Skybox

[Schleicher]

I tried to make a more interesting Skybox with two layers of background....

i used two hollow cylinders inside a subtracted cylinder, one slighty bigger and positioned higer as the smaller one with those two masked skyline-textures from the "reverend package" and with the skyzone-info in the middle....

well they just looked like one in the end....with no 3-Dimensional feeling at all..tried several sizes and positions with no success :?

any suggestions?

[Microwave Oven]

As the skyzoneinfo is not moveable, its viewpoint will remain static, and any layering you use to give it any depth won't be apparent on a regular 2d display. With stereoscopic glasses the other layers will present depth, but without movement to give perspective, it will all appear flat to regular players. Also, consider that since the Thievery landscape and environment is based on solid ground, and not on an asteroid or spaceship, using a moving skyzone is out of character.

One idea you may want to try is using nonsolid buildings or a large backdrop sheet at a good distance inside the main level itself. This would allow you have the first layer of your backdrop to shift with the player's perspective against your skybox backdrop, giving you the effect you desire. However, the great amount of additional space required, the added rendering of polys of the false buildings, and the general difficulty present in making the mock-ups actually look good may make you reconsider having such an effect based upon the detrement to engine speed. But, the asthetics of such an effect may outweigh the negatives.

A good start may be to examine the outdoor level design in Thief 1&2 to get an idea of the method I propose.

[Radamanthus]

Speaking of skyboxes, how would you get a skybox actor to show the backdrop at level wiht the ground in ever a playr would ot walk to the edge of the map? i mean.. you have an ocean, and the skybox has an ocean, how would you get the real-game ocean to match the level of the skybox-ocean?

[BiG_D]

I'm not sure I understand the question, but is this what you're looking for:

Setting a surface to "Fake Backdrop" (in surface properties) will make it display the skybox.

[Schleicher]

i know how to make a skybox dont worry ^^

my question was how to give the skybox some "panorama"-feeling....as u know most TUT-levels skyboxes contain of one backdrop layer (usually a skyline) and the sky. I wanted to have more then one backdrop layer, like, lets say the city skyline plus some mountains behind it...but it just looked like one layer and wasnt 3-dimensional at all...and Microwave is (sadly) right - it would be necessary to create an additional layer in the level itself...

Regarding that skyzone-level ground matching (or so =P), i think that could be done placing the skyzone-info on the ground of the skybox and manually matching the sizes of the level-ocean texture and the skybox-ocean texture (first one bigger than second one maybe), but that sounds like a pain in the ass ops:

maybe u should do that like its done in "Koos Galleon"

[Radamanthus]

ACtually, now that you mention it, i tried that. if you use fly to get to the edge of the map, it looks like it does in thievery. but the rocking of hte ship motion of the skybox is quite useful.. thanks.

[Buho]

Speaking of skyboxes, how would you get a skybox actor to show the backdrop at level wiht the ground in ever a playr would ot walk to the edge of the map? i mean.. you have an ocean, and the skybox has an ocean, how would you get the real-game ocean to match the level of the skybox-ocean?

Check out Skeltston Head. Stand on a rooftop and check it out. Whomever made that map did a good job with the horizon.

[Radamanthus]

I looked at that too, then swam over to it, he used a sheet to make the water level, then placed the zoneinfo through that. wow. i was stupid not to think of that. thanks.