Welcome to the guide, this will show you how to learn texture converting in CubeMap and putting it in game!

The first thing you want to do is to download CubeMap.

[https://spaceengine.org/manual/making-addons/planet-textures]


After CubeMap is finished downloading, you will want to extract the zip file, and the extracted file.
in the CubeMap file, You’ll want to create three folders, Input, Output, and Temp.






default_cub.ccf is the main file that contains the settings for CubeMap.

You will want to change the directories for the input, output, and temp folders in the .ccf file.
This is what it looks like.
The input file is going to be your desired image/texture. You will be changing the InputFile directory to your own. If you don't know how, go to file explorer, go either folder, and click the directory above. And do CTRL + C.


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READ THE SUBGUIDE BEFORE CONTINUING ON!


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Now that you have a .raw file, you wont get any errors trying to convert the file (maybe). Next, you need to put the width and height of your input file.
If you don't know what it is, Go to whatever file directory your .jpg file type texture is, right click, and click Properties. In the properties window, select Details, and scroll down till' you get to the Image Section.

The text on the right to Dimensions is what you are going to put. Don't put mines, you are going to put your own.









Below the InputWidth and InputHeight parameters, there is a thing called InputChannels. To the side is the information on what it does. Made easier, having the format as 1, will turn the desired file that has no color (monochrome) to uh… work? I dont know how to explain it, but this is for Cloud Textures, Bump Maps, and Spec Maps.

For format 3, this is recommended for Diff Maps, Normal Maps, and pretty much anything that isnt black and white.

When you have your input folders, width and height, and channel for color ready, you are actually ready to make the texture!

Next, in the CubeMap folder click CubeMap.exe. It should work and start converting. It will look like this:








If your base.png does not look like a cube version of your original texture, for example

And looks like this Instead,










It may be because of input width/height, incorrect input channel format, or your texture in general. And most of the time, the colors are probably glitched. Meaning, you would convert a texture (Let’s say, clouds texture) while having the InputChannel to 1, and it still looks like lines BUT if you try doing InputChannel 3 and it works, I suggest using some other photo editing software to make it black and white and retry to see if anything changes. I don't really know how to fix it because it doesn't happen to me so I am just guessing the solutions.



Now that you have your texture, it is time to put it on your planet. (if you got one.)
For this, you will need to make the following folders. Go to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngine, and create the following files in order.

Addons -> textures -> planets

Explained easier, make an addons folder, in it, make a textures folder, in the textures folder, make a planets folder.

In the planets folder, you will need to create a file for your planet, and inside your planet folder you will need to create separate files for each type of texture for the files in the Output folder to be stored in.





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Let’s say Example is my planet. And lets say I have a Diff map, and a Glow map. I am going to go inside the Example Folder and create separate folders for separate types of maps. In the [planet name folder], make folders for each map type. (example, for clouds, do Clouds. For surface textures like Bump and Diff, do Bump and Diff)

I made a cloud texture, so I put all the files from output to the clouds folder.
When I say all the files, I mean all the files that are clouds. Not surface maps

When you've done the same for yours, dump everything in the Output folder in the CubeMap folder related to the correct folder

Now that everything is in order, go to your custom planet’s .sc file. I will be using mines for example.

This will be in two parts. One for cloud textures, and one for surface textures.



So in the planet file, you want to scroll down until you see your Surface parameter.

Within the brackets, type something like this inside. (You don't have to to ALL of them, choose the ones for the type of texture maps you are using for the planet.)

DiffMap ""
SpecMap ""
BumpMap ""
NormalMap ""





Inside the "", You will put your planet files name, Then put a slash (/) and then put the texture folder.
here is an example:

DiffMap "Veatis/VeatisSurfaceDiff"
SpecMap "Veatis/VeatisSurfaceSpec"

here is an example of the paramers of one of my planets. Where the DiffMap, SpecMap, etc is where YOURS should be aswell.

You should also delete every other surface parameter that is unimportant. Keep ones like SeaLevel, it is optional as you may need that depending on whether you are making a desert world, or a paradise world.











Now, when you have everything set up, open space engine to see if it works!







in the planet file, you want to scroll down until you see your cloud parameter(s).

Within the brackets, type these in it.

DiffMap ""
BumpMap ""

Just putting one of the two will not make it work.
Just like the surface textures, inside the "", you put your planet's name file, a slash (/), and the folder relating to the texture type. example:

DiffMap "Veatis/VeatisClouds"
SpecMap "Veatis/VeatisClouds"




Here is an example of what it should look like in the clouds parameter.


















It should work when you open the game!





Also, this is for using city lights.

GlowMap "PlanetFile/CityLights"
GlowMode "Night"

Make sure to change both PlanetFile and CityLights to YOUR own file names too

This concludes the short and simple (maybe) tutorial. Hopefully it is easy to understand and congratulations if you now know how to do it!


If this tutorial is still confusing, or if you still need help, let me know. I don't know EVERYTHING about cubemap tho. just the small things.

You'll need a .RAW version of your texture file, so this is a extra guide to show you how to do so.


I recommend downloading IrfanView.

• https://www.fosshub.com/IrfanView.html?dwl=iview459_x64_setup.exe (Download Link)
  
• https://www.fosshub.com/IrfanView.htm (extensions. You need this)

For extensions, click IrfanView All Plugins - 64 OR 32-Bit Installer.

When IrfanView or whatever software you are using is ready, right click your texture, click open with, and click IrfanView (or any other photo editing software)



When the software opens, click file at the top left, then look for a button that says, “Save As”










After that, it will open file explorer and will show the downloads folder. (or whatever directory you last saved a file in or something)
Under file name, click the option that says whatever file type it is, and look for RAW.
In the image below, the RAW file type is circled in red.

Now that you have a .raw file version of your texture, don't delete the .jpg version. You still need it.

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GO BACK TO CUBEMAP
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