Skybox rendering indoors behind caulk

[Dragofer]

Something that looks problematic with using caulk is that it lets you see into the void because it's invisible - which would mean that anywhere you have a caulk surface you'd render your skybox, even if it's in an indoors room with no portal_sky surfaces around and covered by func_static.

 

Would it be possible to only render the skybox when there are portal_sky surfaces in active visleaves?

[nbohr1more]

The new skybox system as of 2.02 (as I recall) allows you to assign multiple skyboxes.

(info_portalsky1, info_portalsky2, etc )

 

You could make a skybox that looks like the primary interior texture (etc).

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/15033-draft-for-following-skybox-wiki/

 

Another solution is to use func_portal and add a patch with a texture or cubemap to approximate the view when the portal is closed.

[Dragofer]

The new skybox system as of 2.02 (as I recall) allows you to assign multiple skyboxes.

(info_portalsky1, info_portalsky2, etc

Yep, I've definitely made use of that new possibility with the skyboxes. One of them is an empty one that gets triggered in regions where I know the player won't see the sky.

 

 

I've made a plain test map and seen that caulk already works so that it only shows the skybox when there's portal_sky somewhere in the visible area.

 

The problem I've been seeing frequently - that skybox gets rendered in well-sealed interior areas on caulk surfaces - looks more like it's caused by portal_sky surfaces leaking in from nearby sealed off visleafs. Possibly this is the same thing that sometimes causes a house's roof beams to be rendered even if they're within a closed visleaf, despite being tidily made.

 

For example, if I noclip behind my schooner ship's patch walls and look out through the caulk walls I can see my skybox as well as parts of the shore and the ship's exterior. The skybox makes no sense because its brushes are clear of the ship by hundreds of units on all sides, and I've used the various search functions to make sure there are no stray portal_sky surfaces anywhere. The ship interior is well sealed: there's a noticeable sound and fps difference when closing doors, all portals functioning and red.

 

 

So caulk isn't the problem, it's actually that the skybox and other things like func_static beams can impossibly leak into sealed off areas.

[Spooks]

I've spent maybe two days combined wondering how I could stop my beams to stop showing through a house in wireframe view, to no avail. Have no idea why it happens either, it could very well be a bug.

 

I suppose you could make your little portal_sky brush that paints the caulk teleport in and out of an area based on where you are and see if that does it, but it's a very roundabout way of doing it.

[Dragofer]

I suppose you could make your little portal_sky brush that paints the caulk teleport in and out of an area based on where you are and see if that does it, but it's a very roundabout way of doing it.

 

You get strange results when there are portal_sky surfaces on an entity. In my test map I just opened and closed a door that lead into a room textured with portal_sky to see what happens in the caulk room. It worked cleanly so skybox only showed on the caulk when the portal_sky room was open, but it doesn't seem to work entirely reliably in more complicated maps, neither for portal_sky nor for beams, having checked through more of my map.