Skybox walls casting shadows?

[MacBeth]

I have an odd problem that's started since I set up a 3D skybox. The 'walls' of the main 2D skybox appear to be casting shadows on to the main map contents...

That is to say the edge of the skybox shows up as an abrupt change from brightly (correctly) lit skybox floor outside to almost completely shaded main map floor inside. The shadow then fades out 'correctly' as if being cast from the skybox wall.

Looks like this:

Anyone got any ideas what causes it?

Definitely no leaks, I know how to find and fix them. I'm compiling with fast vis at the moment because it's a big outdoor map and it's not well optimised as yet so normal vis takes far too long, so it might be that?

The only compile errors are the standard

*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_hydro_01_hdr weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_hydro_01_hdr to build the default cubemap!

and a handful of

make_triangles:calc_triangle_representation: Cannot convert

errors that are generally considered to mean nothing...

 

[YM]

If the ground in the skybox goes above where your real world would be if it were whunk and put in the skybox you'll get shaddows from it. The stuff in the 3D skybox casts shadows in the real world as if it were in the real world to begin with.

 

[FaTony]

3D skybox does NOT cast shadows on the main map. Your problem is a bit wrong light_env settings. Set the brightness of the ambient light to 250 and check.

Also,
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_hydro_01_hdr weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_hydro_01_hdr to build the default cubemap!
is ignorable while
make_triangles:calc_triangle_representation: Cannot convert
is bad.

 

[MacBeth]

Hmm... conflicting advice, that's what I like to see

Will take a look at the ambient light brightness when I get back home.

Regarding

make_triangles:calc_triangle_representation: Cannot convert

the errors page on this site didn't make it sound particularly bad, and I can't really see how it might cause this effect... but then odd effects do happen as a result of seemingly unrelated errors. I'll see if I can track them down. Could well be the disps in the skybox...

 

[YM]

Fatony you are wrong on this one, the 3D skybox casts shadows as though it were 16 times larger and in the real world, you can see it in almost all of valve's maps I checked it out in well this morning, the giant factory stuff behind blu's base cast shadows on the out of bounds ground.

the make_triangles thing doesn't matter much I've never seen it cause problems. Its caused by one of valve's iffy props.

 

[Jazz]

Yea, Youme is right. I had this problem two days ago and I fixed it by making a map size hole in the center of the 3d skybox. If you can't be arsed to do that then I suggest just lowering the skybox so it is lower than the floor.

 

[MacBeth]

Interesting. Thanks again. Will give it a try later and report back... I hate those threads where you never find out what actually fixed the problem...

I'm actually contemplating a major rebuild of that map as it was built without any real understanding of visleafs... even with (some) hint brushes the vvis time on normal is disastrous. Fast vis works so quickly it gave no warning that I was building myself into trouble...

 

[MacBeth]

Update: fixed the issue - it was indeed caused by the main map ground being at z: -8 while the skybox ground was at z: 0 - hence it was casting the shadows of 128-high walls around the map...

I'm pretty sure the dodgy model causing the make_triangles error is the bomb cart, which I am using decoratively...