I'm working on a 3D Skybox for my map, and when I scale it down, the brushes have decimal values like 4.1 and such. Since the created brushes don't align like that, it's a problem. How can I fix it?
You should build any brushwork for the 3D skybox at full scale first, right next to your map's regular brushwork. Keep it seperate, but at full scale. Put the skycamera at your map origin. Then select everything that will go to the skybox, including the skycamera, hit cntrl-M, select "scale" and put "0.0625" into each value. That will shrink it down to skybox scale without screwing up the brushwork. Then hit cntrl-M again, select "move" and move your skybox stuff away from your map (to wherever your skybox will be). Add skybox props. More details here: Tutorial #1 Tutorial #2 Kep
Do displacements scale properly with this technique? I would imagine some pretty epic skyboxes could be made using that method if possible.
From my (exceedingly limited*) experience, yes! Yes they do. They are, however, a pain in the ass to edit afterward. And god help you if you get the seams out of alignment. *I did it once, and I did it the wrong way: I shrunk everything first, then tried to edit it.
Yeah, they do, but depending on the texture, it can still show a seam. Plus any detail sprites will show up at full scale regardless of the texture scale, so you have to use a displacement texture that has no detail sprites. [Edit] Oh, ninja'd. And yeah, seams can be a total $%^$# if you mess them up... what I do is keep a full sized copy of everything in its own hidden visgroup, so if I screw it up in the skybox, I can just dupe it, scale it down, and move it again. Oh! Forgot to mention: when you scale down, make sure you have texture scale locking on. Heh. Kep
Well, everything in the skybox aligns now, thanks! But the brushes don't reach the horizion, do I just need to make it bigger?
The 3d skybox usually never looks like it reaches the horizon; that's why Valve maps have hills around the edges of the 3d skybox, to hide the horizon a bit. Fog is sometimes used, usually with water.
Oh, alright...my map is a lava flow, though, with various structures popping up. Any idea on how I can hide it?
Fog. Volcanic vents always have steam/smoke/deadly gas rising out of them. Just make it green, or yellow, or something.
Alright, I'll try that. How would I make it? (never used fog before) And since it doesn't really merit it's own topic, how would I make a func_tracktrain non-colliding?
Alright, the brushes are aligned and move correctly, but the textures on them aren't. How can I fix this?
Turn on Texture lock (for rotation) and texture scale lock (for scaling, duh). They're in the icons bar just as "tl" and "<tl>" or something like that.
I know, but I already made the brushes, and they're both set at 0, even when they're different. Do I just need to make them again or something?
