Creating sky textures - how?

[Clueless Newbie]

Well, I do know how to make a texture and split it in six parts named _rt, _up, etc. But how does one get the right amount of curvature in the textures so the sky doesn't look like it's pasted on the inside of a box? (which it is)

Is there a formula one can use to distort a texture? Some Photoshop trick?

How do you guys make your skybox textures?

[Rad Ished]

Im playing with this atm http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D ... d_a_skybox
Also google terragen, most of the built- in skies are made with this I believe.

[C.Brutail]

Uhhh, I remember that there's a tutorial for that somewhere.
First, you must actually understand, that it's not your work to blend the textures together, it's the engine that does it. Look at the sky shaders for references in Nexuiz or in maps that have custom skyboxes (like greatwall reloaded)

Not a tutorial, but tells you what the shader keywords do:
http://pumpkin.game-server.cc/q3map2/sh ... l#skyparms

Aaaand, here comes how to actually do it (I've just remembered right I've written that stuff down there somewhere )

http://forums.alientrap.local/viewtopic.php?p=10801#10801

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

http://www.wemakemaps.com/terragen.htm

[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.

[[-z-]]

Yeah... I'd suggest NOT bothering with terragen. ~A month ago I was working on creating a script to generate skyboxes and there were just too many downfalls. I never really got it to generate a good enough box. It seemed like more trouble than it was worth, bigger so because I had to get it running in wine >_<.

Blender seems like a more solid option and if Rad Ished is recommending Blender, something a few others have recommended as well, I'd say it's a pretty good choice. He's made some nice skyboxes .

[Clueless Newbie]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

I downloaded terragen and gave it a shot, but couldn't get the edges of the renderings to match up. That and your comments about usage restrictions for textures made with Terragen makes me think I should stick with Blender.

[Rad Ished]

oh, i forgot, there is a filter for pshop called flexify by flaming pear. You can make skyboxes from a 2d image with this , but it's a fickle fickle thing.
It's how i made my skyboxs to date, the blender ones are wip, but i would say it's an easier method, the blender way that is.

[take_this_cup_of_poison]

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.

Now, the relationship the "artist" has with terragen inc is between him and the company.

So yes, your terragen skyboxes can be GPL no matter what version you had. But if you don't want to get into a license dispute over /terragen/ itself (NOT your skyboxes) then buy the commercial version.

Oh, and don't be like "well maby the artist makes the work in the US but we don't all live in the US nahhhhrrrr@!!!!1111". The only reason international (C) exists is because of international copyright treaties which respect copyrights created in the country they were created in: once they are created by the host countries laws the other countries respect them.




The reason you couldn't make the things lign up is because the tut is slightly incorrect. At the end load your skybox in a small map and figure out which 3 images should be swapped to make it work. It is not hard.... but then again coding quake C isn't too hard but Nexuiz has almost no one willing the help with that either, or to even try (almost no one) .

[Strahlemann]

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.