assets/textures/planet_surface.png was byte-identical to and unused
in favor of assets/models/nebula_planet_planet_surface.png, the
sidecar Godot's glTF importer actually extracted from nebula_planet.glb
and uses at runtime. Deleted the orphan (+ its .import) and stopped
gen_planet_surface.py from writing it.
Also measured nebula_dust.gdshader's per-fragment depth-texture sample
cost (~0.07ms/frame at 500 particles, within noise) -- negligible, so
no budgeting concern for further particle work.
Extend gen_nebula_sky.py with two more dust-lane layers at different
scales and subtle hue variation within the bright core. Add
gen_planet_surface.py (no prior generator existed) producing latitude
bands, storm vortices, and a lit/unlit terminator baked from the
planet mesh's actual UV convention against arena_02's directional
light, verified in-engine via screenshots.
Every bright star in sky_nebula.png reused the exact same diffraction-
spike stamp, just relocated. Commit the generator (recovered from an
ephemeral scratchpad) to tools/textures/gen_nebula_sky.py, randomize
each hero star's rotation, arm count, spike length, and brightness,
and regenerate the texture.
Josh Creek