Level Editor/Entities/3D Skybox
| 3D Skybox | |
|---|---|
| Made with | Functional > 3D Skybox |
| What it is | The land beyond the map, built as a small miniature and shown full size all round it |
| In the game | Yes, full size, as scenery |
A 3D skybox gives a map huge views without a huge map. You build the land beyond the playable area (hills, cliffs, distant buildings, a far shore) as a miniature at 1/16 size, and the game shows it 16 times bigger all round the map, kilometers out, shifting as you move the way real distant scenery does.
Making one
- Choose Functional > 3D Skybox and click somewhere out of the map's way.
- You get a group named 3D Skybox with a Sky Camera in it. The Sky Camera's spot stands for the middle of the playable map (the world origin).
- Build the miniature in that group, round the camera, at 1/16 size. A hill 2 m tall in the miniature is 32 m tall in the skybox; a cliff 10 m from the camera stands 160 m from the middle of the map.
Use brushes, displacements, props, terrain, water surfaces and omni and spot lights, as anywhere else. A map has one skybox: if there already is one, the menu item selects its Sky Camera (This map has a 3D skybox: its Sky Camera is selected).
Seeing it
The 3D views draw the skybox full size round the map (View > Show 3D Skybox), as the game will show it, while the miniature stays where you built it to be edited. The 2D views never draw the full-size skybox, and nothing of it can be clicked: edit the miniature, and the skybox follows.
Sky Camera inspector
| Setting | Type | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skybox Scale | Number, above 1 | 16 | How many times bigger the skybox stands round the map than its miniature. Raise it to push the skybox further out. |
| Fog From Map | Check box | On | The skybox's fog is the map's fog color, thinned by the scale: the fog the miniature would see at its own size. Off, use Fog Color and Fog Density. |
| Fog Color | Color | pale blue-gray | The skybox's own fog color, with Fog From Map off. |
| Fog Density | Number, 0 or more | 0 | The skybox's own fog density per meter of the full-size skybox, with Fog From Map off. 0 is no fog; 0.0005 leaves about a fifth of a skybox hill visible 3 km out. |
| Match Texture Scale | Check box | On | On, a brush's texture is as big on the skybox as in the play area (a displacement's blended layers too). Off, it grows with the brush, 16 times bigger. A prop's texture grows with its model either way. |
What the skybox carries
- Lights: an omni or spot light in the miniature lights the skybox, and only the skybox. It grows with it (a 2 m range becomes 32 m) and is brightened to make up for the longer distances. It casts no shadow and takes no part in the lightmap bake. The map's own lights never light the skybox; the sun lights both.
- Water: a water surface in the miniature is shown as water in the skybox, under its fog, but nothing can swim in it. Water volumes are not carried.
- Terrain: shown as the game draws terrain, painted layers and holes included, at full detail wherever you stand. Nothing walks on it, bots never path on it, and it takes no lightmap.
- Materials: every material in the skybox takes its fog and otherwise draws as in the play area. A material drawn without fog stays without it.
- Not carried: water volumes, zones, spawn points and other functional points. The export log names each one it leaves out.
In the game
The exported map carries the skybox full size round the map, as scenery: nothing in it can be walked on, shot or touched, it takes no lightmap, and it casts no shadow. The miniature itself is not exported. The game's cameras see 16 km, so a skybox reaching further than that is cut off. The miniature takes no part in the playable map: it takes no lightmap, bots do not walk on it, and it hides nothing.
Importing a Source map with Leave out the 3D skybox unticked brings its skybox in as one of these.