The Base Color property of a Terrestrial Planet or Planetoid determines the source of the object's surface colors. The property has two options for its Source setting: Map, which will apply a known surface map, or Elevation, which will color the surface by local elevation.
Property Details[ | ]
Location[ | ]
The Solid Surface property is located in the Layers section of the Visuals tab of the object's properties panel.
Settings[ | ]
Source[ | ]
Determines whether the surface of the object is colored according to a known Map, or colored by Elevation.
Map[ | ]
This setting will appear when Source is set to Map. It provides a list of surface maps for known Solar System objects, including Earth, Mars, Venus, Pluto, and the Moon. Any of these known surface maps can be applied to the object.
Colors[ | ]
This setting will appear when Source is set to Elevation. When the user changes the High/Middle/Low elevation colors, the Colors setting will change to Custom. When changed back to Default, the original elevation colors will be restored.
High/Middle/Low[ | ]
These three color settings determine the colors of each elevation range on the object.
Simulation Effects[ | ]
Default Color[ | ]
For known terrestrial planets and some planetoids in the Solar System, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Pluto, and Ceres, the Default appearance of the object's surface is set by the Universe Sandbox database to match the known appearance of these planets. For other terrestrial planets and planetoids, the surface colors depend on elevation, and the three elevation colors (see below) are randomly generated.
Custom Color[ | ]
The Custom colors of a terrestrial planet or planetoid determine the appearance of the object's surface. The color of any point on the surface is based on the point's elevation. Three elevation colors, representing the colors at High, Middle, and Low elevation, can be set by the user.