Creating sky textures - how?

[sev]

The problem with the free version of Terragen is that it clearly restricts the use of the rendered images to personal, non-commercial use. I think using them in maps for Nexuiz would violate this license.

We've been through this before. By US case law the owner of the program cannot restrict what license the "artist" decides to use for the works he's created in the program nor who owns the works (the artist does) nor what he does with him. Please stop spreading the notion that that is not so, please learn some IP law.

No need for hostility.
This is not really about law, but the people from terragen have a request they clearly state, and when you install the program you agree to their terms by clicking the "I agree" button. Respecting these terms is good manners, no matter if they are legally correct or not.

I just wanted to state my opinion, but this does not imply that I want to argue about this.

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

I downloaded terragen and gave it a shot, but couldn't get the edges of the renderings to match up.

Be sure to set the Zoom of the camera to exactly 1 (@CameraSettings). It's not exactly 1 by default iirc.
Of course using Blender is the better alternative, but needs a lot more experience and eats much more time to generate terrain-like skyboxes.

Blender is worse in my experiance: it makes faint but very percievable "outlines" on the sides of your skybox which you must then correct with the gimp.

[[-z-]]

If you go with terragen, here's a copy of the script I was using, gl;hf.

note: don't name the file with anything but alphanumerics, it failed with an underscore for me.

Code: Select all

; 1. Uncheck "Fixed Height Above Surface"
; In the horizontal plane, the "z" value will be the same as the
; camera automatically (unless you override the value). However,
; we are also going to be taking pictures of the UP (and possibly
; DOWN) directions relative to the camera position so we don't want
; the target fixed.
;
; 2. Set cloud/sunlight parameters
;
; 3. To the left side of the Rendering Control window there is a
; scroll bar next to the word "Detail". Set Detail to Maximum (far
; right). Also, click on the SETTINGS button to view the RENDER
; SETTINGS window. In the QUALITY section, scroll "Atmosphere" and
; "Cloud shading" to high accuracy. In the OPTIONS section uncheck
; the "Render Lanscape" option.
;
; 4. Below the SETTINGS button is a section to control the IMAGE SIZE.
; Set the Image Size width and height to the maximum 512x512 pixels
; for the best results. If you want to go lower in size, the images
; must be square and in powers of two (i.e., 128x128, 256x256). You
; will of course have less detail as well by going lower in size.
;
; 5. Make sure the folder listed in the function below exists 

initanim "C:\skybox", 1

; InitAnim  BaseImageFileName,StartFrameNumber
; The InitAnim command tells Terragen that an animation is to be
; rendered, and initialises the appropriate variables. It is
; necessary to have this command before any calls to FRend.
;
; We don't want clouds moving for skybox renderings, but I've put
; the comments below for information---
; CloudVel is used to automatically scroll the clouds across the
; sky. It will position the clouds correctly for each frame, no
; matter what frame number the script starts at. CloudPos tells
; Terragen where the clouds would be if it were rendering frame 0.
; CloudPos  x,y         ;the cloud position at frame 0
; CloudVel  speed, heading   ;cloud scroll speed per frame
;               (for entire animation)
;
; CamState      xpos,ypos,zpos,head,pitch,bank,zoom,exposure
;               (set zoom or exposure to a negative value to ignore)
; CamPos        x,y,z
; TarPos        x,y,z
; The x,y,z units are in Terragen terrain units; they could also be
; entered as meters
;
; CamOri        head,pitch,bank
; CamH          head
; CamP          pitch
; CamB          bank
;
; Zoom          zoom
; The FOV (field-of-view) formula in Terragen is 2 * tan-1( 1 / zoom ).
; If zoom = 1, then the FOV is 90
;
; Exp           exposure
; ShadowLight   lightness (must be in the range 0 to 100)
; WaterLevel    z
; SunDir        head,alt
;
; FRend ;(frame render, only works after using InitAnim)
;
;
; Terragen sun headings are calculated from north (0 degrees). If the
; angle is from the east they are positive angles down the right side
; to south (+180 degrees); if the sun is bearing from the west, the
; angles are negative from north (0) to south (-180).
;
;This should give us a mid-morning sun

sundir 120,50

;_rt 1 PosX  --->rotate east
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 256 128 0
CamH 90
CamP 0
CamB 0
frend

;_lf 2 NegX  --->rotate west
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 0 128 0
CamH -90
CamP 0
CamB 0
FRend

;_ft 3 PosY  --->rotate north
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 128 256 0
CamH 0
CamP 0
CamB 0
FRend

;_bk 4 NegY  --->rotate south
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 128 0 0
CamH 180
CamP 0
CamB 0
FRend

;_up 5 PosZ --->rotate to south and pitch up
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 128 128 128
CamH 180
CamP 90
CamB 0
FRend

;_dn 6 NegZ --->rotate to north and pitch down
Zoom 1.0
CamPos 128 128 0
TarPos 128 128 -128
CamH 0
CamP -90
CamB 0
FRend

; Post-processing
; 1. Convert to tga format and move to Import/tga folder (if different from
;    Terragen export folder)
; 2. Import into C4 (setting S and T clamped; no mipmap) in sequence; the order
;    will name the images in the same sequence as C4 (1-6)


[Strahlemann]

Blender is a very advanced modeling tool that allows you to model nearly everything. So you can be totally free in creating your skybox with Blender depending on your skill. Terragen is very restricted when it comes to free modeling, as you mainly adjust procedural parameters and the use of heightmaps can't generate any concave environments like caves etc. When you work with terragen you'll always get that terragen-look we all know. It's still a great tool to quickly generate landscapes and to use them as a skybox, but Blender is more flexible, and i really would like to see some new skyboxes that don't have the typical terragen-feel.

And i guess that there's a way not to have those black lines you mentioned.
Also if anyone knows some other programs that can be used to create skyboxes: please name them.
Creating good skyboxes is one of the hardest tasks when it comes to level-design imo, and the terragen-environments look more and more outdated.

edit.: and don't forget about the _skybox entity! Take a look on soylent how to use it or look up the q3map2 wiki

[Clueless Newbie]

Of course using Blender is the better alternative, but needs a lot more experience and eats much more time to generate terrain-like skyboxes.

Tell me about it. It took me over ten minutes just to figure out how save a file — even with the tutorial. Blender's UI is horrific. Nothing is where I expect it to be. ;p

However, I've managed to make the two "bowls" for the landscape and load the texture. Once I've figured out how to render the thing, I should be able to use the same model for any number of skyboxes.

One thing I prefer about Blender (over Terragen) is that once I figure out how to use it for skyboxes, I'll have much more control over the result. And I don't really like the computer-generated landscapes of Terragen. Not the ones I made so far, anyway.

[morfar]

Speaking of skyboxes. Hipshot has made some awesome skyboxes for Quake3, some years ago. I don't know what appilcation he used but it looks nice.
http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9242

[divVerent]

Skyboxes don't need to look realistic