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Refreshed Planets
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64.822 MB
24 Jan @ 11:24am
11 Feb @ 7:48pm
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salemonz
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Refreshed Planets

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Distant Worlds 2 Refreshed (DW2R) Mod Collection
21 items
Description
***Works with Atuuk/Wekkarus DLC***

The Refreshed Planets mod replaces the default UI art for planets and stars to give a refreshed feeling to your favorite 4X game.

Known bug in base game prevents Tundra planets from displaying my mod's map graphic. All others work fine (sorry Tundra enjoyers!)

<<< AI TRIGGER WARNING >>> Mod author is a dirty human sellout who uses generative AI platforms to generate aspects of mod content.

/========== CHANGE LOG ==========\
  • v1.1.2 -- 11 February 2025 -- Changed "carbonaceous" image
  • v1.1.1 -- 10 February 2025 -- Changed "ice" and "ocean" images to have more distinct color palettes
  • v1.1.0 -- 01 February 2025 -- Changed various images based on feedback
  • v1.0.0 -- 24 January 2025 -- Initial release

/========== COMPATIBILITY ==========\
Everything I know of. The mod only replaces the original art. No .xml files edited.

XL users: No conflicts. Just load XL last.

/========== IMPORTANT NOTE ==========\
There is a quirk with DW2 that requires a full-game restart after downloading and enabling any mod. So be sure you exit out of the game after turning the mod on, then re-launch DW2. Otherwise assets and changes won't work.

/========== CONTENTS ==========\
The original UI art for stars, planets and asteroids is fine. But after a few playthroughs, sometimes you want something more, something different, something fresh.



What I noticed was the game used and re-used screenshots of planets in various spots through the UI. For example, there's a planet detail view screen in the UI that simply...shows the planet again in the background. Clicking on a colony to see your troops...again, simply shows the planet again in the background.



I wanted to give more "scenes" from various planets. I think it gives our minds some more fodder for imagination. Seeing a rocky plain or an icy tundra is just more immersive, in my opinion.

In DW:Universe, looking at your ground troops shows them on a tactical map, based on the biome of the hosting planet. I noticed that in DW2, I could swap out those screens in a mod. So I put in these "tactical maps" to attempt to spice up the ground combat screen.

This mod is purely cosmetic and seeks to just add a dash of something new to your DW2 experience.

There is an ongoing situation with DW2 where the game auto-picks your empire color based on the colors in your flag. This empire color is used to color your ships/fleets in the galactic overview and the ground units on your planetary views. Many times these auto-picked colors are super dim.

This makes some ground unit icons hard to see on some of these tactical maps. I can't do anything about that, at this time.

I honestly considered not releasing this mod b/c of this auto-color thing, but went for it anyway.

DW2 Dev Team, please let us choose empire colors and give options that give better contrast in-game!

/========== HOW TO USE THIS MOD ==========\
  1. Subscribe to Refreshed Resources here in steam workshop.
  2. Launch DW2.
  3. Within the game, In the Modifications menu, enable this mod.
  4. <<< IMPORTANT >>> You must EXIT and RESTART Distant Worlds 2 before the mod will work.
  5. After re-loading DW2, start a new game and enjoy!

/========== OTHER STUFF ==========\
Hey! I'm salemonz, the mod author.

The Distant Worlds 2 Refreshed mod series is my attempt to increase my skills with generative AI applications, 3D modeling and photo-editing programs.

I'm just a dad gamer with limited time for hobbies who enjoys tinkering with his games. I hope these mods add to your enjoyment of DW2!
29 Comments
< >
salemonz  [author] 25 May @ 1:00pm 
@Baleur -- You mean the textures on the planets in-game (not in the UI)? I would love to--I have planetary textures I've built in Blender that are gorgeous. But to my knowledge, DW2 in-game planet textures aren't edit-able. The game uses procedural shaders for everything through a process that isn't clear to modders :(
Baleur 24 May @ 7:55pm 
Please do one for actual planet textures.
The gas giants are beyond horrendously ugly in vanillla..
Seriiously neon green and pink gas giants... lol
salemonz  [author] 27 Apr @ 10:23am 
@Amartovoros - I did not create any special pics for gas giants (other than the new pic I put in for the galactic overview summary bar at the bottom).
Amartovoros 17 Apr @ 6:56am 
Hi sorry i was long gone , i meant that the gas giants do not have any pic maybe thts supposed to be ?
oJy 15 Apr @ 2:55am 
Hey i just wan't to say you can change your empire color ingame on game editor screen. Found at the bottom of the ESC menu.
NStriker 8 Apr @ 6:26pm 
@salemonz I assume the line you've found is:
<FullsizeImageFilename>Environment/OrbTypes/Large/IceTundra</FullsizeImageFilename>
Where it should be:
<FullsizeImageFilename>Environment/OrbTypes/Fullsize/IceTundra</FullsizeImageFilename>

I've manually edited my OrbTypes.xml so we'll see how that goes.

@Skyguard, that would be a whole other mod.
Skyguard 8 Apr @ 11:52am 
Could you also tweak the generated planet names to be somewhat comprehensible? I am having lots of trouble telling appart Yhgnutgn Prime from Wtnbiop II. I don't wanna go around and renaming every populated planet myself.
salemonz  [author] 5 Apr @ 12:14pm 
@Amartovoros -- Was the "landscape" image you noticed for a Tundra planet? I think I found the problem.

The base game uses the file OrbTypes.xml to parse out all the images/stats for each planet. In the tundra planet record, they have a typo where it doesn't reference the right image. This is resulting in the game displaying my "landscape" image for both the planet data screen AND the ground battle screen. But it seems to be the only place where that is happening. (please let me know if I've missed a case where that is going on).

I put in a bug report to the DW2 team. But for now, Tundra planets will have a landscape picture in their ground battles. Boo!
Amartovoros 4 Apr @ 12:13pm 
Nice , thanks for your effort.
salemonz  [author] 4 Apr @ 12:11pm 
Seems like there might be some weirdness going on. Some pics might be showing up in spots I'm not anticipating (I've seen a couple of folks showing a landscape on the "ground battle" screen where they should have a map.)

Don't know if it's DLC related or just a mess-up on my part. Going to look into it.

The mod works with the new DLC...I just need to do some testing.