The appearance of the planet can be modified via the ‘Texture’ option as shown in the illustration. The list on the left hand side allows a particular type of texture to be selected and the random seed button will allow that texture to be modified to a limited degree. Selecting the ‘Apply Settings’ button will cause the required options to be applied to the planet.

Further textures can be designed using the TextureDesign screens described in Appendix K and the resulting files copied into the appropriate ‘template’ directory under ‘textures/planets’. Solid planets should always use the ‘terrain’ texture option whereas Gas Giants should use either the ‘Perlin noise’ or the ‘Bands’ option.