Cubemaps questions

[THUGENSTEIN]

Is there some sort of special placement that needs to be used for cubemaps. Because I noticed that in HL2 almost every texture has a nice specular light from cubemaps. On my maps when I place cubemaps only a small amount of textures are cubemapped. I heard you have to have them at the eyeline height of the player. Does it also matter where I place them as opposed to where all the light sources are?

 

[Ti133700N]

It depends the texture you are using, some textures use cubemaps, other don't, its defined in the vmt file. I think you know how to place cubemaps correctly, just put them where the lightning conditions are different and build the cubemaps with the buildcubemaps command in the console after you have loaded your map.

 

[THUGENSTEIN]

oh wow i didnt know about the buildcubemaps thing. Once I use that and it builds it all does it stick to the map? Like if I want to distribute the map, and i do this buildcubemaps will it stay on the map for others to see. Because I did it and god damn everything shines lol.

 

[archon.au]

Yep, it modifies the file (so dont distribute your development bsp!)

 

[THUGENSTEIN]

LOL i cubemapped my 747 map that im working on it looks so much nicer!

 

[Ti133700N]

hehe Yea cubemaps are great. Some surfaces use another texture file to simulate reflexions but the best results are often with the cubemaps because they reflect the actual environment. Be carefull though not to put to many reflecting surfaces or the fps will suffer.