If I remember correctly, there was a tutorial somewhere that showed how you could blend brushes (using dotprod2) together into the skybox. But I cant remember where I saw it.
High Quality Skyboxes
ailmanki
(ailmanki)
#22
Sky looks great in some places, and in some others it looks not realistic.
The lightning from the sky on to the buildings is to bright at some places, but at many it looks correct.
Just the screenie (http://i42.tinypic.com/2res2uq.jpg), show a place where its to bright; looks ok on that screenshot, but I guess that has been photoshoped; in the movie the contrast is higher.
Looks good the map… and yes skies are very needed, the ones from amethyst are 256 or 512 px,
Especially nice would be a skybox with moving clouds, as this is difficult todo, so that it looks realistic and great.
shagileo
(shagileo)
#23
Very nice skyboxes indeed !
I wonder, are there many players who turn on ‘low quality sky’ ? I for myself have to, because of my crappy machine, but how’s stuff with the others?
IndyJones
(IndyJones)
#24
i doubt there is a big impact when sky is turned on/off. i have it on, on most maps sky makes players more visible.
Avoc
(Avoc)
#25
[QUOTE=ailmanki;191728]Sky looks great in some places, and in some others it looks not realistic.
The lightning from the sky on to the buildings is to bright at some places, but at many it looks correct.
Just the screenie (http://i42.tinypic.com/2res2uq.jpg), show a place where its to bright; looks ok on that screenshot, but I guess that has been photoshoped; in the movie the contrast is higher.
Looks good the map… and yes skies are very needed, the ones from amethyst are 256 or 512 px,
Especially nice would be a skybox with moving clouds, as this is difficult todo, so that it looks realistic and great.[/QUOTE]
The skybox that I made for that map was never meant to be 100% realistic. I wanted it to be a bit surreal on purpose.
As for the movie, you have to understand that a few effects have been added to it in order to give it a bit extra. The screenshot has not been photoshopped in any way however, that is how it looks like in-game.
The moving clouds part is not that hard to make, though for some skyboxes moving clouds would not add anything special to the skybox.
@ shag: “pro” players tend to turn the sky off. Pro players dont care much about the amount of work you put into the graphical side of the map, as they usually run configs that look completely ridiculous when you think that its 2009 and not 2003.
shagileo
(shagileo)
#26
[QUOTE=Avoc;191739]
@ shag: “pro” players tend to turn the sky off. Pro players dont care much about the amount of work you put into the graphical side of the map, as they usually run configs that look completely ridiculous when you think that its 2009 and not 2003.[/QUOTE]
Very true
I always like a nice skybox.
Anyhow,
maybe next time you can create one with moving clouds 
? I’d like to see the effect
eiM
(eiM)
#28
Personally I love great skyboxes and good looking maps but I still prefer to play without sky (fastsky = on) for the competiton factor (tend to see opponents better with a simple color behind)
P.S. will you be able to provide a fullsize downloadable version of that skybox for me? =)
Avoc
(Avoc)
#29
Sure eiM, but it will take a few days =D
But are you sure you need it, now that you have said that you play with fastsky on? =P
eiM
(eiM)
#30
It’ll be for my new map, for which I wanted a great looking skybox anyway. So YES 
That was just a comment on my gaming style, from the mappers point of view I like sexy maps, but not when I’m playing in a 6on6
(still I play with picmip 0 ;D)
Avoc
(Avoc)
#31
Hmm, I had to remove the water. It would have taken waaay too long to render with 2048 resolution. This sky is taking longer time to render than usual. 24hours+ for one side 
I might need to rework it
S14Y3R
(S14Y3R)
#32
24h/side? Ouch! It is nice to have something extra for the people who do play with everything cranked(ie. taking break from QW/Crisis), but that’s a crazy amount of time. Anyone know of a Render Farm for Vue files? 
how big was that one 2048 render btw?
Avoc
(Avoc)
#33
The Vue files themselves are very small, however, I have cranked the render detail quite high which makes it take so long. I guess having like 5 different layers of spectral clouds kind of craves alot from my poor processor 
A render farm would be great, but I dont know how to set that up.
eiM
(eiM)
#34
hmm too bad the water was sexy :<
dunno but if I can help at the render process with my pc which might have some better cpu available tell me how
Avoc
(Avoc)
#35
Well, there is a free version of Vue called “Pioneer” - however, I am not sure what kind of limitations it has. I would suspect that there is a “max resolution” cap, or at least that it does not include a render farm.
I haven’t tried downloading it, but a quick google search says that it has a watermark superimposed on the final renders
Oh well, guess I will just have to bite the sour apple and get on with rendering on my own.
Avoc
(Avoc)
#36
Everyone is invited to join in on the test of the map showed in the OP this sunday =)
Max slots are 32, and I think we will fill out atleast 22 of them. There is free access to our ts server during this event, which is usually great fun =D
The event is held 20:00 CET
More info can be seen here:
http://www.eft-clan.com/portal.php?topic_id=5800
I will release the skybox used in that map late saturday.
As for a update on the rendering of the other skybox, then I am around 25% finished with it. However, I am also working on a completely different one. I render the slow one when I am at work.
Pande
(Pande)
#39
hmm thanks i’lll keep that stored somewhere for later down the road. (if I ever touch Vue… so far its only free stuff for me 
TG2 Technology Preview FTW!)