How to do outdoor envirnoments in UnrealEd?

[dillydadally]

Hey everyone. I'm just starting to learn, but I'm very excited about making some maps for Gears of War. I've got a pretty good feeling now for making some simple indoor environments, but I would like to do some larger, outdoor environments now. I'm not even sure how to start.
If I create an additive map and just create some terrain, everything looks messed up. Or, if it's a subtractive map, it just looks like I'm in a large cube. What's the technique for making an outdoor environment? Is it just a large cube? How would you go about doing this?

Thanks!

[Shakeemup]

I was messing with it last night and found for me that additive seemed like the easier way to do an outdoor map. What do you mean everything looks messed up?

[Mithrandir0x]

Shouldn't you start designing the map by making first a huge Skybox?

[dillydadally]

By messed up I mean when you look at space where there is nothing that is defined, it looks messed up (the frames don't refresh or something). I know the way it used to be done was to make a large skybox, but I wouldn't even know where to start with Unreal Ed. It would be great to get a tutorial that ran you through making a really simple outdoor environment in UnrealEd.

Here's another related question - can you load any maps from GoW into the editor? Then you could see how it was done. Or are there any user made maps yet that are outdoors?

[Mithrandir0x]

Yep, the maps can be loaded.

[dillydadally]

Ah yes, just loaded Clocktower. It looked like they had a sky-globe instead of a skybox. Then they created a little plane for the players to run around on, made sure there was no way to get out, and then put buildings all around in the sky-globe to give it a realistic view.

Now I've just got to find out how to make a sky-globe. It's obviously pretty simple to create the big sphere, but how to make that pretty sky scroll around on the sphere and make it look like a real sky, now that's the question.

In addition, does anyone know how to tell if a map is additive or subtractive once it's made?

Thanks everyone.

[MozI]

The sky dome should be a static mesh. I am sure you can change the material of it to suit your needs.