Skyboxes

Skyboxes helped me with my own custom levels (I never released them, I kept them 4 myself and my friends)... EXCPEPT I would like to be able to create a completely 3d sky environment so you can get above the clouds, etc. would be cool

[Ultron]

Well perhaps the skybox is still sorta there. You may perhaps be able to go on forever in an Unreal Engine 3 map, but when you look at the horizon you see the skybox anyways. Sorta like a weatherman is in front of a greenscreen - you see what is displayed on the green screen instead of the screen itself.

[Jagnot]

What does H3 and UT3 use instead of skyboxes?

[Kronos]

If there won't be skyboxes in UT3 how are you susposed to add in distant objects like moons or stars without them moving in an unnatural way? Have things that enhance your view (i.e. sniper scopes) been taken into account?

You simply put them high up next to your main sky dome, they'd be so far away it'd look like a skybox in UT2k4.

[KriLL3.8™]

Well perhaps a mix of the two would be best? A lot of 2004 maps had closer objects in the skybox also, making them static no matter how much you moved, but I agree that the sky/stars/celestial objects would make more sense if not moving.

[Boksha]

Not having a skybox and putting sky stuff actually in the map seems kind of pointless to me. Things like stars really are so far away rendering them as if they're infinitely far away is the only realistic option.

[Molgan]

zigactly.

Instead of flying up and up and then *bang* stop dead next to the skybox... you keep flying, then things get darker, and finally you get to see stars and planets, etc... almost 2 skyboxes, the first is the normal one you'd see, then another one showing space.

There must be limits to how far you can fly, you should not be able to leave the arena. Imagine at game start when every Raptor gets occupied by aspiring astronauts yelling "space... the final frontier!", and they take of into the sky leaving their team with no flying vehicles at all. Just as in 2k4 we will have a StallZ for sure.

[KriLL3.8™]

You never get close to a sky dome.

Tell that to the dutch.
/waves to the bagel man

[StalwartUK]

If there won't be skyboxes in UT3 how are you susposed to add in distant objects like moons or stars without them moving in an unnatural way? Have things that enhance your view (i.e. sniper scopes) been taken into account?

I'm guessing that these sky domes are susposed to be in the order of 9999999999 units across. This is all a shock for someone who is used to a 65536 unit limit.

[»madMar†y»]

It sounds like multiple skys are not possible with this big dome thing...In ut2004 you could give several areas a different skybox, to make things possible like...walking from a "huge underground cave" area into a "on top of a mountain with an unlimited view "area..Ofcourse that is not very real but fun and I hope this is still possible with UT3.

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

Wouldn't look nice up close though.

You never get close to a sky dome.

[Lert]

zigactly.

Instead of flying up and up and then *bang* stop dead next to the skybox... you keep flying, then things get darker, and finally you get to see stars and planets, etc... almost 2 skyboxes, the first is the normal one you'd see, then another one showing space.

I remember a WW2 style flight sim game from back when I had a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 that carried out this idea (keep flying up - get to space). I was flying upwards for about 40 mins before getting bored, stalling, and waiting 15 minutes to hit the ground in a ball of flame... good times.

Yes ! This is what I want ! Another reason to fly AWAY from the action that I Bought the game for in the first place ..

Skyboxes are just fine to me, and no skyboxes are just fine as well. As long as I see something pretty when looking up. Flying vehicles need a ceiling, as well. The higher you fly up, the smaller the map underneath you will be. Quite soon you'll be higher than the map itself is made for, and you'll be able to see over the edges of the map, and see that the map itself is just a square with features, floating in space, with a texture mapped around it.

[Kronos]

Yea I've been playing around with the new UnrealED(RoboblitzED) for sometime now, and I have yet to run into a limit on view distance.

I've been building a space map with an extremely large sphere textured with stars on it for my basic space like atmosphere.

The sphere is so large that its actually off the grid, and even out of sight entirely on the top, bottom, and side view ports. However I'm able to see it in the perspective view port thank god, and I wouldn't be without the possibly limitless view distance.

[Ultron]

It used to be just under a mile. More than enough for even the largest of UT maps. A friend of mine and I did some extensive testing by building some city maps that were literally cities, and ran into this problem. But regardless the scale that we were using were waaaaaaaay too large for probably even the largest of ONS maps.

[Kronos]

Wouldn't look nice up close though.

If you make it big enough you wont have to get close to it, I haven't discovered a view distance limit in the new UnrealED yet so it sure be no problem in developing a super duper over sized sphere.

As of right now to my knowledge, the new UnrealED has a limitless view distance.