scared of the sky camera

[WAR_Nuker]

ok in the past i tried testing out that sky camera trick. It worked, but the light env wouldnt work with it....(yeah i copied it and pasted it during the method too) now i find that i am making my map rather large....resulting in longer compilation times. i want to use this sky camera to project the stuff that players cannot enter, but I am scared as hell to do it. however if it is done successfully, my compilation time will be cruisin. on the same note, i really dont want to remake everything i made outside of my map just cause my sky camera decided not to work. The things i want to project are 16 displacement surfaces (grass), roads, my light_env, some trees, street lights, some powerlines, and needless to say my skybox. I REALLY dont want to remake these things. so, when i did that sky camera trick, the only things i copied were the skybox, the sky camera, and the light env. do i have to take the ENTIRE map and shrink it?

 

[Hazar]

you always can back up your maps...

 

[WAR_Nuker]

i GUESS....

 

[Hazar]

lol, don't be scared to try new things out, that's how you learn.

But backups are still always good.

 

[showNOmercy]

ok in the past i tried testing out that sky camera trick. It worked, but the light env wouldnt work with it....(yeah i copied it and pasted it during the method too) now i find that i am making my map rather large....resulting in longer compilation times. i want to use this sky camera to project the stuff that players cannot enter, but I am scared as hell to do it. however if it is done successfully, my compilation time will be cruisin. on the same note, i really dont want to remake everything i made outside of my map just cause my sky camera decided not to work. The things i want to project are 16 displacement surfaces (grass), roads, my light_env, some trees, street lights, some powerlines, and needless to say my skybox. I REALLY dont want to remake these things. so, when i did that sky camera trick, the only things i copied were the skybox, the sky camera, and the light env. do i have to take the ENTIRE map and shrink it?

I know what your saying.

1st, save your map as a new name for backup.

When you select everything to make your 3D skybox, copy it, and paste it and scale it, that is only used for reference material. Once you have your scaled reference you can build the 3D scene around your scaled down copy. Once you have finished your 3D scene you delete the reference materials.

The parts of your map that you scale down will not need to be in the 3D skybox unless they are part of the non playable scene. The 3D skybox will project its content on top of your playable map.

If A is my map and B is the 3D skybox I don't want anything from A in B and viseaversa! If you have 3D scenery in your 2D skybox then all you have to do is place your camera select it and all the 3D scenery scale it down surround it with a hollow cube covered in the skybox texture, delete the original skycamera and kix up your 2D skybox. Your basically done, from there if you need to scale your displacement brushes do that from the "Displacements" tab.

That should clear things up hopefully. Always remember to back up.

 

[Dr.breen]

Speaking of cameras....anyone got a link to tutorials?

I tried to make one but i didn't work....heres what I did...

1)I made a point_camera named it then pointed it at barney's face

2)made a wall and put the dev_monitor texture on it

3) tied the dev_monitor wall to func_monitor and typed in the camera name

4) tried it.... didn't work

5) asked in the Forum

6) ...to be continued

 

[showNOmercy]

Speaking of cameras....anyone got a link to tutorials?

I tried to make one but i didn't work....heres what I did...

1)I made a point_camera named it then pointed it at barney's face

2)made a wall and put the dev_monitor texture on it

3) tied the dev_monitor wall to func_monitor and typed in the camera name

4) tried it.... didn't work

5) asked in the Forum

6) ...to be continued

Try a different texture for shits. I've actually had problems with that texture before.

I wrote this for multiple cams and monitors. Might help:
link

Its towards the bottom of the page.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

ok i got some screens http://xsilentsniperx16.tripod . com/id2.html (no spaces) they are the last two pics on the page. dont mind the fullbright. the thing is.....my outside area flows directly from the inside area. in other words, there are no brick walls separating the two. will this make the sky camera thing problematic?

 

[Phisionary]

you can treat a 3d skybox like anything else... you just cant interact with it or touch it.

I believe you will likely see a slight change in lighting between two surfaces, where they meet.

I created a level that was a 3d skybox, you could run around in it and players by the sky camera would see you all big... (just for fun).

By covering all the regular-world surfaces with skybox texture, they were seamless, for the most part.

Note that you cannot have them phyically meet. Not for technical reasons, it just makes rendering very very weird. Can see real world objects in front of stuff that should be behind.

So......... in short it shouldn't be a problem. unless those lamp-posts are models. Models, obviously, must be scaled correctly for the skybox too.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

yeah i tried doin this. since i already had my outdoor scene created....i selected all of the scene....the skybox (which surrounds the scene), the light_env, and the sky camera and copied and pasted it....and scaled it down elsewhere. after that, i deleted my original scene and the original sky camera. compiled it in 8 minutes as compared to 45 minutes. the result was a cluster of enormous trees, enormous street lights, the sky box looked ok (from what i could see of it), and the light_env still wont work. and for some reason the ceiling was almost completely dark. since this failed miserably, i was thinking about projecting only the skybox with the sky camera and keeping the scene as is.

 

[Cryx]

im running into some look-a-like problems !

my 3d skybox is just not showin up :S

so a little tutorial would be very nice

 

[WAR_Nuker]

what is meant by "kix up your 2d skybox"? that may or may not be the deciding factor of whether or not i will understand this.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

WOOOOOOO! I UNDERSTAND NOW! I can make my map look way better now. because of my circumstances, my compile time will be remaining the same. however, i can extend my map and make it look way bigger than it actually is. sorry everyone. for some reason all of this wasnt registering with me before. thank you for all your help nonetheless.

Edit: well one last question....say i want to project tall geometry like a building using the sky_camera. can the building cast shadows on my actual map (with the env_light) or will it only project it without casting shadows on my map?

 

[Deleter]

lol, he sees the light!

 

[WAR_Nuker]

let me rephrase my edit it sounds confusing. I want my skybox to project a large building and i want to know if that building can cast shadows on my actual map despite it just being a projection from the sky_camera.

 

[Pesmerga]

Pfft, never back up your maps! If you screw up, it teaches you a lesson you'll never forget, plus you get the fine oppurtunity to restart your map. Trust me, you'll be 200% more happy with a rehashed map with new ideas / optimizations.