Talk:3D Skybox

This is helpful but confusing for my situation... I'm trying to create Water as the horizon, but this does not explain how. - Solo

Here's an example of water as a horizon, with an object circling above the water: [1]

This doesn't explain how you get buildings into the skybox, because the models are far to big, and they can't be scaled down, yet I'm positive they're used in skyboxes in smaller forms.

They have miniature skybox models...this is true for headcrab canisters too -ts2do

Regardless of the size of models, all you have to do is increase the size of the skybox brush the models are in. --Mattshu 00:14, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Is light_environment necessary in the 3d skybox?

I've tried a skybox just once so far and inadvertently, but perhaps fortuitously, left out the light_environment from the skybox. I didn't realize it until I was well along. The skybox props appear to be lit properly (i.e., consistently) in the map without the extra light_environment. If the light_environment isn't necessary, that's better as the "main" light_environment can then be "tuned" for the final map without one having to remember to adjust the skybox light. —BJ^(talk) 18:49, 14 May 2006 (PDT)

    BJ,
        The light_environment entity is a light controller that casts directional lighting from the skybox.
      This means that you only need one light_environment entity in the level, and anywhere a skybox is, there will be light
      coming from it.  Thus your level and 3d skybox will have matching lighting with only one light_environment.
        I hope this answers your question adequately,
              --RigorMortis 21:57, 1 Jan 2008 (PST)

3d skybox texture scale when using transform

Its been a while since I had to create a 3d skybox and I know that during the bestatest of the sourcesdk (in januari 2006?) textures didn't scale properly when scaling brushes to the 3dskybox size. I disabled the betaskd back then and did it in the oldsdk but that option is not possible anymore and it looks like textures still don't scale right now or is there a new trick to it? --Bluestrike 05:19, 1 Oct 2006 (PDT)

Ok enabling texture lock is the new trick. --Bluestrike 15:34, 1 Oct 2006 (PDT)

Changeable skybox

In the Source engine, can the skybox be changed within the level? I'm thinking specifically of a sequence a la the Resonance Cascade or A Red Letter Day, in which the player character is transported to various locations, but the effect I want is that both an Earth sky and a Xen sky can be seen without changing the actual map. (I suppose that since you're in a "randomly warped around" sequence, you're only going to be in each place for a few seconds at most, so I can fake it with a Xen sky which obscures the Earth skybox, but ...) —Yar Kramer 20:25, 6 Nov 2006 (PST)

The 2D skybox isn't dynamic your gonna have to fake it. --Angry Beaver 21:10, 6 Nov 2006 (PST)

There's a console command along the lines of sv_sky, I believe. --TomEdwards 04:05, 7 Nov 2006 (PST)

Hmm. Not sure if that actually changes the skybox. Either way, though, I think that, with what I'm pretty sure I'll be doing, faking it will be my best bet. Though it just occurred to me to wonder if I might be able to do a similar effect with the 3D skybox, i.e. having a 3D skybox entity "below" the main map which would surround the "Xen" section ... which, um, would amount to the same thing, except sort of semantically, as it were. —Yar Kramer 19:38, 1 Dec 2006 (PST)

Next question: is it possible to get objects in the 3D skybox to move through the 3D skybox area along with the player's movements so that these objects would appear stationary with respect to the player, apart from rotation? Or possibly how to move sky_camera from one place to another and make it stay there independent of the player's movement (but still rotating)? —Yar Kramer 15:45, 6 Dec 2006 (PST)

logic_measure_movement with !player maybe? I know the biggest problem of the measuremovements is that it does update physics hulls properly but that shouldn't matter if its in the skybox. --Angry Beaver 08:52, 7 Dec 2006 (PST)

NPC's?

Is there anything wrong with putting npc's in 3d skyboxes? Will the game crash or something?--Darthkillyou 16:26, 29 Jul 2007 (PDT)

No not at all but they will appear larger than normal. the 3d skybox scales them to a larger size and therefore they are Godzilla like in size.--Gear 19:09, 29 Jul 2007 (PDT)

Oooh... okay, time to make some giant odessa maps :D--Darthkillyou 08:08, 30 Jul 2007 (PDT)

I once had the extremely wacky idea of having, in a multiplayer map, an accessible 3D skybox. Think of the posssibilities! —Yar Kramer 00:49, 17 Nov 2007 (PST)

The Mario Kart map for TF2 does this.--Aybraus 15:24, 1 Dec 2008 (PST)

Not much possiblites there.--Gear 01:30, 17 Nov 2007 (PST)

Yeah, but they'd be awesome possibilities! ;-) —Yar Kramer 11:03, 17 Nov 2007 (PST)

I see only one possibility. Some giant players who do not seem to see you. Yay. --Baliame 11:17, 17 Nov 2007 (PST)

Fine! Be logical, sensibal, and showing the least mount of restraint! ;) &mdashYar Kramer 17:16, 17 Nov 2007 (PST)

You kidding me? That's the greatest idea ever!!! (It's already been implemented in some maps too! Though with only part of the 3d skybox) --AsianBorat 12:07, 5 Jul 2008 (PST)

Well, they did this in that one Arena Map for SiN Episodes 1. (A guy was locked outside of his lab or something lol) --JakeB 12:38, 5 Jul 2008 (PDT)

You know, couldn't you make the models to scale, and then place those models in the skybox? They would then appear the correct size. And since less Triangles would be used on these small models, you could feasible have many more. As in, I think, 16 times as many, since the 3D Sky Box is 1/16th. Assuming you figure out the AI, you could have tons of people walking about. They wouldn't really be interactive, I don't think, but if Left 4 Dead has 30 zombies as the z_commonlimit, according to my logic, you could have 480 people walking about. Think about that. --CorporalAris 21:41, 1 Dec 2008 (GMT -6)

"People" are more than just their models. The engine would have to keep track of 480 different sets of AI — not a trivial task at all. —Yar Kramer 11:37, 3 Dec 2008 (PST)

Yeah, I suppose. Personally, if I were a coder, (I do a bit, but not C++), I would just make some VERY simple routines for the 480 people. Make it a bit easier on the system. Maybe not even 480, maybe less, but hell, it would be way less on the graphics. --CorporalAris 14:34, 4 Dec 2008 (PST)

Reverse 3D Skybox

This is probably merely inspired perversity (well, perversity, anyway), but is it possible to have a "reverse" 3D Skybox? That is, if a player has somehow gotten into a 3D skybox in, say, a HL2DM map, is it possible to give them a sort of "god's eye view" of the normal area, while everyone in the normal area sees a giant player watching over (and possibly shooting innefectively at) them? Even as I'm typing this, my instincts are telling me that the answer would involve way too much effort and programming for something that there's no way I could possibly gain any practical benefit from. (The "so obvious it can't possibly be right" answer, simply putting in a second sky_camera in the main area of the map, didn't work, nor was I seriously expecting it to.) —Yar Kramer 18:23, 16 Mar 2008 (PDT)

Eternal Silence does that trick for its space stations, so it is possible. --TomEdwards 04:17, 17 Mar 2008 (PDT)

Oh, I have no doubts that it's possible, knowing the Source Engine, but I suppose it's not possible to do in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch (i.e. "without programming"). ;) —Yar Kramer 10:07, 23 Mar 2008 (PDT)

You'd have to modify the code which handles the 3D skybox to show the map when in the 3D skybox in relationship with the origin point of the map (0,0,0) and the sky_camera entity, basically, the reverse of the 3D skybox effect. Solokiller 11:12, 23 Mar 2008 (PDT)

Exactly. —Yar Kramer 17:25, 24 Mar 2008 (PDT)

ES has a sky box and a space box. The space box, simply has teleports in and out of it. When teleported in, the models immediately scale down to 1/16th size. All space scenes are in the same area, just scaled down. The skybox is projected in the space box. Regular area, and space area are visually connected with projections. --Sbrown 10:41, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Um ... yes, but my question was, could you do this in a HL2DM or TF2 map without modifying the code any, and just using inputs and outputs? —Yar Kramer 02:54, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Left 4 Dead

It should be noted that L4D's skybox scale is set to 1/32. --Sniperchance

No 3D skybox models available in the L4D sdk? Anyone know where they are or how to get at them?

Also to be noted: Decimal values for skyboxes are as follows... 1/16 = 0.0625 1/32 = 0.03125 --Oilcake

creation

prehaps we should change the creation method? idk about you lot, but I build the skybox in full scale around 0,0,0 using reference parts of the original map, add the camera, and THEN shrink it down. it just seems much less tedious and so much more accurate that way.

thoughts? Kizzycocoa 10:27, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

If you use 1/16 scale models in the 3D skybox then creating it at full scale won't be easy. Solokiller 12:46, 6 January 2010 (UTC) but, you can create it full scale, shrink it, and add entities later. simple :S

all things considered, if you are even ATTEMPTING a 3D skybox, unless it's your first time, you know what you want (more or less). so it would be better to add the entities after. and have all of the brushes, displacements etc. done in full 3D. then:

A)it is 100% accurate

B)you get a rough preview of it before shrinking

C)should you do a bit wrong (like misaligned a bit), it can be easy to edit a full skybox, instead of recreating/rescaling it

D)you can shape the displacements much more visually so you can achieve smooth curves better

and, once shrunk, it can have entities added, which (lets be honest), you do last mostly anyway.

if I make a house (in hammer, not RL). I will make the roof, walls, floors, garden etc. before moving the furniture into it.

it just makes more sense :S Kizzycocoa 13:27, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Model scale

So, i have model with actual 1:1 size. What i should write in "$scale" of skybox version model? Same as for Hammer in article - 0.0625, or something different? --Darth biomech 19:38, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Can a 3D skybox be rendered outside the map boundaries?

Is it fine if one of the 3D skybox's dimensions is greater than 2,048 (so that it results in being greater than 32,768 when scaled)? --The Invisble Phantom 16:12, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Draw distance stuff

Okay so someone put on this page that "3D skyboxes can be used to overcome draw distance limitations, if a low-detail skybox identical to the main map is created". I like this idea but is there a way to prevent any 3D skybox stuff from drawing closer than FarZ? This is in the context of a custom map for gmod. --ClikOnVDC (talk) 07:42, 14 August 2022 (PDT)