5 replies to this topic

[Torath]

Hi. I'm currently working on a small 3D space game built using C++ and DirectX 11.

I've added in a skybox that has a nice mixture of stars for my background. Howevever, when I see it in game it never looks as sharp as the actual textures I've got. For example, the stars end up looking blocky instead of nice and crisp.

Does anyone have tips for rendering a nice looking skybox?

Oh, for reference, the sampler state I've set up for the pixel shader uses the D3D11_FILTER_MIN_MAG_MIP_LINEAR filter. Is this a good choice? Is there a better alternative?

Thanks for any help!

Edited by Torath, 20 July 2012 - 01:41 AM.

[ekba89]

It is most likely because of your texture size is small for the skybox you are using.You can resize your skybox to lets say half of its current size with scale matrix and see if it looks good. And if it looks good that means you need double of the size of your current texture. By using different scale matrices you can find how big texture you need.

[toasterthegamer]

http://alexcpeterson.com/spacescape

[Torath]

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of using the scaling matrix to easily try different sizes.

[Torath]

http://alexcpeterson.com/spacescape

This looks very cool, I'm going to give it a try!

[ZBethel]

You could try rendering the stars and other bodies as point sprites and just use the skybox for things like nebula haze. That's what EVE Online does and it looks beautiful. One clear benefit of this technique is that you can have your stars pulse and glow.

Edited by ZBethel, 21 July 2012 - 04:48 PM.