I found out recently that the game engine I am using (3D Gamestudio) actually prefers pcx and dds files to bmp, jpg and png files. I have been using a variety of image files for Star Explorers and I occasionally have encountered some "bad file format" errors.

So in an effort to eliminate these kinds of errors, I am going through all the image files and replacing them with the recommended formats.

It is a long process and I am just starting. One good side effect is that I am saving disk space in the process, as well as eliminating a bunch of unused functions in the game script. So by the end of this process I think Star Explorers will become a much tighter program that takes up much less room on your hard drive.

In the process I was able to identify some textures that were missing from the game files. However, I am guessing I will mess up in the process and some textures might be missing (if I failed to reference the right file or something).

Day/Night Cycle Issue

I was also able to identify and fix the bug that caused planets to go to night time after players left a cave, so the day/night cycle should be more consistent now.