I'm almost certain this is an incredibly n00b question, but until now I've mostly worked on indoor stuff, so skyboxes were never really high on my priority list. (Ignore the purple water, I couldn't be arsed to build cubemaps for this.) Is there a way to make the skybox less...stretchy? Or at least hide it? I can't think of anything big enough to hide it that wouldn't look horribly out of place in the open ocean, though... On a related note, since the map takes place on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean, would a 3D skybox consisting of nothing but a huge water brush be worth making? (I'm guessing the answer is yes, but I want to make sure.)
If thats open ocean why do you you a skybox with buildings?. and sorry I dont know how to fix it mine does the same thing.
Many of the newer skyboxes stretch like that below a certain point on the texture because, if you'll notice, most TF2 maps (Valve's in particular) have something, whether walls in the map or buildings/hills/other objects in the 3D skybox, blocking one's view of areas that low on the skybox-textured surfaces. They're not designed to be seen from that angle. I don't think it shows up in the texture browser like that, but when the texture is stretched to fit it ends up that way. Since that skybox appears to be an edited version of Pipeline's skybox, the stretching effect got carried over.
This is normal, it happends because the images that make up the skybox are only half height (compared to width). No need to draw something that can't be seen, so its just simply cut out. Some skyboxes are complete though, like the lumberyard one (sky_trainyard_01).
And the lumberyard skybox is complete because it has the cliff area in the front of the level. Like Ravidge said, no need to draw something that can't be seen, and that is definitely a motto that Valve's level designers live by.
I suppose I'll have to stick helipads, boats, etc. to hide it, then. At least I wasn't doing something horribly wrong.
You could also use a 3D skybox with a "ground" that gives you an near-infinite horizon line, blocking the bottom weird stuff.
Of course, I check back after said helipad is nearly done. <_< *adds 3D skyboxes to list of things to learn*
Basic 3D skybox in four easy steps. Make a box outside your normal map, scaled to roughly 1/16 dimensions. Texture the inside with toolsskybox. Make a sky_camera entity and toss it in the box, roughly where your 0,0,0 coordinate in the main map would be if your normal map was shrunken and placed inside. Make a big brush below it and texture it for the ground.
Or water, as the case is for me. Thanks. EDIT: ATM I have a large water brush and a trigger_hurt along the bottom. Should I make the 3D skybox encircle it, or should I make it all skybox stuff?
The 3d skybox is purely a visual tool to help jazz up the flat 2d skybox texture. Anything inside it (like trigger_hurt) won't affect players because it's only being used for fancy camerawork.
