My First Map: finishing touches

[gracjan202]

Less than a month ago I started building a map for nexuiz, and with the support of the forum links to tutorial video's have come a long way. The layout of the map is 92% complete, with some changes to weapon / health placement, some more platforms and maybe a few more push entities to be added in the future. Now that I have the layout the way I want the map to be, I have to work on texturing and lighting throughout the map, among other details. I however can't find the information I'm looking for.

I have made a skybox entity and used another maps skybox just to see how it works. It's pretty ugly, and there are lines in the corners of my map that should not be there, and it makes the skybox look like a really large textured brush on the outside of my map. How do I optimize this so it doesn't happen (my sealing walls are caulked and my skybox is set to scale 110 to fit inside the sealing caulk walls)

Also I have seen mention to the fact that "open skies" let in a lot of light to the map. I want more light in the outside areas of the map. I understand the placement of lighting will be needed indoors to illuminate the playing areas, but outside in the open skybox, how do I get the area to become bright and sunny like my skybox looks.

I tried putting light entities near the skybox, it just bleached out the skybox's picture. I don't see how light entities would create a good overhead ceiling of light, as they only make a small dot of immense intensity. I just don't know where to start. I hate dark maps and if I wanted a dark map I would have gone with a space theme or completely indoors. Any help would be appreciated.

[C.Brutail]

Hey man! Good to see a new, ambitious mapper around

For the skybox issue:

I think you're doing it wrong
_skybox entity means projected skybox. Think about it as a very very large cinema screen in infinite distance from your map. Basically, everything you put inside a caulked box, will be projected on this screen, relative to the _skybox entity. Download Killall organic, and see how the clouds are projected on the sky. Or even better, look at Soylent space (stock Nexuiz map).
To make seamless skybox, you have to texture it with the skybox shader. I won't go into details now, but one thing you should know about this: the shader image, what you see in the editor is totally different, what you see ingame. You don't even have to scale it or anything - the skybox will be drawn properly by the engine, guided by the instructions found in the shader file of the skybox.

Also, this lead to your problem I think. The sky is not properly textured on any surfaces (not with the actually light emitting sky shader), so it won't cast light. Simply seal the "sky" above your map with caulk, and texture the inside of them with your desired skybox [b]shader[b] - those are outline with a think white border in the texture editor.

I hope this helps you to fix your problems.
Next time, please provide us with screenshots, and maybe the map file, so we can see the roots of the problem in the editor.

[Grasshopper]

also if you wish . you can try other skies found here http://www.forums.alientrap.local/viewtopic.php?t=4092

there are some skies ready to go for you . I also created a package for you to add all the skies really easy . just download the skies then download my easyaddskies.zip and follow the instructions .

im curious to see your map . CB is right , post your map so we can give you tips and tricks for mapping .