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FPSC Classic Models and Media / * NOIR CITY * OOTB night time urban cities skybox set.

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fallen one
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 11:05 Edited at: 29th Jan 2009 19:50
I'm working on an Urban themed skybox collection, its called Noir City, so expect scenes of cities by twilight.

Ill post a quick shot, and Ill update this later with more info and screens as I finish these off.





When they are done Ill put them in my shop for purchase. I need to buy a mac to convert my iphone app for the Apple store, so a few shekels here and there will help fit the bill.

crispex
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 11:21
Looks like it's coming along nicely! One thing, you can clearly see the seam where the skybox is square. Seems a bit blurry too, but looks like this will be very nice!

Temporarly away from the Phoenix Sentry.
Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 11:56
Absolutely beautiful. Perfect for Rainbow Six vegas type games.
fallen one
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 12:49 Edited at: 29th Jan 2009 12:53
Ill make a note, with skyboxes, you are supposed to put in scenery, you should use some foreground objects into your shot, and not expect the skybox to do the whole level. they are a background, not a substitute for designing the level. They work in a similar way to matte paintings in the movie industry, they should not be in full focus, as they are in the distance, as such they don't have full in sharp focus. That's the correct way to do them. Ill get some more up, once I go get some cappuccinos.

crispex
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 14:04
Of course, either way, this might just encourage more city games with vaster environments!

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fallen one
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 15:13
I thought as the official packs are modern day, Id do some modern day skyboxes, one doesn't have to have big outdoor areas, one can use them as views out of windows, or use them in small street scenes. One should have variety in a level, some areas small, some areas big, some areas inside, some areas outside, it breaks up the gameplay more.

fallen one
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 18:41 Edited at: 1st Feb 2009 17:29
Here is another 2 shots. the shot below, Ive figured how to render this at a lower view point, Ill post a better shot when I get the time





I had a look at hiding the corners (which show more for non organic shapes), cant be done, in other engines I would have a sky as a box, and the buildings on a cylinder with an alpha channel to lose the squared look for non organic shapes in the skybox.





But that technique cant be done in fpsc, fpsc users just a plain box and one cannot have objects inside it, so it cannot be done. Also I find that the viewpoint would be better lower down in the skyboxes, as it misses some of the buildings, Ive asked about this, Ill see what I get back, but I don't think that can be altered either, its just how fpsc does things, it needs correcting, the viewpoint is half way up the skybox, it needs to be 3/4 down, its an overview on the design of how fpsc does a skybox, in other engines one can select the viewpoint of the skybox, but I don't think one can in fpsc, had a go at some cheats, but fpsc wasnt having it. Ill see what I get back on the subject, but I think probably cant be altered. Perhaps its one for Lee to fix, stick the skybox view point down a bit, so people can see more of the skybox.

Nickydude
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 19:11
May be a way round it would be to have 'gaps' between the buildings on the corners, with smaller buildings filling the gaps so it's not as obvious?

xplosys
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 19:19
Just a couple of observations. Love the work so far. I've recently found some sky-boxes that were made for another engine, but they were easily converted to FPSC using the Skies program.

These sky boxes appeared to be higher, giving you the impression that you are lower against the box. Although it's hard to actually see why, it seems that the walls have part of the floor texture on them. In other words, the floor texture goes part way up the walls. Anyway, that was the impression I got.

There were also some with buildings and I noticed that the wall texture transitions were always between buildings, and never in the middle of them. The textures were not up to your standards, but the boxes seemed to flow better that way.

Best.

fallen one
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Posted: 29th Jan 2009 19:20 Edited at: 29th Jan 2009 19:30
Nickydude - Ive made them now, editing 16 skyboxes, 4 corners each, that's 64 corners, lets say 30 mins each corner makes 32 hours, no thanks, they are good enough to pass, though id still like to get the view point further down, though I don't think it can be done, I tried some cheats but fpsc does things one way only.

Quote: "it seems that the walls have part of the floor texture on them. In other words, the floor texture goes part way up the walls. Anyway, that was the impression I got."


Yep, you can do it that way, though for really tall buildings one is limited, you would need the top of the building on the ceiling, as the walls would not have enough height, as one only has half the box to work from, so essentially, halfway down the wall is the floor. One has the walls from half way up to the ceiling, its a really small amount of space, one can go into the ceiling, but you can get distortion, also it couldn't be done with these as a lot of the skyboxes, either in part, or in whole are painted by hand, painting a matte image is a lot quicker than making 3d objects, texturing them, then rendering them out, if one paints the skybox its very quick, I wasn't going to model whole cities for 16 skyboxes, just think of how many buildings that Id have to make.

TGPEG
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 00:09 Edited at: 30th Jan 2009 00:16
A lot of skyboxes are made to look circular using pincushion effects on the individual images, although I have no idea where to begin converting images correctly.]

EDIT: Fallen one have you tried simply doing what's in the attached piture. I have the feeling that that's how Simon made the original skyboxes by simply stretching the ground into the bottom section of the side images.

Red in the image obviously representing ground and blue everything else. Sorry about the rubbishness of the diagrams.

fallen one
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Posted: 30th Jan 2009 06:41 Edited at: 30th Jan 2009 23:56
That image is wrong, because fpsc has the red halfway up the wall, from half way up is the floor, how I have frames my images is correct, just do a search on skyboxes, everyone frames them as I do, its fpsc that is wrong having them viewed from halfway up the box.

Ive emailed Lee about seeing if the engine can be cheated. If not I have one last idea, after that, Im all out of ideas.

fallen one
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Posted: 1st Feb 2009 17:20 Edited at: 1st Feb 2009 17:26
Here is another, kind of Blade Runner type city scene, smog ridden metropolis, great for cities full of vice and corruption, I may create two types for this project, one with the viewport lower down, and one with the normal view.

We have a little distortion at the corners, ie its box like, but it cant be helped in fpsc, I tried using a sphere instead of a box, but fpsc will not use a sphere. fpsc uses a funny method of doing skyboxes, I dont think it uses the model at all, only as a referance for orientation of the texture. I asked Lee about it, but I'm not expecting a reply.

Ill post the flats when Ive got some time

puppysss
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2009 07:53
wow!! unbelievable!
it's very fantastic!
goooooood jooooob!!
cheer up!!

NAVER - PUPPYSSS = TGC - Fpsc Bug Reporter
Aaagreen
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2009 10:20 Edited at: 3rd Feb 2009 10:25
You should really get the edges fixed.

Note how companies like Valve compress the locations of the edges, to remove this horrible effect in-game

Edge fixing is done via textures, not models.

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fallen one
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2009 11:42 Edited at: 3rd Feb 2009 11:52
Quote: "Note how companies like Valve compress the locations of the edges, to remove this horrible effect in-game "


I think youve just guessed at what you think they may do, Ive never heard of any tool or plug in that does that. I'm more than prepared to be proven wrong, but I do not think I am, link me to a plug in or tool that does that.
What they do is use a cylinder or skyshere and they are not supported by fpsc.

Im not sure if that image is a sig or an illustration, looks like a skydome, they are often made from stiching together real life images of skies. There is no magic tool to correct the edges of skyboxes, because they are not needed, if you get disortion, which one only gets from buildings, you map a sphere or cylinder, like I said, fpsc doesnt support them, they just show up as cubes, so it doesnt work. FPSC is not like other engines. Its a 50 quid engine, people seem to forget that, and expect it to compete with 500k+ engines. Its made by one man from Wigan. Though if anyone can point me to a 'compress the locations of the edges tool' Im more than willing to use it

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