[Tutorial] Cubemaps and How To Make them

[Flower_Shop_Guy]

Are you moving a map with cubemaps from the NVIDIA PCs to the laptop and finding strange issues?

Yes. Also, I test the map on other NVIDIA PC and cubemaps are fine. Hey, you played on my map yesterday (pl_eclipse), have you seen any cubemaps issues on your PC? Coz, @zedxenon (and so other players) said he got problem with that, while he played on my map.

 

[worMatty]

I have tested your map locally and have found no problems with cubemaps.

I looked inside your BSP using GCFScape and the only thing I can see which may cause problems is that the filename of the map was changed before cubemaps were built, leaving the VMT files it was given during the compile process in a directory where they won't be found by the game.

Your map name is pl_eclipse_b1, and that's where your cubemaps live inside materials/maps in the BSP. The map used to be named pl_eclipse_b1_88_release and inside that folder in materials/maps in the BSP are the VMTs that the compile process created. I do not know what these VMTs are for, but I think they are to do with cubemaps. Perhaps certain graphics cards or graphics configurations need them? Maybe the game uses them to replace cubemaps with a default cubemap in some situations.

You could try testing a map where the VMT files I mentioned are in the correct folder inside the BSP. This would mean you take one of your '##_release' BSPs and build cubemaps for it, then test it on the laptop. If it works, then you should look at compiling your map using the proper filename, or using a tool like Notepad++ to do a find+replace on them all to change the directory, and then pack them in the correct folder inside the BSP.

 

[tyler]

Or simply don't rename your bsp after compile.

 

[Flower_Shop_Guy]

Hey, I didn't change the name at all and now it works fine, ty guys.

 

[Squit]

Or simply don't rename your bsp after compile.

Added this to the OP. I forgot about this, thank you for reminding me.

 

[bamibal]

First of all, thanks for the tutorial! Second, I struggled with a weird problem, white squares (checkerboard-ish) appeared on reflective materials after building cubemaps. Turns out that using 'mat_bumpmap 0' was causing this. If anoyone has the same problem, skip that step!

 

[grazr]

Hey, I did it like that and it didn't work:

1. Deleted broken files with (bspzip.exe -deletecubemaps <map.bsp>)
2. sv_cheats 1
3. mat_specular 0
4. mat_bumpmap 0
5. map <my_map>
6. buildcubemaps
7. map <any_map>
8. mat_hdr_level 0
9. map <my_map>
10. buildcubemaps
11. map <any_map>
12. map <my_map>

At mine and my friends GTX graphics all works fine, but on laptop with Intel HD some shiny surfaces, like: glass, water are with purple dots. What i'm doing wrong?

Don't forget to turn your HDR level back to 2 and to turn mat_specular back on

I've been using the same method for 4 years without complication. Not sure what these supposed new bugs are. I've never encountered them.