En route from Rohini to Gandharvi, I finally saw them: enormous cubes of densely-packed stars hanging in space. God likes cubes, apparently.
I know this happens because the stellar forge generates the galaxy in cubes, and if the star density in adjacent cubes is different, a very visible transition occurs. And I gather Frontier have said that it's too late to rectify this (e.g. by "smoothing" the change in star density at the edges) without rebuilding the whole galaxy.
But it's only really noticeable in the skybox, it isn't readily apparent on the galmap. So why not put in a check when the skybox is being generated, something like this:
For each star to be rendered:
IF within 30ly of the edge of the cube, AND the adjacent cube has a significantly lower star density:
THEN apply a probability that the star will not be rendered in the skybox, based on the ratio of star densities in the adjacent cubes.
Each star still exists, you can still find it in the galmap, you can still go there. But the edges of the gigantic cubes visible in the skybox will become much more blurred and fuzzy.
The ratio can be tinkered with to produce the best effect, but a good starting point would be halfway between the two star densities. So if a starry cube has 3 times the density of an adjacent one, hiding a third of the stars would reduce the apparent density to 2 times near the edge. Or maybe half the stars could be hidden, causing an apprarent density of 1.5 times near the edge. Or the actual distance to the edge could be used, so stars right on the edge are less likely to be rendered than those a bit further in.
This could be overriden for the biggest and brightest stars, so a blue-white giant would still be visible. As such stars are rare, the effect on the visible edge of the cube would be negligible.
Unlike the galmap, the skybox is only there for cosmetic reasons, so tinkering with the rendering won't affect the game mechanics.
I know this happens because the stellar forge generates the galaxy in cubes, and if the star density in adjacent cubes is different, a very visible transition occurs. And I gather Frontier have said that it's too late to rectify this (e.g. by "smoothing" the change in star density at the edges) without rebuilding the whole galaxy.
But it's only really noticeable in the skybox, it isn't readily apparent on the galmap. So why not put in a check when the skybox is being generated, something like this:
For each star to be rendered:
IF within 30ly of the edge of the cube, AND the adjacent cube has a significantly lower star density:
THEN apply a probability that the star will not be rendered in the skybox, based on the ratio of star densities in the adjacent cubes.
Each star still exists, you can still find it in the galmap, you can still go there. But the edges of the gigantic cubes visible in the skybox will become much more blurred and fuzzy.
The ratio can be tinkered with to produce the best effect, but a good starting point would be halfway between the two star densities. So if a starry cube has 3 times the density of an adjacent one, hiding a third of the stars would reduce the apparent density to 2 times near the edge. Or maybe half the stars could be hidden, causing an apprarent density of 1.5 times near the edge. Or the actual distance to the edge could be used, so stars right on the edge are less likely to be rendered than those a bit further in.
This could be overriden for the biggest and brightest stars, so a blue-white giant would still be visible. As such stars are rare, the effect on the visible edge of the cube would be negligible.
Unlike the galmap, the skybox is only there for cosmetic reasons, so tinkering with the rendering won't affect the game mechanics.
