Thanks for the "flowers" . This thread will continue...So stay tuned,

Cheers,
Fridger

_________________

Finalized Pluto and Charon hires textures and normalmaps

JohnVV just referred to these great hires surface and topographical maps of Pluto and Charon from USGS/PDS (released July 14, 2017):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=772#p15063

Already past summer, I used these amazing data for preparing my finalized textures of the Pluto-Charon system in natural colors for celestia.Sci.

The results are: 16k VTs in DDS format for Pluto's basemap (dds3) and normalmap (dxt5nm), respectively, and 8k VTs in DDS format for Charon's basemap(dds3) and normalmap (dxt5nm), all in natural colors (obtained with the familiar GIMP re-coloration technique). All VT tiles were quickly obtained by means of my Normalmap and F-tex tools with many optimizations implemented.

Thanks to the VTs, the display and zooming is practically instantaneous!

Let me show you a few screenshots that clearly illustrate the very high quality and resolution of these data:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Most displayed images are large sized (1920x1080), hence --by all means-- click on them and then hit your browser's fullscreen key (F11 for FF):
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• Testing the natural color map: On the left is part of an original Pluto photo in natural colors, on the right, the colors obtained for celestia.Sci via GIMP color mapping.
  
  Attachment:
  
  pluto_natColor_test.jpg [ 414.67 KiB | Viewed 1037 times ]
  
  
  
  
• View on Pluto - Charon system:
  
  Attachment:
  
  pluto-charon_details4.jpg [ 306.14 KiB | Viewed 1037 times ]
  
  
  
  
• Or with the MultiView feature:
  
  Attachment:
  
  pluto-charon_multiview.jpg [ 275.59 KiB | Viewed 1033 times ]
  
  
  
  
• Pluto, details1:
  
  Attachment:
  
  Pluto_details1.jpg [ 768.13 KiB | Viewed 1037 times ]
  
  
  
  
• Pluto, details6:
  
  Attachment:
  
  pluto_details6.jpg [ 492.7 KiB | Viewed 1037 times ]
  
  
  
  
• Pluto's bluish Mie atmosphere
  
  Attachment:
  
  Pluto_details3.jpg [ 286.96 KiB | Viewed 1037 times ]
  

The positioning of the Pluto - Charon system is done with the latest version of SPICE...

Enjoy,
Fridger

_________________