Sky Textures

[OMacKnight]

Thanks to this thread I can make my dreams some true and have my lord and saviour christian slater watch over me as I play Quake <3

[Spirit]

That 3rd one looks really good!

[Ingiger]

Yes, feedback is a nice thing isnt it ?!
You should maybe start to give feedback as well.
Only downloading and using without saying something is what kills most projects... :

Couldn't agree more Seven, and this is precisely why I have registered with this forum. I loved the work on here so much, I felt I should contribute more to it.
I'll have a play with the Starfire texture, and see what I can do to add more depth.

I like the skybox idea, I didn't know Quake even supported them! I'll definitely be taking a look and see what I can do there. Thanks for the pointer Talisa

[talisa]

@ingiger
yush, most quake clients support skyboxes,
including darkplaces which is my client of choice

[OMacKnight]

Actually, I'm going to sound incredibly naive, but what advantages to scrolling skies and skyboxes have over each other?

I really don't see why you'd have a skybox over a scrolling sky for quake, but I've never actually considered them as...

Well I'm sure my naivety gets the idea that I'm lost. But y'know, if I don't ask then how can I learn

[talisa]

i personally think skyboxes look way more realistically. they are the same kinda technology thats also used in modern games for skies.

scrolling skies show the exact same no matter which direction you look, which looks fake.

skyboxes are basically a ginormous inside-out box which is placed around the map, with each of the 6 faces having its own texture,
which makes that it looks realistic and allows for much greater detail and immersive-ness cuz if a good sky is used it makes the world feel a lot more real then a scrolling sky does

.

EDIT: perfect example of skyboxes adding realism and immersion:
the start-map of 'something wicked this way comes' map-set

[Spike]

standard skyboxes are far from perfect. I'm just too lazy to bother improving on them though. :s

[damage_inc]

I think each implementation of "sky" has it's usefulness.

If you have tight indoor area's where you can't really "feel" the scale a skybox offers well, it would be wasted as your viewport of it would be minimal. Then you can get creative with a custom scrolling skies(as shown above).

But if you want scale and magnitude, that you are in a place bigger than you are... nothing beats a well designed, and correctly implemented, skybox

[talisa]

But if you want scale and magnitude, that you are in a place bigger than you are... nothing beats a well designed, and correctly implemented, skybox

absolutely, totally agree

[OMacKnight]

that helped explain a few things, cheers

[Ingiger]

There are some very nice skyboxes out there. Not sure they work too well with the standard id maps though, most of the levels dont really show them off unless you noclip out of the map. Would look great on a map designed to show them off though.

Have tweaked the starfire sky at Seven's suggestion, and tried to get some more depth, by reducing the alpha, and adding some texture to the starfield.

Starfire Version 2

P.S Love the weather files in your SMC Seven

[Seven]

Hello Ingiger,

Thank you.
I tested both versions V1 and V2.

I think the solid part (upper sky) is looking too different from the alpha part (lower sky),
as it is more or less a usual clear night-sky with white stars. The lower sky with its really beautiful fire-ish fantasy look is really nice.

In V2 you made the lower sky very dominant and bright. Almost overbright. So I like V1 more.

I tried to find a matching upper sky to the beautiful V1 lower sky and found one that matches it in my opinion nicely. It follows your original idea for the upper sky but fits more to the beautiful red-ish fire-like look. Also colorwise. It increases the overall depth as well as it uses slight areas of fog and different colors/depth.

So I kept your nice V1 lower sky and simply added a new upper sky to it.
Maybe you like it... It is just a variation.

DOWNLOAD





Starfire upper sky (reduced size):


Alternative upper sky (reduced size):



Best wishes,
Seven

[Ingiger]

Nice idea with the purple Seven, that looks really good

Strangely enough I've been working on a purple starfield for a sky box idea, (they are not as easy as I first thought!) but never thought of trying it with my starfire sky. This is what it looks like when used instead of my original upper.



Download Starfire v3 here - starfire v3

New upper

[Cobalt]

Links to Seanstars original sky have expired.....anyone post new links ? Thanks.

[bluntz]

Anyone exploring skyboxs should have a look at the program terragen.There is a free version and makes height maps as well for easy terrain generation.