Realistic Skies?

[peripheralvision]

Ok new problem. So my indoor maps look good enough to me, but my outdoor maps dont look particularly realistic. Probably because of the skies. Atm, I'm simply placing a brushmodel against the sky and texturing it with something out of the textures>skies folder. Is there another way to do it which makes a more believable appearance?

[Þahricida]

you could make your own skyboxes or use portal skies, which basically use a miniature brush environment and displays it in the skybox, good for Mountains and stuff alike.

You DO use the shader variants of the skies and not the actual textures, right ?

[Teelos]

Im curious as to how to apply the textures in the skies folder, whether your just pasting the images onto each face or using a shader. What is it exactly that makes the skies in your maps unrealistic?

[peripheralvision]

Non dynamic. They look artificial.. not sure how to say it.. but lets say you walk outside and jump up into the air. It appears the sky moves with you correct? But in my outdoor maps, the sky just appears to be ceiling. And by shader varients, do you mean the 6 different shaders for up, down, etc. ? Because in that case, yes, I use those.

Shaders usually have a white box around them in the texture browser correct?

[Teelos]

The sky shader images are small light blue images with 'SKY' written across them in bold black letters. You don't apply the individual textures sky_up, sky_down etc to each brush in Radiant, You only need to apply the sky editorimage to each surface. I think the reason why you think your map looks like it has a ceiling is because there is no shader involved, just the textures applied.


Shaders usually have a white box around them in the texture browser correct?

Yes

[peripheralvision]

Ok thanks guys. I'm going to go try it now.

edit: I dont have any shaders in the skies folder with "Sky" as part of their name. And the shaders I do find which have the name of the map from them show up as "Shader not found." Btw, I'm using GtkRadiant 1.5.0 idk if that makes a difference. I dont think it should considering the shaders arent changed by the program used.

[peripheralvision]

WOOT! it worked! sweet.. thanks guys

[peripheralvision]

OK new question xD

I have placed around a courtyard a group of misc_model's model set to one of the yavin trees. Only the top shows over the courtyard wall and they arent clipped because you cant get to them anyway. But when I compile my map, only the trunks appear.. the tops of the trees dont.. any suggestions?

[Juggernut]

If you mean the leaves, then some models are bugged. Try with different tree models and also the ASE variant.

[peripheralvision]

ive tried all tree models.. now ill try the .ase varients..

EDIT: when I use the ASE models, GtkRadiant simply displays a misc_model.. no tree.. is this normal?