So, what are you working on right now?

[demagogue]

I haven't tried this, but can't you position the skybox camera based on the player's elevation, via scripting?

 

Or maybe hide/show the appropriate camera from several cameras, again using scripting?

 

That wouldn't make any difference. The whole "magic" of the skybox is that its contents always appear at the same distance from the player no matter how close or far away the actual texture skin is. And I don't think the art itself works like a camera-ed image, but just a stock animation it plays directly on the screen. To get the effect you're thinking about, I think the sky-art would have to be animated with a scripted zoom-out and zoom-in animation that plays relative to the player's elevation. That's just thinking hypothetically; not sure it's possible (but you never know).

 

Edit: No it's even more complicated than that because it's already animated with the waves when not moving... So it'd have to switch out animations between zooming w/waves and static w/waves.

 

Edit2: Or do I not understand how skyboxes work? Never read up on them actually; I just assumed that's how they worked. But D3 does have this funny business about pulling in a literal art-box into the world, so maybe it does work from a literal camera inside that box?

[ungoliant]

That wouldn't make any difference. The whole "magic" of the skybox is that its contents always appear at the same distance from the player no matter how close or far away the actual texture skin is. And I don't think the art itself works like a camera-ed image, but just a stock animation it plays directly on the screen. To get the effect you're thinking about, I think the sky-art would have to be animated with a scripted zoom-out and zoom-in animation that plays relative to the player's elevation. That's just thinking hypothetically; not sure it's possible (but you never know).

 

Edit: No it's even more complicated than that because it's already animated with the waves when not moving... So it'd have to switch out animations between zooming w/waves and static w/waves.

 

Edit2: Or do I not understand how skyboxes work? Never read up on them actually; I just assumed that's how they worked. But D3 does have this funny business about pulling in a literal art-box into the world, so maybe it does work from a literal camera inside that box?

 

Regarding the wave animation, this assumption is incorrect. There is no animation inside of my skybox. I'm happy that nobody has guessed the true nature yet of the SS's (or never mentioned it anyway). This whole skybox and waves setup was my way of dealing with the complicated problem of merging a water box all the way to the horizon with a skybox when the player moves up (at least) 2500 feet in the air (before the first distance based portal close). Basically it was impossible without some special help.

 

So, in fact, the "waves" on the shore is simply a func_bobbing entity that is actually textured with portal_sky, not water!!! this is not water reflecting a skybox. This is..... just a skybox. As of yet, there is no actual water in my FM (lmao). That portal_sky wall is like literally 5 feet away from the "shoreline". So theres no animation inside the skybox. But I don't see why you couldn't do it.

 

I'm not exactly well-versed in skybox lore myself even after having heavily modified one. My "guess" is that the origin of the entity "info_portalsky" inside the box is the position of a camera that angles itself based upon the angle of the players camera, except that it views the contents of the skybox instead of the players view. Whether it is possible or not to actively move that entity dynamically in the game.... no idea. Might be possible.

Edited June 25, 2010 by ungoliant

[Komag]

I don't know if you can move the position of the skybox camera, but yes, the camera in the skybox is the point of view you get, so if you can move that camera up to a higher position before you see out the higher ledge, you'll get the effect you want

[ungoliant]

I know and that is exactly the problem I see. When you stand on the beach, the waves look ok size-wise, but when you're higher they will probably look too big compared to the perceived distance of sight. But well, it's not really a big deal! :-)

 

woops forgot to address this concern. Heres the deal. Later in the mission (roughly straight up) the beach where you started (roughly straight below) is going to be covered in particle fog and closed portals. What will be left is ocean that you can see further out to sea (via portal_sky). The distance to any given point way out there from either the beach, or from 2500 units above the beach, is going to be ~= the same, to the point that the human eye would not be able to distinguish the difference. Anyway, the important thing to realize is that the only parts later in the mission you will actually see in the skybox would look really far away, and the same spot from the beach at the beginning of the mission will look really far away. The beach itself will not be visible later in the mission.

[Bikerdude]

Afternoon

 

After slaving away for the last few hours I thought Id post some screenshots...

 

[nbohr1more]

Looks great!

 

I cant wait till all these contest entries are out!

[stumpy]

you can move the position of the skycamera the script is on one of the doom 3 forums, tried the script out on something but have since deleted the script as it gave odd results. problems with it not accurately moving the skycamera as the skybox is at scale 1/16 so decimally its 0.0625 but the script was accurate to 2 decimal places.

[Diego]

lol

I have been playing around with the editor for fun, and when I realized how the skybox works I just had to make a giant monster!

[Melan]

Bikerdude: where did you get that transparent chainlink texture in your second shot? Is it a Doom3 asset?

[Bikerdude]

I just had to make a giant monster!

Classic

where did you get that transparent chainlink texture in your second shot? Is it a Doom3 asset?

Its a std TDm object -

 

models/darkmod/lights/extinguishable/chandelier_6candles_longchain.lwo

Edited June 27, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Melan]

No, I mean the semi-transparent fence-like texture that covers the gaps of the dome.

[Bikerdude]

No, I mean the semi-transparent fence-like texture that covers the gaps of the dome.

Ah that's a new transparent windows texture in 1.02, it dosent seal though -

 

textures/darkmod/window/roundtop_diamond_pattern01_transparent

Edited June 27, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Melan]

Thank you! This will come in handy in a later area.

[killhour]

The first image of my new skybox is done rendering! Here it is for anyone curious:

 

Edited June 28, 2010 by killhour

[Serpentine]

I wasn't sure how my little intoxicated experiment would turn out... it's not complete yet but here's a preview - pasting links because I'm too lazy to make thumbs.

http://syr.taaaki.za.net/tdm/random/undercor2.jpg

http://syr.taaaki.za.net/tdm/random/undercor1.jpg

 

(no mocking the kelp :/ grrrr kelp)

[Komag]

Looks very cool I think

[Diego]

Cool!

It's screaming for a green ambient light

[rich_is_bored]

Ye old BioShock.

[killhour]

I'm so happy I finally got that skybox rendered and working properly in game.

 

Here's a shot with the lighthouse from the waterfall:

http://sites.google.com/site/shadow516/shot00018.png?attredirects=0

 

And here's the same view from inside the courtyard:

http://sites.google.com/site/shadow516/shot00021.png?attredirects=0

 

And a final shot showing off a custom window shader:

http://sites.google.com/site/shadow516/shot00022.png?attredirects=0

 

With that, I can finally go to bed!

[Bikerdude]

the thirsd show looks awesome, how/what did you make that fountain with..?

[nbohr1more]

Great shots killhour! I am afraid of those FPS values though... (My P4 3.0ghz is in the fetal position )

[killhour]

the thirsd show looks awesome, how/what did you make that fountain with..?

 

The fountain is just patches and a cylinder. The FPS does need a ton of work though.

[AluminumHaste]

The fountain is just patches and a cylinder. The FPS does need a ton of work though.

 

Yeah that fountain is very nice, but you have too many shadow casting lights in there, I can't even count how many there are. Try reducing some.

[killhour]

Yeah that fountain is very nice, but you have too many shadow casting lights in there, I can't even count how many there are. Try reducing some.

 

There are 3 in that shot - 2 floodlights and the moon (also, the lighthouse has one, but it doesn't ever intersect with the floodlights - I think.

 

I'm going to make the statue not cast shadows, as well.

Edited June 28, 2010 by killhour

[Serpentine]

Just enable some fixed tessellation using the patch inspector tool (shift S). Find that nice sweet spot where it fits in more with your geometry and doesnt look uber smooth and "oh that's a patch" (usually around 5/6 for rounded stuff, in one direction). should increase FPS and make the scenes look more TDM-like.