Skyboxes

[methanewarfare]

this isnt a pressing topic or anything, b/c i know there is a lot of info online about this already, but i was just wondering if anyone has made their own skyboxes and/or had any tips..

[X7[Q2C]]

I know Marics and kold/Derimok and others
have map Environmental Maps (Skyboxes)

Tutorials on how to make Environmental Maps
At Rust

www.gamedesign.net/node/51

archive of the same web page
web.archive.org/web/20080118031841/http://www.gamedesign.net/node/51




Making ENV. Maps with Bryce 2
www.gamedesign.net/node/47

archive of the same web page
web.archive.org/web/20080111111503/http://www.gamedesign.net/node/47





X7

[Derimok]

Its really easy to make them in Terragen, but they don't quite have the punch that Bryce 3d skies do.
Terragen 2 however is amazing, just very hard to learn properly.

There is a way to hand paint your skies too, using something like photoshop & a program called skypaint. Thats how I made my sky for my recent map.

Btw if your after a big archive of skies check this out:
lvlworld.com/t.php/Quake+3+Arena+skybox+collection
Its only 450mb & 240 skies ;D

[Berzerker]

while we're on skies
is there a pack or something of the different skies that people have made that one can download.
I see some of you when you post your maps on-line with like real skies you know blue with white clouds.

[Derimok]

That link I gave above is sure enough to have some blue skies, but if your after some really amazing skies, check these out from hipshot:
forums.mapcore.net/viewtopic.php?t=3127

Make sure if you use the ones from the above link, that you resize them to 256x256 or they won't load in Quake 2.
Hipshot also released a map not so long ago with a cartoon like blue sky, I recommend this one:

lvlworld.com/#c=m1&i=2048&d=20%20Oct%202009&m=All&p=review&q=hipshot

That sky may need resized to 256x256 too if you want to save on file size.

Also here's temp links till I get my website up, to three blue looking skies I made years back:

www.derimok.com/koldgrassy.zip
www.derimok.com/koldsnow.zip
www.derimok.com/koldspring.zip

[Berzerker]

Thank you very much Derimok
those are awsome
and appreciate the resize tip !!

Edit:
I was reading some of the replies to the skies hipshot made
and I noticed he said they were pictures of real skies !!
Is this true I can take pictures of the sky outside my house and put them in Q2

[Derimok]

Nov 7, 2009 8:46:51 GMT -5 Berzerker said:

I was reading some of the replies to the skies hipshot made
and I noticed he said they were pictures of real skies !!
Is this true I can take pictures of the sky outside my house and put them in Q2

Yes you can, sort of. Its all about cloning & blending your images into the env. I made most of my skies before I found this tutorial a while back: developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Skybox_-_Advanced

I'm yet to take full advantage of the tutorial, but I'd like to give it a shot when I get some time.

Heres some food for thought: www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/f/tg2/?g2_page=2
All of those images were generated within the program. There's no reason why the same results couldn't be achieved with some hard work via (photoshop if you have it) and Skypaint. Skypaint is an expensive program too, so it may not be for everyone.

You can use the demo version, however it gives you a watermark on your skies bottom image.

A lot of your time could be spent mapping, and instead using the already available skies out there, but its up to you whether you want to learn the necessary programs. Good luck.

[methanewarfare]

sweet..that was going to be my next question (if pictures could turn into skyboxes)

thanks for all the help guys

now, i've downloaded bryce 3d and tried making some with that, but its got a pretty steep learning curve (or maybe i'm going about it the wrong way)

[DvSD]

Nov 6, 2009 2:14:28 GMT -5 Derimok said:

Btw if your after a big archive of skies check this out:
lvlworld.com/t.php/Quake+3+Arena+skybox+collection
Its only 450mb & 240 skies ;D

Anyone have a copy of this, the link is dead.

[grieve[Q2C]]

oho ... works fine for me.

lvlworld.com/download/id:2023#

link under ..::LvL - (466 MB)

link under *MH Gaming*has a smaller file (273 MB)

[DvSD]

You are correct,used your link, working now, thanks grieve.
Definitely not what was showing when I was there originally, completely different page now, ...maybe I have been hacked  lol.  NOPE, just an old school brain fart, was on the review page not the download page.