Is there a faster/easier way to connect cubemaps?

mmik

L2: Junior Member
Dec 28, 2008
76
0
Maybe there's a better way to do what I'm doing:

I made some bars using the 8-sided cylinder brush. However, they have a shiny texture, so I'll have 40 tiny, close together faces that each need a cubemap; It'll be a total mess. I'm just wondering if there's an easy way to do it, rather than ctrl+shift to copy a cubemap, then reassigning it to another face.

Is there a way to attach one env_cubemap to an entire brush? Or maybe I could either find another way to make the bars, or simply make them a different texture. Also, will I ever need to adjust cubemap size for anything?
 

RavenStryker

Former Alias: †Blade†/Xi.Cynx
aa
Nov 25, 2008
782
844
I would put only 2-3 cubemaps on each side, kind of like this:

HTML:
o = bar
x = cubemap
| = 16-32 units of space


---------x----------x----------x---------
|
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
|
---------x----------x----------x---------

and just attach the cubemap to the nearest brush straight in font of it and facing it. Like you would be looking at a mirror. That brush face. Then once you do that the other ones "should" grab the reflection from those cubemaps.
 
Last edited:

Pink_Panther

L3: Member
Dec 14, 2008
129
45
after looking around on the developer's wiki site, you dont have connect at all. The textures will attach to the closest cubemap they can find. (unfortunatly from practice, these could be across the map) I would put one on either side of the bar and call it good.

On a piece of glass I tried putting one on just one side and only that side took the reflection.

Hope this helps.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
D: You only need one cubemap for this!!!

put the cubemap somwhere near the pipe and then use ctrl+click when you use the select faces option and click all the faces on the pillar.

And on top of that - you only need to do thise when there is another cubemap being auto assigned to that face that you don't want - don't do this for every reflective face!
 

mmik

L2: Junior Member
Dec 28, 2008
76
0
wat! Awesome, that saves me a LOT of time. I don't really understand how cubemaps work. Ok, I have a ventilation system with a lot of surfaces on the inside. Should I just put a single cubemap in the middle and they'll all connect to it? I don't really know WHAT cubemaps do.
 

RavenStryker

Former Alias: †Blade†/Xi.Cynx
aa
Nov 25, 2008
782
844
Yea basically, and if there are corners i could put on in the middle of each straight too.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
When you buildcubemaps the game takes six pictures (a cube) from the location of every env_cubemap. This is used as a "pre-rendered" reflection that is used on reflective surfaces, using whichever reflection cube was generated nearest.
They are low resolution, blurry, and further obscured by less-than-complete reflection. So as Youme said, a single cubemap nearby should be enough to make the reflection seem the correct colors.
 

mmik

L2: Junior Member
Dec 28, 2008
76
0
if you look at the right angle, you can see the purple checkers on a shiny surface form a cube, like the skybox. So, what it must to is take 6 pictures and place them in a cube shape, and the reflective view is from the center of that cube?
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
That's exactly how it works.

You also gotta think of performance and file size. Since the game has to render these reflections each cube map will cut down on performance. Also, each of thos e6 pics for each cubemap gets saved in your bsp so each cubemap makes your file size larger.

Then there's also the fact that it's a fast paced game with alot going on. In most cases cubemaps are hardly noticed in game. They are really best only used to add better reflections in most areas.
One outside in an open area (bright), one inside the tunnel next to it (dark), one next to a window you want to look better...

Even on a set of bars there's not that much need for extremely exact reflections. Just the basic suggestion that there is blue sky above, brown ground below, etc...

There are very few things in game that actually show reflections. Demos bottle(fuzzy), snipers scope (good). Those are close to the player always so are the most notebly seen reflections. Other than like I said, a window in a high attention spot.
High quality water also, but I think it actually has it's own reflection apart from cubemaps.