Within / Under the Main Skybox ??

Toxindude

L3: Member
Aug 2, 2012
103
4
I am in the process of developing the skybox around the main part of my map. My question is wheather or not all structures have to be under it as long as they are sealed from the void. I took a look at ctf_2fort and there is the underground portion not within the main skybox. Well a portion of my map functions the same way and is meant to be underground as well.

So is it ok to build the skybox around just the mid of my map. Will ceilings light up properly and not look like blackness in the underground portions.

I have have never really had this clarified and in the past built these vast skybox's that eat up a ton of compile time. I want this to be done right the first time.
 

Mr.Late

L7: Fancy Member
Nov 27, 2009
408
157
You'll only need the skybox texture where you want the sky to appear, nowhere else.
 

Toxindude

L3: Member
Aug 2, 2012
103
4
Awesome thanks!
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Think of the toolsskybox texture as a sheet of green-screen stuff. The game renders the real skybox — a cube painted up with the six matching sky textures — in their place.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
Except that's not true at all. The skybox material does four things:
  • Projects environmental lightning
  • Seals the map
  • Blocks pvs visibility
  • Marks all visleafs that can see it as needing to draw the sky
    • For the normal skybox material, marks the visleaves as drawing the 3d skybox

It does not block actual visibility, any visleaf that is in PVS will be fully drawn, even if it is located behind the skybox brush.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
To note about the lighting, If there is a 3d skybox outside of it it uses that one instead. So to simply say it uses that is not the case.

Its more like the green screen on that. When there is a 3d skybox count it as a green screen projecting a green screen which then is processed again for the final result.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
No, I am confident that the light_environment settings are used by vrad as one of the initial sources for the bounced light.

It is easy to test with an experiment. Stuff the 3d skybox full with lights and have modest (or none at all) environmental lightning settings.

I'd do it myself, but I never got around to getting thing set up after steampipe.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
I was talking about just the light_environment. The skybox still gives shadow in the normal map. About seperate lights i dont know on that but as you say i dont suspect them to work aswel.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
So you are claiming that the contents of the area designated as the 3d skybox affect the light produced by skybox brushes in the main map? That sounds strange.

Did anyone actually test this?