TL;DR
Add a quad that intersects planets that can be used for rings.What?
Add rings to the planets. Really, I think the barest implementation is a quad that intersects the planet perpendicular to the up-axis along the equator. There are about three bare-bones configuration options.- Orientation- if unspecified, uses the planet's up axis as a perpendicular intersection so that it cuts through the equator, otherwise allows you to specify the orientation relative to the planet. (maybe relative is unnecessary, but relative helps if there's axis wobble or w/e). Custom orientation would allow you to size-zero the planet and use the ring as a replacement for the old planet system.
- Light cut - a float to determine the strength of the darkening on the dark side of the ring. If the ring is in the planet's shadow (relative to the light direction and planet size), it gets darkened by this value. Usually a high value is best for realism but some may want this off for artistic reasons.
- Size - how big it is, relative to the planet or something idk man numbers and shit.
Quad should probably not backface cull in case it gets rotated weird.
Bonus content:
- Emission map + emission strength field, normal map + normal strength. The entire feature is bonus content so I don't have a load of requests here, but welcome contributions to further hash out the idea!
Why?
Because Fearghall loves it so they should put a ring on it. Also rings are cool. Also flexibility for modders. Also this provides the ability to "opt out" of a spherical planet in favor of a 2d image if necessary.Also I've already had very brief discussions with Fearghall and Hrusa about this and want to apologize if I'm being annoying - I just want to get the request on paper. Er, forum.

