How does one Create the textures for a skybox?

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I've been in games for a long time and I've never had o build my own skybox textures. I always had someone else to do it. No I need to build my own. The question:

What method would you use to create the six required textures for a skybox?

I'm using Maya but I can haul out 3DS MAX if I really need to.

The net is full of tutorials on how to MAP a skybox but not so much on the actual texture creation and warping.

Any ideas?

Spence.

Answer 1

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Answer by noradninja · Nov 18, 2009 at 02:15 AM

If your environment is setup in Maya (say, using the builtin sky shader mapped to the inside of a sphere...I think thats the right name, but there is an enviro shader that lets you set sky colors, clouds, ground textures, sun position, etc), you could place six cameras at the world origin facing out to the six directions and render a still image from each cam.

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spencer lindsay · Nov 18, 2009 at 05:00 AM 0

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Thanks Ninja, That's exactly what I'm up to right now. The shader you're talking about is called "Env Sky" and it's accessible from the create menu in Hypershade.

runevision ♦♦ · Nov 18, 2009 at 01:58 PM 0

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Spencer, if this answer is a good solution to the answer you posted, could you mark it as the accepted answer?

spencer lindsay · Nov 19, 2009 at 03:40 AM 0

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It's Close! Thanks for the pointer!

:s.

noradninja · Nov 19, 2009 at 06:06 PM 0

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The real nice thing about this method is because of $$anonymous$$aya's node-based shaders, you can plug a whole shader network into the values on Env Sky, giving you pretty much unlimited possibilities as to how the skybox will look.

Answer 2

Answer by duck · Nov 18, 2009 at 10:06 AM

I've always had good results from Terragen. It's quite an old program (although they have a new version out now which is quite different). Looks like they now call the old version "Terragen Classic".

Find it here: http://www.planetside.co.uk/

There are also lots of tutorials out there for making skyboxes with Terragen.

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Answer 3

Answer by flexrails · Nov 17, 2009 at 11:33 PM

we've tried bryce and vue, and both should do it.

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spencer lindsay · Nov 17, 2009 at 11:48 PM 0

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Cool. I'm messing with $$anonymous$$ental Ray and the mia_physicalSky node right now - I'll report back if I find an elegant way to do this in $$anonymous$$aya.

Thanks!

:s.

Answer 4

Answer by Brian-Kehrer · Nov 22, 2009 at 04:17 PM

For two reasons, we dropped the 6 sided skybox, and instead use a simple skydome attached to the primary camera.

On the iPhone, this only uses 1 draw call instead of 6. While this isn't as much of a concern on other platforms, it is still a waste of draw calls, especially if you have reflections, etc, that value can be multiplied.
You can use premade sky textures right out of the box, and it is trivial to make your own. Plus polar distortion is typically not very noticeable. (unless of course the poles feature prominently, but a solid color at the top 10% of the texture can eliminate any noticeable distortion.)

If you are worried about frustum size, you can write a simple shader to make the skydome always render first, and not obscure anything behind it.

If you are worried about poly count, use a tessellated icosahedron. You may need to increase the tessellation at the poles to remove distortion.

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duck ♦♦ · Nov 23, 2009 at 11:49 AM 0

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Good point about the draw calls. In the past I have created my own skybox implementation which uses a texture atlas to combine all the sides of the skybox into one texture, so as to only incur one drawcall, but that would probably be best discussed in a separate question if necessary!

duck ♦♦ · Nov 23, 2009 at 11:50 AM 0

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I also feel it's worth pointing out that part of your point (2) is incorrect - if skybox textures have been correctly generated, there is no distortion whatsoever at the corners.

Brian-Kehrer · Nov 23, 2009 at 03:39 PM 0

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True enough. I guess I was thinking the final per area texture resolution is different, mostly because of experience looking at poorly generated skyboxes, I guess. But you are right, that doesn't seem logical, given the math is somewhat straightforward. Updated my post.

teemujin · May 24, 2010 at 04:03 AM 0

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@brian - can you describe your technique for producing your skydomes for iPhone games?

ie: what camera settings to take the image shot etc.

Answer 5

Answer by sajjad3011 · Nov 01, 2013 at 11:41 PM

use Blender 3d . and make Animation of Smoke or particle in sky. then save in Animation mode as "Animation1.Blend"

open unity.and goto Assets->import New Asset import Animation1.Blend to add into Project panel/. drag it from project panel to Hierarchy. Play game:D (sajjad3011)(http://promakers.ir)

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How does one Create the textures for a skybox?

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