ZylonBane on 17/12/2013 at 12:55
Second, don't. 2048x2048 is ludicrously high-res for a skybox. That's higher res than the full screen resolution that most people will be playing the mission at. It's a pointless waste of video RAM.
Nameless Voice on 17/12/2013 at 13:37
I disagree. If you have a good skybox and a level where a large portion of it is visible (e.g. there are views where you can see the skyline edge to edge), then it's one of the few things that I'd approve using a 2048x2048 texture for.
It really depends on the mission, though, and how important the skyline is to it.
ZylonBane on 17/12/2013 at 14:08
What's the point of having a texture so high-res that it will only ever be rendered scaled down? It's a skybox-- you can't get closer to it.
Ricebug on 17/12/2013 at 14:24
My current map is quite large, and in the railyard, there's a huge sky. That said, I'm using 1024x1024 and it looks pretty good.
If your "sky" has a lot incredible detail, such as nebulae, certain structures, plants, etc, then a higher rez may be in order.
Eternauta on 17/12/2013 at 16:10
I used a 2048 x 2048 sky but it is split in 2 by a bad line. As if the texture of the sky wasn't Nameless.
I also added the image an alpha channel and saved in DDS with mipmaps and RGB mode.
I wonder where I am going wrong! :tsktsk:
Nameless Voice on 17/12/2013 at 16:56
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
What's the point of having a texture so high-res that it will only ever be rendered scaled down? It's a skybox-- you can't get closer to it.
If you are facing directly at a panel of the sky, it should be taking up more than half of your screen (since 1024 is roughly half the screen at 1920). It's one of the few things you're likely to see that will take up more than 1024 pixels of screen space, so it's one of the few things that might be worth going up to 2048x2048.
Plus, people seem to be getting even higher-resolution monitors than that these days.
Again, you'd only want to consider this if your mission has a very fancy skybox and views that make use of it.
ZylonBane on 17/12/2013 at 17:45
You'd have to seriously be in love with whatever fine detail is in the sky to commit to 2K panels. By going from 1K to 2K you quadruple the texture memory consumed. For a cloudy/foggy sky, even 512 x 512 would suffice. That's what Valve used for some of HL2's skyboxes.
Eternauta on 17/12/2013 at 17:57
Ok, but even with a 512x512 sky loses much of quality. I've seen pictures of amazing sky for Thief 2 so that's what I can't do!
Where I'm wrong?
Ricebug on 17/12/2013 at 19:20
Quote Posted by Eternauta
I used a 2048 x 2048 sky but it is split in 2 by a bad line. As if the texture of the sky wasn't Nameless.
Don't you mean
seamless?
Quote:
I also added the image an alpha channel and saved in DDS with mipmaps and RGB mode.
What imaging program are you using? Also, it sounds like you're doing a cubemap, not a skybox. Modders_notes talks about them. Seems like a PITA to me.
Have you tried loading it up as a skybox?
load_sky xyz Has to be PNG, IIRC.
ZylonBane on 17/12/2013 at 20:13
Quote:
I also added the image an alpha channel and saved in DDS with mipmaps and RGB mode.
This has to be a joke. It's everything you
shouldn't do with a skybox.
