Halo Ring Skybox? - Developers

[QUOTE=TBot_Alpha;21895878][b]BEHOLD:[/b] [IMG_THUMB]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa73/TBot_Alpha/hl22010-05-1210-51-22-98.png[/img_thumb] [IMG_THUMB]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa73/TBot_Alpha/hl22010-05-1210-50-52-65.png[/img_thumb] [IMG_THUMB]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa73/TBot_Alpha/hl22010-05-1210-50-59-52.png[/img_thumb] I'm not actually planning to expand on this in any way. I'm just messing around to see what's actually possible, and to see if I could get it to resemble the original Halo. If the dev-ring looks close enough, then I would consider that a success.[/QUOTE] Sadly it does not have enough faces on the cylinder to even be close to the halo ring model we got in GMod. Ported from hce. One of the more obvious things that I can notice on the dev-ring is that... It is unfortunately not big enough because the ring is not that thick when looking straight up, its half that width. The thing that the skybox texture lacks is the proper width at the top part and not just continuing in the same size as the top part of the side textures. That makes it look like in the width of the dev-ring. So. Someone needs to port the halo ring skybox texture from hce so we got a nice copy in GMod.

Keep in mind, halo used an fov of 90 or something while source has 75. It will appear bigger in a source game. I just tried it ingame though, and screens don't do it justice. You get an epic sense of vertigo from rendering it in-engine. And more faces is really just a matter of adding higher numbers to the arch tool. As long as the dimensions are internally consistent it doesn't really matter that it's a few thousand km off in scale, the difference is nil at these scales.

[QUOTE=BmB;21895939]Keep in mind, halo used an fov of 90 or something while source has 75. It will appear bigger in a source game. I just tried it ingame though, and screens don't do it justice. You get an epic sense of vertigo from rendering it in-engine. And more faces is really just a matter of adding higher numbers to the arch tool.[/QUOTE] I might upload the Halo ring textures if you are so on about doing this.

[QUOTE=Civil;21895889]Sadly it does not have enough faces on the cylinder to even be close to the halo ring model we got in GMod. Ported from hce. One of the more obvious things that I can notice on the dev-ring is that... It is unfortunately not big enough because the ring is not that thick when looking straight up, its half that width. The thing that the skybox texture lacks is the proper width at the top part and not just continuing in the same size as the top part of the side textures. That makes it look like in the width of the dev-ring. So. Someone needs to port the halo ring skybox texture from hce so we got a nice copy in GMod.[/QUOTE] - That could be cheated by simply making the ring narrower, and putting the sky_camera closer to the bottom to make it look wider at the base. - Obviously, if anyone actually went for it it would have a proper seamless texture all round. - There aren't enough faces for it to look smooth. I am very much aware of that. If there was a proper model it would obviously be a lot smoother. - What's the problem with it not looking exactly the same as the 2D skybox? If nothing else, the one I've made is more accurate, because it's an actual 3D shape, shown from an accurate perspective. And even if it isn't, my intent was to make something that looked similar, not necessarily something that was 100% accurate.

I tried the narrower thing, which looked good, but it didn't look consistent with the thickness of the ring shown here: [img]http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7234/halo2xbox041sy5of.jpg[/img]

Listen to Civil. The way the skies were done in Halo 1 and Halo 2 was relatively simple with some extra shader work (sorta). The twinkling stars in the Halo 1 skies were actually done using a scrolling noise mask that simulated the twinkling. The ring being painted in to the sky textures just [B]works better.[/B] It could PROBABLY be done with a skybox model, but it still just would not look as good as if it were painted in to the sky texture. The skies in Halo 3 were so complicated though, and were probably sky [B]domes[/B] versus boxes, to make them look more believable. The clouds were separate pieces (and there were multiple layers of clouds at that) from the sky texture. The best sky in Halo 3, in my opinion, was the desert mission's skybox, where you land on the arc and you can see all the extensions of it WAY off in the distance, and that awesome looking galaxy in the sky as well made it all the more epic. Those may have been separate pieces as well. Enough about that. The least we should do is replicate the Halo 1 skyboxes the same way they were made by Bungie, but make them way more detailed. 1024x1024 versus 512x512 and more realistic clouds, and slap in any other cinematic, spacey shit that we can.

[QUOTE=nubblecakes;21896114]Listen to Civil. The way the skies were done in Halo 1 and Halo 2 was relatively simple with some extra shader work (sorta). The twinkling stars in the Halo 1 skies were actually done using a scrolling noise mask that simulated the twinkling. The ring being painted in to the sky textures just [B]works better.[/B] It could PROBABLY be done with a skybox model, but it still just would not look as good as if it were painted in to the sky texture. The skies in Halo 3 were so complicated though, and were probably sky [B]domes[/B] versus boxes, to make them look more believable. The clouds were separate pieces (and there were multiple layers of clouds at that) from the sky texture. The best sky in Halo 3, in my opinion, was the desert mission's skybox, where you land on the arc and you can see all the extensions of it WAY off in the distance, and that awesome looking galaxy in the sky as well made it all the more epic. Those may have been separate pieces as well. I'll stop talking.[/QUOTE] No, no, I did (kinda) mention earlier that I don't really see the point of using a 3D skybox, since you'd barely notice it moving in-game anyway. As I've said before, I'm really just trying it for fun. :science:

It doesn't work any better or worse, if anything I'd say the in-engine rendering looks so much more awesome than something painted on the sky. As I said the sense of vertigo is immense, presumably from an ever so sublte parralax. [editline]12:36PM[/editline] Here it is with fov 90: [img]http://imageshack.dk/imagesfree/9GV60520.jpg[/img] [img]http://imageshack.dk/imagesfree/NBw60505.jpg[/img]

You just need a nice, slightly clouded view of stars for the 2D skybox, some 3D fog at the "bases" of the arch, some 3D clouds overhead and a high-res textured Halo model, and it'd look brilliant. So what if it involves lots of layered effects? That's all Source is anyway. :v: With all this in mind, I'm thinking it would make for a brilliant GMod build map.

Of course you might want to use the 3D skybox for mountains and such in the standard 1/16 scale, and then the lighting on the ring itself would be suboptimal as well, considering the ambient light for the day side wouldn't match that of the night side.

Well if you had a modeller on hand, you could just ask for some in-hammer mountains to be turned into appropriately-sized skybox models, and have the halo's lighting baked into the textures.

[QUOTE=BmB;21896521]Of course you might want to use the 3D skybox for mountains and such in the standard 1/16 scale, and then the lighting on the ring itself would be suboptimal as well, considering the ambient light for the day side wouldn't match that of the night side.[/QUOTE] To have a ring "model" in source, we need realtime lighting.

[QUOTE=Civil;21875337]There is a difference with a random hl2 texture ring and the real halo ring model. The halo ring model would not look as good in the 3d skybox as the real halo skybox texture does with the space stars, clouds and planets.[/QUOTE] Pretty sure you wouldn't use default HL2 textures when making a custom ring model for your skybox. This is why I don't condone people using Proper to make models. With a skybox texture, you are limited with quality and if someone has their texture detail on low, then they will have this ugly pixelated blob that circles around them in the sky (unless you force them to see the high quality version, which is a bad idea in terms of optimisation). You could make a really nice ring model with less than 100 tris and you could use a single 128x512 texture for the whole thing (and it would still look quite alright).

[QUOTE=Civil;21897079]To have a ring "model" in source, we need realtime lighting.[/QUOTE] Non sequiteur, there's realtime lighting in Source, but it is not a requirement to have a model. Try rephrasing?

Hey guys. [img]http://w0rf0x.obsidianconflict.net/screens/oc/ep2_a300056.jpg[/img] That is all done using a 3d skybox.

Well, whaddya know, someone's already gone and done what we were all talking about. :buddy:

Map name?

Upload time.

Please tell me thats a in game hud. :frown:

Maybe it's because the Halo is larger than any of the versions I've made in Hammer, but the curving upward in that image just doesn't look right to me, for some reason.

[QUOTE=TBot_Alpha;21899721]Maybe it's because the Halo is larger than any of the versions I've made in Hammer, but the curving upward in that image just doesn't look right to me, for some reason.[/QUOTE] It looks like he made the first level in Halo Combat Evolved campaign. Well. Atleast the first level on the ring. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCoi1lpj34[/media]

that screenshot was taken in obsidian conflict right?

btw guys, it really helps the perspective if you make the skybox ring an oval.

[QUOTE=ElectricSquid;21900881]btw guys, it really helps the perspective if you make the skybox ring an oval.[/QUOTE] I seriously think that what that guy did was enough awesome. He should seriously release that map.

[QUOTE=Civil;21901058]I seriously think that what that guy did was enough awesome. He should seriously release that map.[/QUOTE] Agreed. Not to crazy about the clouds though.:crossarms:

[QUOTE=Mikesword221;21901141]Agreed. Not to crazy about the clouds though.:crossarms:[/QUOTE] Its the skybox texture from halo ce to blame. [b]Edit:[/b] Even if it is that. That map is awesome! Myself and most other on GMod wants it! But unsure if he finnished that map so I guess we have to wait then.

[QUOTE=Civil;21876213]Seriously, you do not care much of halo or know the story much. The skyboxes for the ring used in halo ce, halo 2 and halo 3 looks way much better than acually having a ring in a 3d skybox. Also saves you on fps.[/QUOTE] using a 2d object in a 3d skybox work wonders.

[QUOTE=Facehugger88;21901356]using a 2d object in a 3d skybox work wonders.[/QUOTE] Bad reading much?

It's a little side project i worked on while bored, haven't touched that map since a year or so. I plan on finishing it some day and start on other Halo 1 Campaign maps since I'd really like to play some Halo 1 online co-op. But that probably won't happen for a while since we got to finish OC 1.35 this month, and after that more work awaits due to what we have planned for the future. [QUOTE=Facehugger88;21901356]using a 2d object in a 3d skybox work wonders.[/QUOTE] Yes, 2d objects can be very powerful and work much better than actual 3d objects when used right. That whole skybox is a bunch of 2d objects.

Making a ring skybox would be rediculously easy. The 2D one that is.