Rotating skybox

[Mart[1001]]

Hi lads....I'm thinking of using a rotating skybox in a map. Rotating at only .2 degrees per sec on the horizontal to try to simulate real cloud movement. I just wondered if anyone knows if this will cause lag when run on a server. Obviously there's no problem in a single player map but I'm not sure how it works online. For example, I would think that if you join a server with the map running...your client would start the skybox at the default position and then rotate it and thats the end of it. But I've got a sneaky suspision that the server actually has to talk to the client to update the position at every packet sent. I'm sure I read something years ago about this. Anyone help me ?
Even if so...it should'nt cause much latency with todays hardware and it's not really much of a problem...it's just that I got thinking about it when I first thought of using the rotating box and would like to know the answer before I use it.

[Le Ray [Q2C]]

That's a good question. A lot of my maps had rotating skies, but I never thought they would slow a server. Maybe someone can answer this.

[grieve[Q2C]]

the rendering of the bsp data is pure business of the clients, that's for sure. this includes of course the worldspawn arguments like sky rotating.

since everyone joining the game has to use the same map, the same worldspawn properties are executed for all. there should be no need for the server to observe this.

sue me if I'm wrong.

[Mart[1001]]

Thanks for the reply lads...you were right gr13v3
I decided to test it out. I compiled a beta version of my map with a slightly faster rotating sky to make things easier. I then ran it on my test server and joined. I waited until the sun in the skybox had rotated 90 degrees, I then connected a 2nd client to the server and found the sky to be at the default position(the start). I minimised and swapped between the two clients and yes, they were 90 degrees out of sync. I then made sure by disconnecting both clients and reconnected and of course, the sky was again at its start position.
So we now know that the rotating sky is controlled by the client only and cannot cause lag other than on your own machine if it should be in such a poor enough state
Thanks again lads....

Mart.

[Paril]

grieve said:

the rendering of the bsp data is pure business of the clients, that's for sure. this includes of course the worldspawn arguments like sky rotating.

since everyone joining the game has to use the same map, the same worldspawn properties are executed for all. there should be no need for the server to observe this.

sue me if I'm wrong.

Well said, Grieve.

The skybox rotation is done entirely in the clients, and sent from the server. The server grabs the information about the map's (default) skybox and sends it to the client. It's only sent once, so that the client can change it if he's not happy with it.

It will not cause extra lag, unless the server sends the same information over and over.. but, I'm sure no clients will try to get the information more than once.

-Paril

[Mikemc]

So does that mean that if you have a map with a 24 hour day/night cycle and lighting effects, some players will see dark while others see light?

- Mike

[Mart[1001]]

mikemc said:

So does that mean that if you have a map with a 24 hour day/night cycle and lighting effects, some players will see dark while others see light?

- Mike

Would'nt have thought so cause that sounds like a 'mod specific' map and the day/night cycle would be controlled entirely by the server.

[Paril]

It is possible for others to always see light in a day/night cycle, depending on their settings. There are ways to make lights fullbright and never go dim, which might actually prevent it. I know it happened with one of my previous mods, one of my buds never saw the day/night cycle, but everyone else did.

Yeah, it's entirely server-controlled, and the map DOES NOT need to be mod specific. The code for day/night is "simple", and works on all maps.

[Sabotuer [Q2C]]

paril said:

The code for day/night is "simple", and works on all maps.

so you type "simple" in console and the day/night takes effect?

[Mart[1001]]

sabotuer said:

paril said:

The code for day/night is "simple", and works on all maps.

so you type "simple" in console and the day/night takes effect?

Lol @ Sabotuer [Q2C]

[X7[Q2C]]

I know of (2) mods that use a day/night cycle

LOX & WODX


X7

[Paril]

mart1001 said:

sabotuer said:

so you type "simple" in console and the day/night takes effect?

Lol @ Sabotuer [Q2C]

>_>
<_<

Not what I meant, but a good laugh. Quotes were to emphesise that it was simple enough.

Not too many people use the day/night cycle because it is easily workaroundable without a new client.

[Chris[1001]]

Hmm . Does this affect the speed of the map day/night cycle?

[Paril]

There is no map day/night cycle, the cycle of day and night is entirely DLL controlled.

-Paril