skybox help

[seagypsy12345]

HI guys im trying to make a skybox but i have no clue how to could you guys please point me to a thread or tut i can do
much appreciated

[bernie]

Heres a turorial on making skyboxes in Terragen.
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... -_Advanced

[bernie]

This is how I do it.
It takes longer but at least you can see what you are getting before you save and it gives you time to alter things if you should need to.

Generate a nice terrain in L3dt.
Export the heightmap as .ter 1024 X 1024.
Open Terragen.
Open the landscape dialog.
Click open ond open the heightmap you saved from L3dt.
Click Size and set the landscape area to 10000m x 10000m
Click the 1025 button and click yes to all the dialog boxes that open.
Click OK.
Open a surface map (they are in the terragen root directory). I prefer the "srfAutumn.srf"
Go to the Rendering control dialog set the camera position to x=5000m,Y=5000m, leave the z as it is.
Set the image size to either 512x512 or 1024x1024. NB: the larger image take much longer to render.
You may at this stage need to set the water level by opening to water dialog. If I dont want water in my skybox I set the value to -300m and close the dialog box.
Tick the land and sky boxes.
Move the Detail slider all the way to the right.
Click Camera settings.
Set the film to High Contrast photochemical film.
Change the Zoom/Magnification to 1 (This is very important).
Click Close
Set camera orientation to 0, 0, 0
Press render image in rendering control.
Make a cup of tea,coffee (it takes time to render in high res)
Press save and save the picture as Front.bmp
Close the render box
Set camera orientation to 90, 0, 0
Render, make more tea and save Right.bmp
Close render box.
Set camera to 180, 0, 0
Render, make more tea and save as Back.bmp
Close render box.
Set camera to 270, 0, 0
Render, make more tea and save as Left.bmp
Close render box.
Set Camera to 0, 90, 0
Render, make more tea and save as Top.bmp
Close render box.
Set Camera to 0, -90, 0
Render, make more tea and save as Bottom.bmp
Close Render box and you're done.

You may need to visit the tiolet at this stage after all the tea/coffee you drank.

Move the images you created into your txl file in RF and set up the sky box.

I hope this helps.

[seagypsy12345]

awesome that was the best reply i have ever had 5/5 10/10 thank you so much for taking the time to write that

1 more thing do i just make a giant hollow box around my level and put these on the inside?

[bernie]

Put a hollow box around your level.
Selct the box.
Go to Mode in RFeditPro and tick Face Attributes the box will turn Purple.
Tick the Sky box.
Then in the Templates tab select Adjust Sky (Bottom left) and put those textures in the appropriate boxes.
Your sky box will show when you compile your level (it will not show in the editor it will just be a blue box).

[seagypsy12345]

thank you so much there are little black spots in the skybox when i move around and do you know where nems tools terrain generator exports the .txl cause i get my terrain in there and it has no textures must i merge the one with the other eg default.txl merged with whatever the b^&*^ nems tools one is or is there another brilliant step by step info storm you might write lolz

[metal_head]

are little black spots in the skybox when i move around

Actually,I have them too,I think it's a bug maybe.

[bernie]

Sorry I don't use nems I think L3dt is far superior and it does good textures and exports them in high res it also does light maps and bmp maps. It will be the only best one to use in RF2 when the time comes so now is the time to learn to use it.
Nems doesn't export textures, it doesn't export a proper .obj file and the .map file is next to useless with all the extra faces it exports. The textures in Nems are hidden in a .wad file somewhere I think. You will have to find them extract them and put them in your .txl file.
I think the black dots are as MH say a bug athough the aren't too bad for me.

[seagypsy12345]

ok cool i think mems is useless aswel it has wasted alot of my time could you help me in l3dt i know how to gen terrain its just getting it into rf this is my main problem i would like to walk on the terrain i generate please please

[metal_head]

export your terrain (made in nem's) in .MAP format,than in the editor click File/Open set the file type to MAP and open your terrain

[seagypsy12345]

then i just get a wireframe that is impossible to texture in the editor is there no other way

[metal_head]

well,you can export it in OBJ,and than import it into Milkshape,than export it in BDY and convert it to act,so that way the terrain will be a 3D model.And for the texturing,texture,it in the Terrain Generator

[bernie]

L3dt generates a terrain that is too big for RF1 to handle so it has to be split up.
There is another free terrain generator called T2 which can build a terrain from a heightmap produced in L3dt of smaller size and split to 4 or more seperate .3ds files but the textures anren't very good.
So what I do is generate the terrain and all it's textures in L3dt and save all the files ie heightmap and textures.
Load the heighmap into T2 and rebuild the terrain there. Split it up to 4 or more 3ds files.
Split the textures from L3dt in the appropriate number of parts in a paint program. Load the 3ds files into milkshape and chenge the textures for the ones I produced in L3dt and build the actor files from there.
You can also make LOD's here also.
They can then be imported as static mesh files in RF.
Another trick then is to load the same files as StaticEntityProxy (SEP) in exactly the same position as the StaticMesh. Make the SEP no collision and the StaticMesh alpha1 (transparent). This way you can use bump mapping on your terrain too. Static mesh doesn't support bumpmaps but SEP does. Static mesh supports per poly collision SEP doesn't. So this way you get the best of both worlds so to speak.
If you are careful with LOD's you can keep up a good frame rate and have a fairly big terrain.
Messy but very effective.

[seagypsy12345]

k that is way to vague for me im a noob i just tried it and inserted it as a staticentityproxy then put the .apj file as the szactorfile and nada zip squat what am i doing wrong?

[bernie]

A .apj file has nothing to do with RF it is an Astudio file. You must build an actor file (.act) you use Astudio to build an actor.
Export your .bdy file from ms3d and put the textures in the same folder as the .bdy file.
Open Astudio go to file->new Browse to the folder you saved your .bdy and texture files and give it a project click save.
Untick the use project directory box and click ok.
You will then see a dialog with project name as a .act file You can change the name if you wish.
go to the Body tab and browse for your .bdy file and click open.
go to the paths tab and type ".\" whithout the inverted commas in the materials directory box.
Click Build and a .act file will be build in your folder. Move that file into the actors directory in rf and use it for your SEP and StaticMesh.