what exactly is it? i heard it was going to be implemented into JA.
Originally posted by Tinny
what exactly is it? i heard it was going to be implemented into JA.
I'm assuming you mean 'portal skies'? Honestly I'm not sure. I've heard the term, but don't know what it refers to ... Anyone?
Mike
ah, thx txa, i'm not sure, an infinite sky that looks back down to a lower level giving the feeling ur going up forever?
Originally posted by Tinny
ah, thx txa, i'm not sure, an infinite sky that looks back down to a lower level giving the feeling ur going up forever?
That sounds reasonable ... from looking around it seemed to be something of an 'active' sky, rather than just a painting, or moving clouds or something.
Mike
A portal in Q3 is a render to texture surface, some camera object's input is rendered onto a surface. Like in Q3, the actual portal portals (like teleporters) are foggy surfaces and when you get close, it shows what's on the other side.
Same concept for portal skies. You make a little miniature of say, some mountains, in an unaccessable part of your map. You put a camera in it, and then you make a sky, and the sky will render whatever's in that little box. Basically, a 3D skybox. Used in RtCW, EF2, and Unreal.
Does that mean when you use a jetpack in a mod, that you don't bump into the top of the sky? :p
No, you'd still hit the sky.
Originally posted by Emon
No, you'd still hit the sky.
Taken out of context, that sounds pretty funny.
Anyhow, if this feature is implemented it will be a nice little improvement since JK2.
Portal skies are skies that are rendered by the engine, instead of just using textures. Morrowind's skies for example are what one could consider a portal sky. There isn't really all that much of an advantage to it, unless you're going to be doing dawn to dusk transitions. It'd save on memory though and it's easier to animate.. but that's about it.
So you should expect to see moving clouds in JA from it and maybe some nice looking suns, but i wouldn't expect much more.
Originally posted by Scarlett
Portal skies are skies that are rendered by the engine, instead of just using textures. Morrowind's skies for example are what one could consider a portal sky. There isn't really all that much of an advantage to it, unless you're going to be doing dawn to dusk transitions. It'd save on memory though and it's easier to animate.. but that's about it.
So you should expect to see moving clouds in JA from it and maybe some nice looking suns, but i wouldn't expect much more.
They can be higher resolution then standard skyboxes. It would also make it eaiser for level editors to make new skyboxes (I know how hard it is to render a proper skybox for JO).
Haha! Portal skies have no real benefit, right... They might as well make all the characters 2D sprites, 'cause 3D models with thousands of triangles of detail aren't that much better than a two triangle sprites! :rolleyes:
that sounds pretty cool and stuff..
but i still wanna run in @ 1024x786 on my 64mb gf2 mx 400
I never actually knew that the Q3 engine could really do stuff like, ragdoll and now this portal skies
We dunno about ragdoll physics.. jsut skeletons :p
Heck... I dunno about the rest of you fellas... but Morrowind's skies looked pretty damn awesome to me.
Even tho Morrowind had a permanently ticking wath that would make minutes, hours (Night, Day, Dusk, Dawn), days, mouths (seasons - Sunny, Cloudy, Raining, Thunderstorm, Sandstorm), JA could use some of those features to a certain extent... maybe you start a level at the middle of the afternoon and finish it at dusk or night thru scripted events. If the graphic quality at least matched Morrowind's and it didn't push the graphic card into overdrive un nedlessly... I'd luv to see that.
Originally posted by BloodRiot
Heck... I dunno about the rest of you fellas... but Morrowind's skies looked pretty damn awesome to me.
Even tho Morrowind had a permanently ticking wath that would make minutes, hours (Night, Day, Dusk, Dawn), days, mouths (seasons - Sunny, Cloudy, Raining, Thunderstorm, Sandstorm), JA could use some of those features to a certain extent... maybe you start a level at the middle of the afternoon and finish it at dusk or night thru scripted events. If the graphic quality at least matched Morrowind's and it didn't push the graphic card into overdrive un nedlessly... I'd luv to see that.
Wow that's a cool thought ...
Instead of timed missions (or perhaps in addition to), make the start time of a mission random so if it is outdoors, then you may be doing the whole thing in the dark (well, dim light ... total dark might be a bit much ...). Great for stealth, not so good to see where you're going. Or, if that is too much, at least have it always start mid-afternoon, and have time elapse as you go, and the challenge is to do it before night falls.
Mike
Actually that does sound cool, you have to complete a stealth mission before the sun comes up... then it gets reeealy hard. :p
As lnog as the skies don't look awkward.. i'll be sound as a pound :)
I just hope they have a custom sky creator like q3 and ut2k3 has so u can make many diff combinations. moving clouds that could effect a "sun" so that u have shadows on the ground would kick azz! but i musent get my hopes up:D
You can already do that in JO...
since when was there a tool that came with either one of the radiants that alows you to make a sky without ussing a diff program and putting shaders together? whats theis program called that u speak of?
There is no program to make skies for any Q3 based game. JO runs on the Q3 engine. You have to make the shaders yourself, and making shaders is very easy. Read the shader manual that comes with GtkRadiant, it's under the Help menu somewhere.
Moving clouds are just part of the sky shader with some tcGen stuff to make it move. Shadows from the clouds on the ground are just shaders on the ground textures that have a cloud overlay that moves the same way the clouds do with tcGen.