The Voyage Chromatic! (sequel to The Search for Color): Revisiting beige worlds for comparison...

The beige sickness which plagued the galaxy has been cured! Planets have color again and are more interesting than ever. But how effective was the cure actually? And how do the planets today compare to how they looked when they were sick?

Mission Statement: On this expedition I'll be revisiting some planets I documented before the cure, just to see how different they look today, if at all. I'll be posting pics of them when they were sick followed by pics of how they look now, for comparisons sake.

This is the fourth (and likely final!) expedition in a series of expeditions (the 5th one would have probably blown anyway):

  1. Elite Dangerous: The Motion Picture
  2. Elite Dangerous: The Wrath of Beige
  3. Elite Dangerous: The Search for Color
  4. Elite Dangerous: The Voyage Chromatic

See my previous thread where I searched beige worlds looking for any inkling of color: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...rch-for-Color!-(sequel-to-The-Wrath-of-Beige)

So without further ado...

Let's start with the system Synuefe XC-L c24-2. The first four planets of this system, all HMC's, used to be very beige and boring. It is also a green system containing all materials required for FSD boosts. Here is how planet A1 used to look:

u6CM2VV.jpg


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As you can see it was very beige and monotonous looking, although it did have a few slightly darker beige spots on it. The moon behind it is a rocky world.

Now, here is how it looks today after the cure:

YzgX9yX.jpg


FdA7Y2N.jpg
You'll notice a distinct lack of beige! The planet now consists of various shades of gray ranging from very light to dark, but also has olive-green highlights about it's plateaus too. Also notice how much more interesting the rocky moon behind it looks too! Although the physical terrain is unchanged, the colors of the cured planet really do a lot to bring out and highlight the terrain features whereas the old color did not at all.

So how did A2 used to look?

9wRZYWV.jpg


ryQU6uM.jpg
Again, pretty boring and uninteresting. How does it look now?

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A2 looks much better now. It is very similar to A1 but without any of the green, and with darker grays as well.

Planet A3 continues the trend.

A3 Before:

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A3 After:

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Again a marked improvement. Now A3 has similar coloring to A2 but with much more contrast between the dark and light gray areas. I think it looks closer to Earth's own moon than the other two.

A4 breaks the gray motif though, opting for retaining some of it's previous beige coloring but with much more shading and variety to it's surface.

Before:

xAZWvRH.jpg


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After:

b7UWR8R.jpg


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A4 is now more dark tan than beige, but it has interesting lighter colored plateaus scattered around it, mixed with some teal green mountains that vary in shading. Much of the planet is very smooth and covered in fewer craters than usual, but the mountainous areas are very bumpy in terrain.

Here are a few surface pics of A4, I wanted to see the green mountains up close:

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So far so good, the cure seems to have had a very profound effect on this first system. The differences from orbit are spectacular, but in many ways the differences are even more outstanding up close.

More comparisons are needed though, just to make sure the cure has worked properly and that all of the sick planets have been made healthy again!
 
+Rep

The planets looked so dreadful, I am truly surprised it took a long list of threads to spur FD to action. But the results in their response are truly fantastic, yet very believable. [up]

There should be a new mission .... to find a beige planet [big grin]
 
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I love the comparison.., thanks OP. They did a fantastic job indeed in improving the airless worlds and they look amazingly realistic...now we are waiting for the same level of details up close, that's for Q4. I can't wait !!!!
 
Yep, the improvement is dramatic. When looking at them side by side it really is jaw dropping to me.

Here are a few more examples, system Col 173 Sector EX-K d8-10, planets 1 through 4 in order, you can probably tell which pics are the before and after! :cool:

FJCMcsN.jpg


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They all look so much better and more interesting that it makes me want to cry tears of joy!

5CGr7LP.gif
 
Now if only someone could tell me if the colours and features really do mean anything. If I land in that green area will I find more copper? (I know there;s no copper (why? lol), but you know what I'm getting at).

Has the oft touted by FD relationship between materials and colours been defined?
 
Now if only someone could tell me if the colours and features really do mean anything. If I land in that green area will I find more copper? (I know there;s no copper (why? lol), but you know what I'm getting at).

Has the oft touted by FD relationship between materials and colours been defined?

I am hoping this will come in the 3.3 Q4 update with the surface scanners. Time will tell.
 
+Rep

The planets looked so dreadful, I am truly surprised it took a long list of threads to spur FD to action. But the results in their response are truly fantastic, yet very believable. [up]

There should be a new mission .... to find a beige planet [big grin]

I think they have been working on this for a long time. To get them to look better then what they did before and have no performance drops is no mean feat. It is the single biggest thing I am impressed about the 3.0 update.

Q4 update should only make these planets even better on the surface. And I am very interested to see how ice planets will look like too.
 
I am hoping this will come in the 3.3 Q4 update with the surface scanners. Time will tell.

I think it is. The colors are now linked to the materials found on the planets, but as of now material locations are not. Yet. :cool:

Material node density was definitely increased for 3.0 though. Scavenging for mats is prolific now, makes it a ton more fun IMHO.
 
Now if only someone could tell me if the colours and features really do mean anything. If I land in that green area will I find more copper? (I know there;s no copper (why? lol), but you know what I'm getting at).

Has the oft touted by FD relationship between materials and colours been defined?

I was wondering the same thing, but it looks like no one has figured it out yet. I thought the coloured patches on planets would be most likely where I'd find volcanism, but I never found any. But then again, I didn't check all the patches.
 
Great thread, more side by side comparisons please!

In the meantime I concur, the galaxy is once again wonderous to behold. This is a fairly typical planetary fly by now ..

EV3TNlo.png
I'm currently doing the "Chicken Run" Buckyball Race which involves landing at a series of 6 planetary bases, each on higher and higher gravity worlds and god, it's all I can do to focus on racing and not just stop and stare!

:D
 
Now if only someone could tell me if the colours and features really do mean anything. If I land in that green area will I find more copper? (I know there;s no copper (why? lol), but you know what I'm getting at).

Has the oft touted by FD relationship between materials and colours been defined?

Somewhere in the Beta discussions this was asked, and the response from FD was "no, not yet" ... and implying Q4 would see this feature relating what we see with what we get.

The planet coloration is influenced by the component elements, but the colored patches do not presently indicate their distribution when we hunt on the surface.
 
Somewhere in the Beta discussions this was asked, and the response from FD was "no, not yet" ... and implying Q4 would see this feature relating what we see with what we get.

The planet coloration is influenced by the component elements, but the colored patches do not presently indicate their distribution when we hunt on the surface.

Gotcha, and the other guy above who intimated same, cheers guys.
 
Here's another comparison, system Col 173 Sector HO-X c15-1, planet 1:

NkIKLeQ.jpg


97rUcNo.jpg


Exact same planet in pretty much the same orientation. Incredible.

Here are some surface shots I took from down within a huge crater on some random planet I found while flying around today. The variety of colors on this single planet is exactly what I was hoping the cure would bring us: interesting looking scenery.

PA4JJpS.jpg


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Here's another comparison, system Col 173 Sector HO-X c15-1, planet 1:

https://i.imgur.com/NkIKLeQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/97rUcNo.jpg

Exact same planet in pretty much the same orientation. Incredible.

Here are some surface shots I took from down within a huge crater on some random planet I found while flying around today. The variety of colors on this single planet is exactly what I was hoping the cure would bring us: interesting looking scenery.

https://i.imgur.com/PA4JJpS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jW2fAHH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2qpDBcT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1xAMwQE.jpg

Yep. They are looking superb. The surfaces with the colour variation look great too.
 
Yup, they definitely look a lot prettier and more varied now. I've actually been enjoying just driving around on the surfaces and farming materials while taking in the improved vistas.
 
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Yup, they definitely look a lot prettier and more varied now. I've actually been enjoying just driving around on the surfaces and farming materials while taking in the improved vistas.

So have I, the terrain is so much more interesting.

Here is another comparison, this planet was turned into something really neat: Col 173 Sector MC-V b31-1, planet 1:

Before:
IKBuGYe.jpg


After:
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This previously monotone tan planet is now an awesome mixture of reds and various dark grays. It almost looks volcanic and hot, which is fitting seeing how it closely orbits it's M star.

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They look great from orbit and look good on the surface but there's still this middle ground where the terrain just looks over smoothed like melted plastic.

Still a big improvement on what we had before so am not knocking it, hoping Q4 will gives some interesting terrain types to explore.
 
Now if only someone could tell me if the colours and features really do mean anything. If I land in that green area will I find more copper? (I know there;s no copper (why? lol), but you know what I'm getting at).

Has the oft touted by FD relationship between materials and colours been defined?

The green may mean there is more copper on the PLANET, but not that you would find it in the locations with the most green.

All of the visual representations are planet wide indications, not specific location on planets.

I mean, I doubt the green means copper though, I think the differences are just:

High volcanism, medium volcanism, low volcanism.

rare, not as much, not much rare at all.

Or something like that.

I don't think it's a super complex system that explains everything about the planet at a glance, just an indication of the overall planets composition.
 
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