The Quest To Find Raxxla
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Here is the other bit of evidence/reasoning I have on my hunt for Raxxla's location after my previous posts https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Find-Raxxla?p=7192717&viewfull=1#post7192717, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Find-Raxxla?p=7215817&viewfull=1#post7215817:
After unsuccessfully trying to search for it via the (deleted for a year) Elite SD Dark Wheel missions in conjunction with the meaning of SD (Life, she saw, hope) and searching for Hope, Gateway etc (reported here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Find-Raxxla?p=7137584&viewfull=1#post7137584 ) I sat back and thought hard about the only other clues that we have- "it's in the Milky Way", "it's been in-game since the beta" and "it's just a little bit obvious". My conclusion was that it had to be portrayed in the start menu screen image, and perhaps the location was hinted at by the video which precedes that. What else is obvious in this game? I captured that video with my Nvidia Shadowplay and trimmed it for size (edit: deleted! see the clearer "Ident_Frontier_EliteNeutral.webm" version in your EDLaunch/Products/elite-dangerous64/movies folder)
I put that video on repeat and watched it for ages, I can see that ("feature C") the reddish dust down the left half with two bright stars at its top all approach the camera at the same time, so they are co-located. I can see a small group of stars ("feature A") in the centre to the left & just above the tip of the Guardian statuette/Elite symbol's wing/horn tip and a small dark blob ("feature B") that may be a hint of a dark nebula. I was & am still convinced that the bright yellow star between the horns/wings represents Raxxla's location, it's highlighted just a bit too obviously to be coincidental.
I thought at first that "A" was the Pleiades and "B" the California nebula so spent a week and a half fruitlessly searching around the Lupus Dark Sector B area, but it became clear that the location is not sufficiently defined by A & B as no star patterns matched the skybox. Then I tried playing the video with Windows Media Player as I found it had a few video enhancement (hue, saturation, brightness) controls. I played around with those and spotted something which was previously invisible- on the right hand side Barnard's Loop and the Witchhead nebula became visible. https://imgur.com/1ILEb7u
I've spent the last four weeks or so trying to match the skybox patterns in various sectors simultaneously with the aspect and size of these two nebulae. I've visited: Ophichus Dark Region B, Col 359, Col 259, Col 285, IC 4604, Praea Euq, Wredguia, Wregoe. At no point was I further than about 600 ly from Sol, which ties in with the lore-based discussions on Raxxla being not too far from the bubble given the FSD ranges at the time. I think the aspect and visual size of Barnard's Loop and the Witchhead define broadly the area of location, but it needs some other features to narrow it down; there must be thousands of G type systems in these area, I've visited a few!
It needs someone with reasonable skills at star pattern matching & maybe image enhancement to find some more features for triangulation; my skills are lacking in both these areas. Moreover my desk is about three inches too high so the constant use of mouse to drive the galmap when checking for systems with twin G stars while trying to match the skybox is exacerbating my current neck/shoulder pain so I'm throwing this avenue of the search open.
As I said before I haven't found the solution, but I am pretty well convinced this is the way to get there.
edit: no doubt some will say this video is just FD marketing etc, but if that was the case why would the imagery have been so manipulated by them? Why make Barnard's Loop and Witchhead invisible until enhanced? Why make features A and B so dissimilar from what we actually see in-game? To my mind they have given us the real clue to Raxxla in the video but manipulated it as hard as they could to obfuscate it!
edit2: I really hope there is somebody on the thread who has some image enhancement skills & is willing to have a look at this & pull out some more details to help triangulation; I would like to pursue this to the conclusion but think I'm at a standstill & need some help! Here's an unenhanced shot: https://imgur.com/zYDeZ7V
After unsuccessfully trying to search for it via the (deleted for a year) Elite SD Dark Wheel missions in conjunction with the meaning of SD (Life, she saw, hope) and searching for Hope, Gateway etc (reported here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Find-Raxxla?p=7137584&viewfull=1#post7137584 ) I sat back and thought hard about the only other clues that we have- "it's in the Milky Way", "it's been in-game since the beta" and "it's just a little bit obvious". My conclusion was that it had to be portrayed in the start menu screen image, and perhaps the location was hinted at by the video which precedes that. What else is obvious in this game? I captured that video with my Nvidia Shadowplay and trimmed it for size (edit: deleted! see the clearer "Ident_Frontier_EliteNeutral.webm" version in your EDLaunch/Products/elite-dangerous64/movies folder)
I put that video on repeat and watched it for ages, I can see that ("feature C") the reddish dust down the left half with two bright stars at its top all approach the camera at the same time, so they are co-located. I can see a small group of stars ("feature A") in the centre to the left & just above the tip of the
I thought at first that "A" was the Pleiades and "B" the California nebula so spent a week and a half fruitlessly searching around the Lupus Dark Sector B area, but it became clear that the location is not sufficiently defined by A & B as no star patterns matched the skybox. Then I tried playing the video with Windows Media Player as I found it had a few video enhancement (hue, saturation, brightness) controls. I played around with those and spotted something which was previously invisible- on the right hand side Barnard's Loop and the Witchhead nebula became visible. https://imgur.com/1ILEb7u
I've spent the last four weeks or so trying to match the skybox patterns in various sectors simultaneously with the aspect and size of these two nebulae. I've visited: Ophichus Dark Region B, Col 359, Col 259, Col 285, IC 4604, Praea Euq, Wredguia, Wregoe. At no point was I further than about 600 ly from Sol, which ties in with the lore-based discussions on Raxxla being not too far from the bubble given the FSD ranges at the time. I think the aspect and visual size of Barnard's Loop and the Witchhead define broadly the area of location, but it needs some other features to narrow it down; there must be thousands of G type systems in these area, I've visited a few!
It needs someone with reasonable skills at star pattern matching & maybe image enhancement to find some more features for triangulation; my skills are lacking in both these areas. Moreover my desk is about three inches too high so the constant use of mouse to drive the galmap when checking for systems with twin G stars while trying to match the skybox is exacerbating my current neck/shoulder pain so I'm throwing this avenue of the search open.
As I said before I haven't found the solution, but I am pretty well convinced this is the way to get there.
edit: no doubt some will say this video is just FD marketing etc, but if that was the case why would the imagery have been so manipulated by them? Why make Barnard's Loop and Witchhead invisible until enhanced? Why make features A and B so dissimilar from what we actually see in-game? To my mind they have given us the real clue to Raxxla in the video but manipulated it as hard as they could to obfuscate it!
edit2: I really hope there is somebody on the thread who has some image enhancement skills & is willing to have a look at this & pull out some more details to help triangulation; I would like to pursue this to the conclusion but think I'm at a standstill & need some help! Here's an unenhanced shot: https://imgur.com/zYDeZ7V
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There you go - that's the tin-foil spirit. Double rep if I were allowed.
This had crossed my mind some time ago. The nebula is most likely the loop, 'the path everyone takes' refers I feel to reaching Elite - and the old wheel missions, 'Obfuscated In The Outer Rim' could literally be its near or hidden on the outer rim of the loop.
Now that sector is very much totally mapped but there could be something hidden. Some tiny nebula don't show up in gal map until your on top of them.
Anyhow I'm tooling around there right now so I've just discovered another reason to stay and take in the sights.
I think Raxxla is going to be hidden somehow-maybe in a uss that only is detectable when you’re very close to it, so doesn’t matter how well the area is mapped. Even so I did get a couple of first discoveries this week. What I need is someone skilled in image engancement to have a look at the image from the start video (I’ll see if I’ve got an unenhanced original and add it to my last post) and find something else that can help the triangulation; even clearing up the aspect of Barnard’s Loop could help a lot. We need the search area to be narrowed down.
Batteries low...Lavian brandy just floated out..of..reach..noticed this on my baco-foil meanderings!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/219625-Strange-dark-nebula
Agree its been 'obscured' in some fashion, not invisible just, shrouded.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/219625-Strange-dark-nebula
Agree its been 'obscured' in some fashion, not invisible just, shrouded.
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I'm not very good at working things out based on a picture either, but I'm fairly convinced that the view in that image from the opening is taken from somewhere inside the Pleiades. When I get the chance, I'll try looking for it, just not certain when that's going to be atm.
hmmm... OPTIONS >> CLEAR SAVE could do the trick (just saying)
Just need to Iron Man your way to triple Elite. It shows up on your galaxy map.
You can look very quickly in galmap to get a rough idea (though the star patterns are limited by some strange cut off distance, I can never find a star that I can see out the cockpit window- it drives me mad with frustration!). I took Dr Kaii’s list of all the known real life nebulae (light & dark, visible and invisible from the bubble, about 130 in total! https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=178731) and played around in galmap to see if they would suit the image. I think from memory the Pleiades is too close and gives the wrong aspect angle -BLoop and Witchhead would be side on.
Edit: I would have checked out procedural nebulae as well but couldn’t find a list.
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This bit depends on your orientation, and I've never seen a another nebula that shares the same blue only look and is large enough to fill that much of your view from inside, especially close enough to the bubble.
Edit: though it is possible I misinterpreted that part of the post, but still not sure.
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Ah I see. When you get a ways out from the bubble there’s a load of interstellar dust, some is reddish, the rest is bluish; so I think the blue in the image is dust rather than blue nebulosity as in the Pleiades. I was going to ask about this since I remember the Pleiades colour was adjusted not so long ago to make it true to life & I think it was originally reddish, however has the start video changed at all?
But I started young Tyko on his training today & of course he started his journeying in the bubble. Looking at the background skybox “it” may be closer in than I thought; there’s a lot of dust around Asellus Primus area. I’m wondering if FD have been really sneaky and adjusted the size of BLoop and Witchhead to further obfuscate; it’s features A & B that are the real sticking point. I need to play around in galmap, but shoulder was hurting & dinnertime so I closed the pc down.
The movies you are investigating are open to watch, in the Movies folder of your installation. The startup movie looks like it was updated for Beyond chapter 1.
Yeah, I suspect, having watched the video rather than skipping it habitually, that the blue is neither nebulosity or background dust, and should not be factored in. Based on the number of stars that actually move, I'm thinking it might be meant to represent a non-fsd hyperspace movement of some sort (megaship or alien ship etc.).
Having trouble uploading to imgur right now, but was just going to highlight that brightest star just above witchhead. I believe that HAS to be Rigel (based on its proximity to the nebula). Every system I jump to right now, I select Rigel from the galmap and supercruise in that direction.
I'm also thinking that the view is from inside the bubble now.
I got it up this is just your enhanced picture with what I'm sure must be Rigel circled in red.
Bravo...think we're onto something...
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Will check it tomorrow! I did look in galmap & the foreground obscuration can’t be Pleiades nebulosity - as I thought, it messes up the aspect of BLoop & Witchhead.