2009-10-19, 05:34 PM
I removed the animated part of the sky from most of my maps in DD. The part that zooms across the sky is simply Sky0x_2.txr, so if you dont want to have it either create a texture that is see through or just delete or rename the texture in your \map\model to something else and the layer that moves will be gone.
I am assuming, though I have not looked at john's newest model set for the skies, that creating a static yet transparent set of clouds would not be too difficult..it would only require that you simply add to the dome model and horizon sets that he has made.
Personally, I am not a fan of the cloud layer that SOM puts in place, its movement and placement just look generic to me. Ideally, the moving clouds would have been good if we could recreate the model they are attached to to move across the sky rather than from horizon to horizon. This might be doable (though I know we wont be able to adjust the speed.) John may have already answered this problem in his model set, but if we can configure the sky as a dome and move the part that is animated to just the top portion it would look far better.
Part of the problem I have seen with SOM games that makes the sky look bad is everyone has been putting their view distance so low. I am not certain why everyone does this..unless the computer they are working on just has a bad graphics card? It seems uneccessary to make the view distance anything below 20-25 meters. Low drawing distance not only makes the sky look goofy (unbearably in some situations where people choose a very white fog and white horizon) but it also takes away from the scale of the setting. I think giving the player the ability to look far away enhances the scale of the environment, letting you feel like youre in a large area.
John, until I get home some time this week and play with your new model, can you consider the below picture and let me know your opinion.
I am assuming, though I have not looked at john's newest model set for the skies, that creating a static yet transparent set of clouds would not be too difficult..it would only require that you simply add to the dome model and horizon sets that he has made.
Personally, I am not a fan of the cloud layer that SOM puts in place, its movement and placement just look generic to me. Ideally, the moving clouds would have been good if we could recreate the model they are attached to to move across the sky rather than from horizon to horizon. This might be doable (though I know we wont be able to adjust the speed.) John may have already answered this problem in his model set, but if we can configure the sky as a dome and move the part that is animated to just the top portion it would look far better.
Part of the problem I have seen with SOM games that makes the sky look bad is everyone has been putting their view distance so low. I am not certain why everyone does this..unless the computer they are working on just has a bad graphics card? It seems uneccessary to make the view distance anything below 20-25 meters. Low drawing distance not only makes the sky look goofy (unbearably in some situations where people choose a very white fog and white horizon) but it also takes away from the scale of the setting. I think giving the player the ability to look far away enhances the scale of the environment, letting you feel like youre in a large area.
John, until I get home some time this week and play with your new model, can you consider the below picture and let me know your opinion.
- Todd DuFore (DMPDesign)
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