Are you using Colored Skyboxes ?

I actually find them beautiful. Personal preference, I guess.

The new ones with Entrenchment are truly a sight to be hold.

What it comes down to is, just pure black space with stars is boring. So skyboxes let you imagine that every map you play in is smack dab in a nebula of some sort. Course, since planets dont orbit and there can be 50+ planets per star, realism doesn't really belong in a game like this. It's all about style, and that's something this game has in spades. The ship designs, the abilities, all of it is highly improbable and unrealistic, but still very captivating and imaginative and helps the game stand for itself among similar RTS games.

It's similar to the Homeworld series in this regard. It almost hints that space is just another planetary environment, perhaps that our home is actually among the stars themselves. I find the color-altered pictures of NASA and the like of nebulas to be highly interesting... and inspiring.

Ah.... Homeworld.

Too bad my comp (well, vista) doesn't seem to like this game too much.

When I play no, I dont. I find myself getting lost looking for units in the colors.

When Im recording video, yes.

Sure most of space is void, black and boring. But there nothing to say that your not near a nebula or gas pocket or anything really. Different colors could be light reacting to what around. Maybe the same as the Northern and Southren lights on Earth. Idk.

Have you ever heard of something called nebula? Besides the skyboxes look great!

Space CAN be colorful.

Actually most of space may well not be colourless. It might be just be that there is not enough light there for us to see it. At night, after you turn the lights out you'll see what I mean.

And yeah! there are many many stars that would have nebula in their skyies.

What i loved in Homeworld was when you traveled towards the core of the galaxy, the more colorful the skyboxes became. Kharak system, and the Great Wasteland were dark, but as you approached the Core and Hiigara, it became very bright. Also the Balcora in HomeWorld 2 was beutiful, with the unhindered view to the Core.

On topic, it depends when i'm playing the game. If i play in dark, i have the coloured skyboxes on for better looks, if i play during the day, i have them  off to see the unit icons better. I always have the Deep Space Skyboxes on, though.

I just wish there were more, but i hate the red or the green one, it just doesn't seem normal but since it doens't relally affect the game, i don't gave much care

skybox off

i want to see my nice light colored ships against a dark black space.

im there to comand empires of ships, not look at prurty backgrounds.

I always leave them on.  usually, I'm one zoom level too high to see them, but I tend to zoom in a lot just to look at them.  and i've found that I lose more games when the purple one is up.  I believe this could be accounted for by the fact that most of the time, I'm sitting there basking in the beauty of that particular skybox.  only could be.  I only ignore half the attack warnings when i do.  That because I don't hear the other half, tho.

My Favorite is the Purple Skybox, I absolutely love it, and play every single game with it. Other companies should use Ironclad and Stardock's skyboxes as models for games they may come up with.

Also,  Earth's sky isn't really all black. When you go to the sahara desert, the darkest place on this planet, you will see a white band across the sky similar to the blue skybox that SINS has with the white band across it. The galaxy. It is something that everyone must see at leat once in their life. Now that is a sight to behold.

i usually have them off

game laggs alittle for me and my 512mb card

I have them turned off...I keep the deep ones on but the regular ones look too much like a sky or something, space isn't that colorful all the time.

anytime there's a cluster of stars, you can bet that's how it will look.  there's the occasional lone star out there, yes, but they are the exception, not the rule.  most of the stars and planets are in the galactic arms, making them rather bright.

You should check out some images from Hubble. JuleTron has the idea!