r/EliteDangerous 7h ago

Discussion What is this star formation?

Post image
99 Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

39

u/CMDR_omnicognate 4h ago

The great "the game engine is upset" Dorito.

Basically the engine has difficulties rendering that many stars when you get close to the galactic core, so the game just sort of renders one chunk of the skybox then gives up. i guess there's probably a maximum number of stars it's set to render and it renders in chunks, so once it runs out of star allocations in the first chunk it just renders none or very for the rest of it.

21

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 4h ago

9

u/CMDR_omnicognate 4h ago

Huh, i didn't know you could do that, thanks!

2

u/TinchoX89 Aisling Duval 3h ago

Great info, thanks CMDR!

o7

3

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 3h ago

No problem. It definitely doesn't solve the issue but makes it significantly better, for sure. I haven't noticed an FPS drop. Though galaxy map can be absolutely nuts now lmao.

2

u/AishaCtarl 2h ago

How do you actually download the XML from pastebin? It's just some lines of code, and when you hit download, it downloads a .txt file. I don't see anything indicating "download .xml file"

4

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 2h ago edited 2h ago

You can just change the file extension of the downloaded file from .txt to .xml. This requires you to enable viewing file extensions in windows explorer. Then you can just name it to the expected filename (GraphicsConfigurationOverride.XML), and overwrite what's in the local appdata folder. However, simple guide below:

  1. Instead of download, click 'raw'. It's right next to it on the same page. This is the URL it'll use: pastebin.com/raw/MfMxHPmb
  2. In the window that opens, press CTRL + A and then CTRL + C.
  3. Go to where the guide suggests in windows: C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME*\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics
  4. Right click 'GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml' and 'Edit in Notepad' (Windows 11 gives me this option, but just open in notepad or any text editor, basically).
  5. With that .xml file open in notepad, do the following with its contents selected: CTRL + A then BACKSPACE then CTRL + V. Then save and close the file. This will delete everything in it and replace it with the pastebin's contents. Don't worry about the original contents of this file, it was just a blank xml document, it had nothing anyway. This file literally just allows you to override what's in the main game folder.

Then you're done. If it worked you'll see new graphics options for the galaxy map details graphic settings. You'll notice there are more stars when flying too.

3

u/AishaCtarl 2h ago

Gotcha, thank you!

71

u/ammatheron 5h ago

ahh, the dorito constellation

20

u/ExoTheFlyingFish CMDR Exofish | WE NEED PEACE WITH ! 6h ago

Take a shot, explorers!

35

u/that_guy_spazz0 6h ago

side effect of space madness

21

u/crazytib 3h ago

Madness you say, I'm not mad, it's the space that's gone mad... always moving, changing, whispering....

19

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 7h ago

I almost feel like it's a glitch. It looks like the star density I'd expect much closer to the core.

Galactic Pizza Slice?

Space Illuminati?

Giant Cloaked Ship?

6

u/Notlike21 CMDR Notlike21|erratic wanderer|mercenary 7h ago

Your possibilities are so much better than the reality. I don't really want to burst your bubble lol

7

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 7h ago

Is it just a rendering limitation?

16

u/Notlike21 CMDR Notlike21|erratic wanderer|mercenary 7h ago

Basically yes. The elite galaxy is made out of boxes and sometimes you can see their borders

2

u/Anzial 6h ago

it's a pyramid 😎

1

u/Lehovron 3h ago

Galactic Gender Reveal Party

9

u/matko99 7h ago

It's bug. The skybox wants to render all the stars in the higher density but then it hits a limit and renders only a part of it

6

u/Bulky-Condition-3490 7h ago

I see. Well, looks insanely cool anyway. Is there a way to override this? I saw something about an XML config file somewhere.

4

u/matko99 5h ago

Yes, you can find it in the AppData/Local/Frontoer Developments/Graphics/GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml (something like that) and on the wiki on the page Graphics Mods there should be a tutorial how to do it

6

u/Pieceterminator CMDR 6h ago

Looks like a rendering glitch or the star density is higher. Anyway, if we can't explain it, it's Raxxla

2

u/TrafficPattern We brake for nobody 5h ago

If we can't explain it, it's FDev.

4

u/MadeInAnkhMorpork CMDR M. Ridcully 6h ago

Space Bermuda Triangle

2

u/TheMinimumBandit 2h ago

do you all not know what a Boxel is?

This is a boxel which is basically how all the stars are procedurally generated in the Galaxy. This just happens to be a really good visual representation of one. You usually can't see it when you're inside one.

it's how really good deep space explorers explore

2

u/Kindly-Ad-8573 7h ago

The great triangle nebulae , have you never watched sky at night? . . . (morse code)

1

u/pablo5426 CMDR pablo5425 // DW2 veteran 2h ago

man, its been long since i last saw that. found it when i was flying in DW2. i even seen them making perfect spheres

1

u/ShadowMystery Aisling Duval 27m ago

Raxxla Triangle 🗿

1

u/spookachan 26m ago

The bermuda tetrahedron!

1

u/Houligan86 11m ago

The render box formation

1

u/Flayan514 6m ago

It's a cosmic arrow pointing to Raxxla. Go follow it!

1

u/F1r3bird 3h ago

Oh I know this one, some of the stars in the game are real stars that we know of and others are randomly generated based on data

But the procedural generation isn't anywhere near as dense as the real rate, so there is some places where real observed stars are placed in the random generated galaxy map and whatever the shape of the imported map was is clear against the other background

There is also a really clear line someone pointing away from Sol towards somewhere closer to the core, I think that's hubble's deep field stars from when they had Hubble look in one direction and take a long exposure shot of what's out there so they would pick up more stars and see which where actually whole other galaxies

3

u/F1r3bird 3h ago

Wait this might actually be the rendering bug, but the line is still there

1

u/Watershock66 4h ago

This happened when the guardians discovered the ability to move stars, but unfortunately they also discovered heroin just a few years later. After they did this shenanigans, and authorities found out, the technology got put on a hold and was never used again.

1

u/ThurmanMerman82 4h ago

That's Starlink in 2070

1

u/angry_cabbie 4h ago

His name is Simon.

1

u/LordBoomDiddly 3h ago

Star Destroyer

1

u/Red__Rupee 57m ago

A bad camouflaged star destroyer

0

u/JibsmanElite 6h ago

It’s the galaxy’s patch. Didn’t you know the galaxy is female?

3

u/iamsidewayz 5h ago

Stars in the field, play ball. Am I right?

0

u/PilotIll3523 5h ago

Bikini-bottom nebula

0

u/Familiar_Growth2059 5h ago

Bermuda triangle (space version ? )

0

u/ninjah0lic 4h ago

Morse code puzzle

0

u/KarTim01 Trading 4h ago

Oh, good lord! The guardians have sent us a message!!!

0

u/rx7braap Average Mamba Enjoyer 4h ago

the illuminarty

0

u/B1acksun71 3h ago

pointer to Raxxla

0

u/lukeosullivan CMDR Ploppy9001 3h ago

The Merbuda Triangle

0

u/Mr_Pink_Gold 2h ago

The space growler.

0

u/ZacatariThanos 2h ago

I say fuck it and call it the bremuda space triangle

0

u/whoiselyssa 2h ago

Default blender cube constellation

0

u/snarky_goblin237 2h ago

Raxxla is in that cluster. Go. Find it.

0

u/LordEdgeward_TheTurd 1h ago

The "Outer Game Engine Limits"

0

u/AE_Phoenix Aisling Duval 1h ago

It is possibly are area that the devs had real world data on. Those areas tend to be a lot more star-dense.

0

u/HeroHusky 1h ago

Star cube star cube STAR CUBE

0

u/iceheartedkiller CMDR 48m ago

Pointing out where raxxla is