Skybox utilities
Author
Does anyone know of any good utilities for creating/editing skybox meshes. I am needing anything as long as I can create a skybox directx x-file. I also used 3d Studio so if there are any plugins that can do this, that would work also. Thanks in advance.
You can use the freely available Panda exporter for X-files from Max. In Max, just make a box and flip the normals to inside. Put a nice sky texture on it and your on your way.
Greetz,
Illco.
http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/directxmax.aspx
Greetz,
Illco.
http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/directxmax.aspx
Author
Will that work as a skybox though? I have never had to work with skybox meshes till now so this is new to me. I mean that will be a regular mesh. Is there a difference between a regular box mesh and a skybox mesh? I thought a skybox had 6 different panel images, or is that just optional?
A simple skybox is just 5 quads (6 if you need to see the bottom) with proper textures on them. You probably don't even need a .x file for this, just create the quads. The box should be always centered on the camera. Typically you will either disable z writting and draw the sky first, at any arbitrary distance, or draw the sky last just in front of z far (you'll need to draw it before any blended objects of course). The tricky part here is actually getting the sky images.
What he said. As for the panels, in a box you could map different textures to each of the box faces or, alternatively, store the different 'panel' textures in one texture and map it correctly in your editor. That way you could use a box if you wish. Because of the Z-write disable and tweaking the view matrix, the box will always be centered around the viewer.
Greetz,
Illco
Greetz,
Illco
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