[Gregster2k]

EDIT 2: FSO apparently hates mipmaps on skyboxes. Take a look at the screenshots of the Mars skybox, below.

Original problem (stripey skybox):
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5914/screen0021ai9.jpg
G:\Games\Freespace2\fs2_open_3_6_10-Xt_0314.exe -mod mediavps -spec -glow -env -mipmap -nomotiondebris -missile_lighting -snd_preload  -no_emissive_light -ambient_factor 0 -ogl_spec 80 -spec_exp 11 -spec_point 0.6 -spec_static 1.5 -spec_tube 0.6

[Jeff Vader]

It means that the resolution of the skybox is kicking the crap out of your graphics card.

[Gregster2k]

But it's 128MB. Did the entire community start upscaling their skyboxes since the days of Omniscaper's Mars skybox?


edit: note to self, never again assume that just because herra's skybox is huge, that all skyboxes are similarly huge. whoops

[Jeff Vader]

But it's 128MB.

What is?

Have you played Cardinal Spear? The planets in it look exactly the same, and it's because Herra Tohtori fancies crispy, ****ing huge resolution textures. This is obviously that skybox he released a while back and I do seem to remember that there was a lower-resolution .dds for the skybox texture included as well.

[Gregster2k]

But it's 128MB.

What is?

Have you played Cardinal Spear? The planets in it look exactly the same, and it's because Herra Tohtori fancies crispy, ****ing huge resolution textures. This is obviously that skybox he released a while back and I do seem to remember that there was a lower-resolution .dds for the skybox texture included as well.

The video card is 128MB. I did play Cardinal Spear and the planets looked fine. >.> Usually I leave everything on high-res anyway, generally my card never runs into this problem. I didn't even check how big this texture actually is. *checks* 4096x2048?..............

Okay, okay, I give up, I'll use the smaller one. XD Isn't it possible to put mipmaps on these things anyway? So that the card will use the smaller one if it cant use the big one? Maybe I'm giving my video card too much credit...

[Jeff Vader]

The video card is 128MB.

So has 128mb of memory. That doesn't matter. Mine has 256, plus the possible dreaded Hypermemory^TM. And still the higher-resolution skybox texture looks like that. As well as the original planet textures on Cardinal Spear. Which originally inspired me to resize them and provide to those who were also graphically challenged. And all was well again.

[Gregster2k]

The video card is 128MB.

So has 128mb of memory. That doesn't matter. Mine has 256, plus the possible dreaded Hypermemory^TM. And still the higher-resolution skybox texture looks like that. As well as the original planet textures on Cardinal Spear. Which originally inspired me to resize them and provide to those who were also graphically challenged. And all was well again.

Well this is good to know, at least now I know what the hell to do if the skybox looks weird -- edit it myself. Heh. I noticed something, though. Omni's Earth and Mars skyboxes have mipmaps - Terra's test box doesn't.

[Gregster2k]

It's not over yet... 


Notice the "seam", and the ""sideways" stars?


The Mars Skybox speaks for itself. Shame it's not a deliberate motion blur effect.

[ShadowGorrath]

I had the same problem with this Mars skybox. But the nebula skybox is all fine even with the highest resolution version ( the planets in Cardinal Spear aren't though ), even though my vid card sucks.

[Gregster2k]

I had the same problem with this Mars skybox. But the nebula skybox is all fine even with the highest resolution version ( the planets in Cardinal Spear aren't though ), even though my vid card sucks.

Hmm. What about the top screenshot -- the blue one? It seems to have doubled stars too. I don't think it's supposed to look like that...is it? Can you throw a few screenshots my way of what it looks like on your end, with the low res version of the DDS? I want to make absolutely sure whether it is the skybox or not...

[ShadowGorrath]

It's the skybox actually. Just tested myself and saw the same double-staring as in your pictures.

And a reason on why not to trust my PC- it can't view the large texture anymore.

[Herra Tohtori]

Well crud. I don't see any double stars, but it seems that the low-res version of the texture has escaped the quality assurance department with that ugly visible seam. Higher resolution doesn't seem to suffer from it, but apparently the low-res map was too low on my priorities to check for that one last time...

I'll see what can be done about it, but don't hold your breath...

Also, about double starring - you could try not to use the starfield0001 texture provided with the skybox, it is - again as Lobo said - mostly unnecessarily big and actualyl can cause some shimmering with low anti-aliasing settings, but I like it because it basically allows me to use smaller fields of view if I so desire without lowering the resolution of the visible starfield... and it has mildly coloured stars. However, as it is 4096x4096 sized, it will also cause problems with cards incapable of handling textures of that size. Just re-name the file (which disables it and instead uses the starfield0001 texture in MediaVP's) or remove it from the mod directory altogether.

[Gregster2k]

Removing the starfield DDS did the trick. It's not like I'm using your skybox for anything other than testing skybox functionality, so don't worry too much about the seam. I just wanted to ensure that this was strictly related to individual skyboxes and not the actual SCP. I have a theory as to why the Mars Skybox looks strange, actually. SCP team might be interested (or not):

I have reason to believe that the SCP is actually rendering all the Mars Skybox mipmaps simultaneously over one another. I know that sounds silly but it's the only thing I can think of. I'll run two tests, one with mipmapping command line option disabled, and another with a modified Mars DDS that does not have mipmaps in it. If I'm right, then maybe it's a bon a fide SCP bug --- unless skyboxes aren't supposed to have mipmaps.

EDIT:
Test 1 (mipmapping command line disabled): No effect.
Test 2 (Mars DDS stripped of mipmaps): Testing................Success



Well, there you have it. It seems FSO hates skyboxes with mipmaps. Notice how much darker the skybox now is. I used DXT5 compression, not sure if that's the correct one, but what the hell. It works. Texture is 2048x2048.

[phreak]

If you would like to make your media available, it would help us fix it.

[Gregster2k]

If you would like to make your media available, it would help us fix it.

Well I'm just using Omni's skybox from http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/EarthMarsSB.rar
All I did was I removed the mipmaps from the mars box to fix it. I presume you want the original and not the fixed one, but if you want fixed no-mipmaps one for easy comparison, here. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JCSWAQS8