Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 03:11:21 am

Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 03:11:21 am
This is a major concession of mine do to my failure to include planetary glows on actual sphere models. It does have a negligable performance hit if your videocard is at least a radeon 9500 pro or Geforce 4 Ti 4200.

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/ReleasePics/Eb02.JPG)

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/ReleasePics/Eb03.JPG)

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/ReleasePics/Mb02.JPG)

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/ReleasePics/Mb03.JPG)



get it here

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,19747.0.html
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Nuke on March 03, 2004, 03:17:30 am
try it in the env mapping build
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 03:20:47 am
The runabout v2.0 doesn't have specular maps yet. It gets glassy when I used Bobboau's build. I'll show you in a sec.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 03:31:25 am
I have to admit, it looks nifty. Looks like WestCoast or Orange County Choppers got their hands on it. Either that or the Nyquil is kicking in.

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny00.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny01.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny02.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny03.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny04.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny05.JPG)
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny06.JPG)
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 03:35:38 am
Has anyone ever figured out how to keep stars from appearing IN FRONT of background POF's?
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Raptor on March 03, 2004, 04:06:45 am
Nice, very nice.

Hate to sound like an idiot, but how does a skybox work? (hell, I'm not sure I completely understand what a skybox IS)
...
...
...:nervous:...
...
...
What?
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Nuke on March 03, 2004, 04:25:32 am
Quote
Originally posted by Omniscaper
Has anyone ever figured out how to keep stars from appearing IN FRONT of background POF's?


technicly they dont, fs uses additive transparency. 255'255'255+0'0'0=255'255'255. the only solution i can think of is to turn the stars down, maybe someone can convince the coders to allow a setting of 0. then simply make your own stars.


Quote
Originally posted by Raptor
Nice, very nice.

Hate to sound like an idiot, but how does a skybox work? (hell, I'm not sure I completely understand what a skybox IS)
...
...
...:nervous:...
...
...
What?


a skybox is a pre rendered surrounding environment. quake 2 is a good example of a game using a skybox. it requires a recent scp build and the open gl version of fred, as well as 1337 |-|/\><0|2 $|<][|_|_Z. this tutorial (http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/nukewar/skybox/Skyboxtutorial.doc) may be usefull.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 03, 2004, 04:30:50 am
I used the same earth model and made a new Mars model in 3dsmax. Rendered in all their glory, bumpmaped, glowed and all the rest of the trimmings. I then used that image and with it textured a 20km plane and placed it within a transparent cube. The cube itself can also be textured, but since this is the Solar System, theres not much to put in the background. Hell, actual earth orbit pics barely reveal stars.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Nuke on March 03, 2004, 04:45:36 am
i made my box in truespace, as im still not too good with max. i moddeled some planets, threw in some nebs, rendered. then i made a cube, applied the texture flipped the normals and saved.

freespace wont let you black out the stars because of the additive trans. you could white them out, but space isnt white last i checked. maybey i can get the coders to add a no trans sky check box. the idea is to block out the stars, suns, nebs, ect. that way they could be replaced with what is in the skybox. might boost performance too.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: KARMA on March 03, 2004, 04:48:54 am
Quote
Originally posted by Nuke


the only solution i can think of is to turn the stars down, maybe someone can convince the coders to allow a setting of 0. then simply make your own stars.


 


I'd love it too
btw are the stars present even over planet images as background images? If not, they probably could extend this to skyboxes maybe?
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: .::Tin Can::. on March 03, 2004, 07:06:20 am
The only form of skyboxing I knew of is when I did my Aliens vs Predator 2 mapmaking. It was all an effort of uploading a "complex_skybox" design into the far reaching of FAR AWAY from your level, and then plastering the skybox you wanted on it. (Lets see a cloudy background)

Then, you would put a hole in your level where you wanted the sky to be shown, or you would be outside. If you were outside you would surround the ENTIRE level with a massive BOX. Then, you plaster the texture labeled "sky" and get rid of a few properties and add a few. The skybox was the most of my problems. but after a while I got used to jacking with it...

Im glad newbies bring some experience with them. :lol:
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: c914 on March 03, 2004, 07:18:41 am
that look s realy good:yes:
special danube with Mars on bacgroun.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Setekh on March 04, 2004, 05:40:01 am
Oh dude... :) Welcome to the highlights. I have no more to say. ;)
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Turnsky on March 04, 2004, 06:42:43 am
*foams at the mouth*

bllblblblblblblbargh.... :eek2:
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Setekh on March 04, 2004, 06:55:40 am
:nod:

I mean, this is the shot that makes me foam at the mouth:

(http://www.penguinbomb.com/omniscaper/Screenshots/shiny01.JPG)

Given, we're going over the top with the reflection right now (it will look far more refined once we tone it down some), but I mean, compare that to a screenshot from FS2 retail. Holy smoke it's an improvement. :)
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Turnsky on March 04, 2004, 07:06:18 am
dude, it's a quantum LEAP from fs2 retail
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Nico on March 04, 2004, 07:12:58 am
exepted that now the little space debris are big sticks :p
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Deepblue on March 04, 2004, 09:35:25 am
I was wondering why they were like that. :nervous:
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Grug on March 04, 2004, 09:54:24 am
:o

great work. bloody marvolous... :D

I hope I can make skyboxes that come out to be as good as that...

Keep up the good work :D
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Carl on March 04, 2004, 10:33:32 am
yeah, me thinks environment mapping has helped us regain our claim as the best looking space sim out there. the skyboxes work great with it.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Rictor on March 04, 2004, 03:16:33 pm
Why does everyone want to tone it down. I mean, this looks wicked. Lessening the effects would..well, lessen the effect.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Omniscaper on March 04, 2004, 03:32:29 pm
I'm all about the shinies!!! It reminds me of mushrooms
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: StratComm on March 04, 2004, 04:12:13 pm
Rictor, I think it's because those ships are supposed to be essentially matte.  Still looks awesome.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: ZylonBane on March 04, 2004, 04:30:49 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Omniscaper
Has anyone ever figured out how to keep stars from appearing IN FRONT of background POF's?

That reminds me-- has FSO fixed the bug where space debris renders behind opaque background bitmaps?
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Bobboau on March 04, 2004, 07:26:03 pm
hmm, looks like the particle thingys don't have alpha on them anymore, ohwell, I'v swapped out that code fork, and gotten a fresh CVS copy so I can get 3.6 done
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Setekh on March 05, 2004, 01:59:19 am
Quote
Originally posted by Rictor
Why does everyone want to tone it down. I mean, this looks wicked. Lessening the effects would..well, lessen the effect.


It doesn't look very appropriate on several of the ships because, as Stratt points out, several ships are meant to look more matte. It looks especially good on these Trek ships because the white becomes silver, but some ships just start looking like they were covered in cellophane.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Nico on March 05, 2004, 02:13:32 am
Quote
Originally posted by Rictor
Why does everyone want to tone it down. I mean, this looks wicked. Lessening the effects would..well, lessen the effect.


maybe because ships aren't made of mirrors, well, usually?
That ship doesn't look like it's flying next to a planet, but like it's gonna be swallowed by a supernova in 3, 2, 1, bam you're dead.
That factor is as cool as cars with all chromed metal parts.
Cool for jackies.
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: vyper on March 05, 2004, 05:08:35 am
Nice, very nice.

Omni, do I sense a warp effect with the length of those particles passing the runabout? :drevil:
Title: Earth and Mars orbit SKYBOXES
Post by: Black Wolf on March 07, 2004, 07:54:42 am
While we're on the subject of those little particles, any chance we could get an option to remove them? They're, err...well, they're messing up our Atmospheric Screenies for TI...:nervous: ;)