinting of colour, and far more variation in brightness.
It seems the outside view doesn't take account of colour, or distance. Whereas the realistic map does. The galaxy map is obviously exagerated in its colours and brightness, but to me it looks more believable than looking out of the window.

BTW the filters only affect the map view of the galmap, not the realistic view.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Iron Body said:
I still think most stars are red dwarves or yellow or orange, with only a small percentage being truly white. Obviously, I haven't actually been to the galactic core, but it doesn't make sense to me that 99% of stars should look exactly the same white and only about 3 levels of brightness. There should be more tinting of colour, and far more variation in brightness.
It seems the outside view doesn't take account of colour, or distance. Whereas the realistic map does. The galaxy map is obviously exagerated in its colours and brightness, but to me it looks more believable than looking out of the window.

BTW the filters only affect the map view of the galmap, not the realistic view.
Click to expand...

That is because the default limit is 2000. 2000 stars is a very small number compared to the total number of stars...
 

aRJay

aRJay
Our eyes require a light source, star in this case, to achieve a certain brightness before we can see its colour, this is because our colour receptors are less sensitive than the monochrome ones.

The map even in realistic mode is a map so will show the actual colour of the stars, the view from the cockpit is supposedly what we could actually see from that location so faint colour is lost.
 

krylite

krylite
The galaxy map set to "realistic" is still using some artistic license where the stars and their colors are easily seen on the map's viewable scale and layout ignoring some of the fact that stars can vary widely in size and luminosity. As for why there are a lot of white stars, it's probably because a large percentage has been observed in our galaxy and ED's backdrop modeling has endeavored to be quite scientifically accurate for a game inline with the distribution idea of "main sequence stars".
 
Last edited:

WR3ND

WR3ND
Disclaimer: Haven't read the thread.

Presumably, stars are shown based on their relative brightness within whatever star count limit. The brightness of the core in general is not bright enough, but I digress.

There are only so many stars that can be shown, so those brightest are given priority, or so I would presume, though it gives an inaccurate account of contextually apt perspectives – something this game is lacking in general and which the devs seem... apathetic about.

Sorry, Commander.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom