realistic hires space

[6743540324964ZylonBane]

So does that mean I can put a big giant brush around a level...

This is generally considered to be a terrible way to build a level, since it apparently can lead to a lot more BSP splits.

Basically I get what you're saying about the skybox being a virtual construct and all.

(one second later...)

What I'm having trouble with is understanding where it gets rendered, what it's being rendered on and whether that's going to interfere with or be interfered by anything I'm doing outside of my solid brush (my level) and inside a larger air brush.

*facepalm*

I'm running out of ways to rephrase that the skybox DOESN'T PHYSICALLY EXIST. Look at that screenshot I posted above. Literally the ONLY thing I did to create that was select "skybox" from the texture palette and click around on the floor and ceiling.

[6743540324b66miracle.flame]

RM, simply put - skybox does not limit you in any way.

Imagine you are sitting exactly in the centre of a small box which is painted differently on each side. Now imagine the box will start to expand into larger and larger box. Believe it or not you won't see the difference, stars on the sides will be just the same size visually from the center of the view. Because when the corners are essentially getting distant from the center each 8 of them exactly the same rate the size of the wall will proportionally grow with the distance making the visual impression being exactly the same... And that is skybox... you can move around the level and neither of the wall will get nearer or further no matter how far you go.

[6743540324f64RocketMan]

If I didn't care about outer space, I'd be fine with these explanations.  I get what you're saying.  The problem I have is because space is a playable area.  That's where I'm getting confused.  I'm not even sure why I'm confused.  Don't know what question I'm asking.  I guess it just doesn't seem like it'd work the same as if you're just looking out a window.


If the player's vantage point is FIXED, in the center of the cube, then you could expand or contract the cube and the features he sees would be found on the same lines of sight so everything would appear not to change.  However if the player approaches a boundary, his perspective changes and so do all the angles and sizes.  If this is NOT the case, then the game is trying to trick you by keeping you in the absolute center of the skybox even though you're right up against a wall.  That seems like it would spell trouble for me.
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[67435403251c7Olfred]

Just imagine the skybox like a magic box which you wear on your head (and it also just covers your head). And you can see through the box. But everything you see behind the box will look like it is inside the box.

This is kind of how it works.

[67435403252c1miracle.flame]

If you are about to design a level where you could fly in space then you'll just have to design it withing the boundaries of the level, that's it. Visually the skybox will always stay on the center of player. Better just start try and hit in practice than create unexisting problems in ahead.

[67435403253a3ZylonBane]

I've tried converting these skyboxen to DDS, and they still look great. Given the resolutions involved, highly recommended as well.

[6743540325472Olfred]

Is there any benefit in choosing DDS over another file format?

[67435403255c7Kolya]

You can generate Mipmaps in DDS.

[674354032588bvoodoo47]

Is there any benefit in choosing DDS over another file format?

yes - DDS are compressed, so you will conserve video memory. this is of little concern when using just a couple of very hires textures, but can be a big deal if you are using many - for example, first versions of TG hdmod were using PNGs for everything, and the mod was known to crash the game because of this. converting to DDS has resolved that problem.

[67435403259d9ZylonBane]

The important detail is that DDS is compressed in a way that can be decoded by video cards natively, in realtime. So instead of something like PNG that gets uncompressed on the CPU and then sent to the GPU as raw pixels, DDS textures are sent to and stored on the video card as-is.

So a 2048x2048 skybox texture, instead of taking 12MB of VRAM, only takes 2MB. A huge savings, for only a minor loss in quality. The compression ratio for non-alpha textures is 6:1, which means DDS allows you to cram all six skybox textures into the same amount of VRAM used by just one uncompressed texture.

[6743540325acbRocketMan]

Are you currently able to estimate the gross memory load on the video card given the inclusion of SCP and SHTUP/400?

[6743540325db8Olfred]

The important detail is that DDS is compressed in a way that can be decoded by video cards natively, in realtime. So instead of something like PNG that gets uncompressed on the CPU and then sent to the GPU as raw pixels, DDS textures are sent to and stored on the video card as-is.

I figured something like that. But didn't exactly knew about it for video cards. I'm more into knowing it for mobile phones