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[FlashFrozen]

Would it be possible to make the ring bands have the ability to not only be perfectly circular and not flat relative to you. Like have a ring cutting across the planets surface instead of just orbiting it.

The ring system looks neat and I was hoping for a bit places to use it.

Its like the current system only models Saturn, but what if we want Uranus.

[DelicateTask]

Heh, maybe I want Ur- NO, BAD.

I would like to see this as well. When I first saw the rings around planets I was impressed and happy they were in, but after a while they did look somewhat silly and un-ring like from the top-down perspective.

[xenoargh]

+1; would be nice if they could be tilted, for various uses

[Alex]

Not technically feasible. Any appreciable ovalness would stretch the texture visibly, and tilting won't work because it's not a 3d model to start with. I mean, it'd "work" but would look like you took a flat ring made out of paper and tilted it.

[xenoargh]

If it's just rendered double-sided and uses the same lighting as the planets, it'd probably look OK-enough, with minor amounts of tilt.  I think people would be OK with that.

Or it could have another ring of quads down the middle that have the texture on it but are perpendicular to the plane, which would only be rendered if tilted > 5 degrees or so, that would give it a 3D feel.  There would be some lighting issues at the join though.

Or there could be a more expensive version that used lots of POV-oriented quads like the asteroids but offset in depth, so that the ring could be oriented in any way.  That might be cool; then ships would fly "through" the rings, instead of them being an obviously-flat thing.  But it'd probably take a lot of quads to be as nice, visually.

[Wyvern]

Not technically feasible. Any appreciable ovalness would stretch the texture visibly, and tilting won't work because it's not a 3d model to start with. I mean, it'd "work" but would look like you took a flat ring made out of paper and tilted it.

Uh, wouldn't taking a flat ring and tilting it look exactly right?  I mean, if you look at pictures of the rings of Saturn, its rings certainly look flat to me...  Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

[Axiege]

Not technically feasible. Any appreciable ovalness would stretch the texture visibly, and tilting won't work because it's not a 3d model to start with. I mean, it'd "work" but would look like you took a flat ring made out of paper and tilted it.

Uh, wouldn't taking a flat ring and tilting it look exactly right?  I mean, if you look at pictures of the rings of Saturn, its rings certainly look flat to me...  Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

I think the problem is is it would make the planets then look flat... maybe... not sure.

[FlashFrozen]

In what I mean by tilting is that if it was possible to create ovular rings, you could just tilt the oval to give the 3d perspective look even with a 2d ring, if you set up some shading so that there's a front and rear part of the oval the rear would get darkened and obscured by the planet, and the front would brighten, but that's if there weren't texture issues at the edges where the front and back meet.

[Alex]

Uh, wouldn't taking a flat ring and tilting it look exactly right?  I mean, if you look at pictures of the rings of Saturn, its rings certainly look flat to me...  Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

In what I mean by tilting is that if it was possible to create ovular rings, you could just tilt the oval to give the 3d perspective look even with a 2d ring, if you set up some shading so that there's a front and rear part of the oval the rear would get darkened and obscured by the planet, and the front would brighten, but that's if there weren't texture issues at the edges where the front and back meet.

It'd look like you're looking at the picture of a ring of asteroids, from an angle. To use more technical jargon, the rocks would look squished. Besides, I like keeping the rings within the playing field, keeps the door open to potentially using them for something later, aside from just eye candy.

[Mattk50]

Uh, wouldn't taking a flat ring and tilting it look exactly right?  I mean, if you look at pictures of the rings of Saturn, its rings certainly look flat to me...  Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

In what I mean by tilting is that if it was possible to create ovular rings, you could just tilt the oval to give the 3d perspective look even with a 2d ring, if you set up some shading so that there's a front and rear part of the oval the rear would get darkened and obscured by the planet, and the front would brighten, but that's if there weren't texture issues at the edges where the front and back meet.

It'd look like you're looking at the picture of a ring of asteroids, from an angle. To use more technical jargon, the rocks would look squished. Besides, I like keeping the rings within the playing field, keeps the door open to potentially using them for something later, aside from just eye candy.

*cough*mining*coughCOUGH COUGH COUGH ACHEK ECHHCHH COUGH OH GOD CALL AN AMBULANCE*

i picture nervously waiting parked at a pretty ring system while my fleet mines ***, hoping a pirate or 20 dont come riding by to ruin my day.

[Silver Silence]

And then miner bumping became a thing. 

[mostmodest]

'Twas 89 when the miners died...
 Anyway, OT: Whilst the idea for tilt does sound cool, it seems more like "polish" and unnecessary time used on something that could have been put towards rebalancing and adding new mechanics. That said, I do like the idea, and maybe it would get added one day. (But from the sounds of things, probably not.)