Planetary texture files are primarily in txm format.
As for shape, they are "square".
As for size: depending on detail, optimally 512x512.

Remember the "World Map" and how it was laid out on a flat surface?

Would you use a larger sized texture for bigger planets?

fladius it depends on what your working with, if it's a CMP then upto 2048x2048 as above that problems arise with rendering, as there are quite a few graphics cards that can't handle anything bigger than that.
If it's the sph's then a random texture of 256x256 is more than enough, I said random texture because of the way sph's work, you can't wrap a NASA planet texture around them.
It's been tried by myself and those better than me, Argh done the Pretty Planets project because of it.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

Thanks for the info. So, with a CMP file, I take it it will stretch the texture to fit the planet.

Let's put it this way I have a nice 512x1024 NASA map of jupiter that fits Argh's 2048x2048 UVMapping perfectly. The UVMap coordinates are applyed to what ever size texture you give it to use.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

I second that, i'm using NASA textures for all of my Sol system planets and find the cylindrical ones work best for me on custom made 3db files. Only problem i've encountered is resolution close up but these were taken from orbit lol

Here's a few to look at,

IO
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/W ... ms/Io1.jpg

JUPITER
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/W ... upiter.jpg

EARTH
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/W ... tation.jpg

So, you say leave the texture I got in the rectangular format and it will look alright? Or do I resize it to 2048x2048?

if your saving as .dds they HAVE to be a square

Cheese On Toast:
Like the name
Beware the player

Not exactly bud, my 512 x 1024 is in DXT1 DDS, as long as it's power^2 DDS works fine, ie 64x128, 128x128, 128x256, 256x256 etc. upto 2048x2048.


Bloody typo's, my fingers aren't working right today

**shuffles of with a new headache**

Edited by - Bejaymac on 12/1/2006 8:58:17 AM

ahh i see hehe, didnt kno that anyways im off to learn how to UV Map ^^

Cheese On Toast:
Like the name
Beware the player

Someone correct me if i'm wrong here but i think the textures have to be square if you're using the standard FL way of texturing planets as i believe they are made up of 6 textures in total. On the custom 3db models i use, you can only use 1 rectangular texture which also gives the desired effect. Argh's way of doing it is similar as i understand but uses a different method.

Arghs method uses a CMP. Only one texture for the panet and one for the atmosphere. So a rectangular texture in this method will work well.