In a way it's kinda cool having a fixed platform like Blitz3D dx7 cos you're using creativity to push beyond the limitations.
Exactly! I use more advanced PS&VS stuff than ANY game developer in the world probably everyday at work so it's a challenge to do something good looking with Blitz3D and all it's limitations and short-comings... guess I'm perverted that way but it gives me more satisfaction to do something cool with something like Blitz3D than do it using the latest stuff... anyone can do that.
Status report:
Got the code pretty far, and it's not even complex. So far I have shiny sea and non-shiny land + moving clouds that throw shadows on top of the planet below. Also city lights can be seen in the dark (night) side, which look nice.
Athmosphere halo is easy to do in it's basic form but I want to try few new tricks... also sun (actually more like sunrise/sunset) fx needs some experimenting efforts.
There will be also background starfield and nebula or two... planet texture maps needs also experimenting (re-painting), and they will be big (you can downscale them if they are too big).
When this is ready you'll get the demo, source code and all the gfx-maps... those maps I have made will be free to use whatever purpose you can think of.