Making really awesome space skyboxes

Basically this is an suggestion (for collaboration with a CSQC/GLSL programmer):

A large part of Xonotic's maps are space based, and while the skyboxes we have are quite nice, they are both in regards to the resolution and their inherent "flatness" not really as nice as they could be given the modern means of real-time planet rendering.

Here are some nice examples (incl. GPL compatible source code):
http://sponeil.net/index.htm (see especially the first picture)
of how such a real time generated low orbit space "skybox" could look like.

The textures for the planets could either be also generated, or NASA public domain imagery from Landsat8 or Bluemarble (or even Mars pictures) could be used.
Edit: Here are some really high quality alien planet textures under CC-by (e.g. GPL compatible): http://freebitmaps.blogspot.com/2010/10/...t-ako.html

Now I realize that it might be necessary to implement a "portal based" skybox in Darkplaces for something like that, but I guess it would be worth the effort.
Or is that maybe already supported in DP?

If some programmer would step up to try and implement this, I would be more than happy to support him or her with the artistic stuff needed (e.g. planet textures and meshes etc.).

I hope we can get this implemented in Xonotic!

Edit: Here is a similar realtime implementation in Blender: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthre...Scattering (the .blend is still downloadable, the GLSL shaders could probably be extracted from the shader nodes).

Sky portals seem to be possible to do via CSQC:
http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php...83&p=39460

So I guess besides copying the planet mesh setup in that .blender example and applying the GLSL shaders to it, one would only need to follow the explanations above and implement it in the CSQC. Would anyone be willing to help with that?

Bump.

Sky portals are also possible in qfusion: https://github.com/viciious/qfusion (idTech2 based), so maybe that would be another option to port that code?

Edit: And it also seems like q3map2 supports static portal skys, not sure though how well that would play with a GLSL texture... I guess it should work for planets.
So we would just need someone to implement a nice atmospheric GLSL shader in DP.