How can I get the lighting for 3D skybox right?+other Qs

phoenixfire2001

L1: Registered
Feb 6, 2010
4
0
http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/screens/129778?img=http://xray.fpsbanana.com/ss/maps/129778a.jpg

As you can see, the lighting is off :( and also the texture of the water has a noticable border when it goes from actual water to the 3D skybox.

How do I fix the lighting?
How do I fix the water textures (The original scaling is 0.96 and the 3D skybox is 0.06 right now)?
How do I best achieve the illusion of infinity?

Are maps downloaded compressed and then unpacked or downloaded in their original size?
The current version of my map is 15mb uncompressed but .rar'ed it's "only" 3mb.
So, does Valve use some internal compression to make downloads smaller?


That's all for now. Thanks.
 

Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
transitions to 3d skyboxes are generally very tricky. Might I suggest raising some ground on the edges, to disguise it. To achieve the illusion of an infinite plane, put in an env_fog_controller.
 

Nutomic

L11: Posh Member
Feb 7, 2009
888
177
For the compression, you should best pack maps as a .zip file. Windows does not have native support for rar, so if someone doesnt have winrar/7zip installed, he cant play it.

Not compressing sucks, not only because of the size, but also because you cant pack readme files etc in.

If its only about the bsp itself, youd best use bz2 compression, because server admins can throw it directly on their server and unpack there, without having to upload themselves.
 
Feb 18, 2009
640
629
when compressing, make it a .zip file then change the ending manually (simply rename, or open with notepad -> "save as") to .bz2. correct me if I'm wrong guys, but that should make it work fine on servers (and this makes downloading through the server a load quicker :D)
However, keep a zip for people to download from sites. I do think EVERYONE should have 7zip though, 'cause it opens everything basically (including bz2).

as for skybox... I don't know... but try to add some stuff around the edges to disguise were the map ends. Also fog is good.

EDIT: just realised that's basically what everyone else said... sorry
 
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