Cubemap Placement

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Dain

L3: Member
Oct 21, 2009
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How frequently should I put cubemaps in my map? One per room? If I have two cubemaps relatively near to each other, will this cause issues with reflectivity on props?
 

J4CK8

L11: Posh Member
Mar 4, 2009
820
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Shouldn't do. I usualy place them with my light entities becuase
A. It spreads them out nicely
B. It's VERY easy to select all the ligh entities, duplicate them above or near the originals and edit them to be cubemaps

I do end up sometimes having cubemaps within meters of each other, but it doesn't cause any issues.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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its not issues with reflection you should worry about, the more cubemaps you have, the larger your map's filesize will be. So you should really only put them in contrasting areas, if you have a whole load of rooms that all have the same look and are close, just use one cubemap for them all.

Having one per light is probably way, way too many.
 

J4CK8

L11: Posh Member
Mar 4, 2009
820
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its not issues with reflection you should worry about, the more cubemaps you have, the larger your map's filesize will be. So you should really only put them in contrasting areas, if you have a whole load of rooms that all have the same look and are close, just use one cubemap for them all.

Having one per light is probably way, way too many.

Hmmm, well I've only done that with 2 maps, both are still in alpha stage.
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
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On that note, does it matter how high off the ground cubemaps are? I seem to remember someone telling me to put them at 64 - head hight.
 

J4CK8

L11: Posh Member
Mar 4, 2009
820
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On that note, does it matter how high off the ground cubemaps are? I seem to remember someone telling me to put them at 64 - head hight.

They should really be around player height yes, as it mainly reflects from their (sniper rifle scope, bottle etc) But I doubt many people really notice it that much. I don't mind where they are/how many there are as long as they're there.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
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Sep 28, 2009
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Should be 64, otherwise the textures in the cubemap are stretched
 

MoonQuake

L3: Member
Jul 18, 2009
111
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Depends on your needs, but cubemaps at 64 units above the ground is a good value.
One cubemap per visually different area is enough.
Example:

In 2fort, there's probably one on the bridge, one when you just get inside the base, one in the courtyard, one in the spawn room, on the sniper deck, the sewers and one in the intel room.

Remember if you got the wrong reflections on, let's say, part of your floor, you can force a cubemap to reflect on a certain face in it's properties.

MQ
 
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Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
Really you shouldn't have more cubemaps than you do soundscapes. Just remember that all the reflections appear as though they're coming from the nearest cubemap that can be seen, so to repeat everybody else, put them in any visually contrasting areas.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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Most people never notice the reflections don't exactly match the world, especially if it's only on their weapon or little bits of metal trim. Think of it less in terms of "reflective pictures", and more in terms of general color shades and which direction is the brighter direction.

The main exception to this is where you have big areas of reflection--like some tile floors--and people might actually notice things aren't matching up enough.
 

Trotim

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Jul 14, 2009
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Rule of thumb: One in each room. Then one next to every reflective surface. If your filesize is too big you can probably safely delete up to half of the cubemaps you made this way. Areas with high contrast should still have at least one cubemap each.

Placing them near soundscapes sounds like an okay plan, only large open areas might need more.

Should be 64, otherwise the textures in the cubemap are stretched
Seriously? I never noticed that.