Sky textures

[Banshee-66]

Been messing around making sky textures and came up with these. Although they look like different sky textures, all three images use the same textures. Now if we can just get rid of the stretching effect near the horizon. :wink:
Next I'll try to make a night sky texture, if anyone is still interrested in night time style missions.

[Hackworth]

Those are beautiful. Bring it on Banshee.

[Scorpius]

Wow, those are gorgeous!

[Monkie]

Those look awesome, thank you for sharing. I replaced the current default sky texture with the grey overcast one that came with the sim the other day. I was amazed at how it made the snow covered landscape look that much colder, it really changes the feel of the environment. I would like to see more sky mods uploaded in the download area for all to experiment with.

JC

[mapman]

Ok...I am sure this has been posted someplace, but frankly, I am having a hard time keeping up with all the activity here the past month.

What are the steps for switching out the sky textures please?

[congo]

Banshee,

I want those sky textures Now Soldier!!!!!!!!!!

[Banshee-66]

been working on the night textures.....what cha think?

As far as releaseing them, I just want to do a few more then release one zip file.

[congo]

"And this also," said Congo suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."

Fanfriggintastic

[Monkie]

The textures can be found in the main SBpe directory under "textures/sky" folders. It seems that the file named "sky_d1" will be the one always active in the sim. Simply pick the sky you like the best and rename it to "sky_d1". Make sure you back up all the sky textures before you try it just in case.

JC

[Banshee-66]

Hmmmm might be redoing the night textures. :-)
I have added two sky textures to the SBProPE mods mis folder. Enjoy, if there is a sky you would like in SB let me know.

[GuardianJim]

Banshee,

No joy on the maps being in the misc folder. The folder is empty. They are some nice skys and would look good during a major tank battle.

[Banshee-66]

They might have to be approved first. :-)

[GuardianJim]

Thanks,

Looking forward to trying them out.

:P

[Banshee-66]

Can you see me now?

[19DScout1-8Cav]

Yes I see you only becouse I can see the barrel in front of the bush

[koga]

sum1 make an apocalypse sky? scary red and black like the end of the world..cool huh?

[Banshee-66]

sum1 make an apocalypse sky? scary red and black like the end of the world..cool huh?

Want a mushroom cloud with that? :lol:

[Banshee-66]

Like this?

[mapman]

Wow....I am speachless.....

[Banshee-66]

Wow....I am speachless.....

:lol: The mushroom cloud is superimposed on the background. It doesn't look that good. :D

[richard]

Banchee-66 My CVC is off to you..I placed one of your sky patterns in sbpro and what a difference...They are beautiful..I am eagerly awaiting your night sky..

[Banshee-66]

Thank you, I'll be making more. The night sky texture will be released when I get the night textures done. Thinking of also doing an early morning and a late evening as well.

[Banshee-66]

Guess I really should add this, if I contintue to work on the night textures will they be used in scenarios, or just a waste of time?

[Hackworth]

Um, I'd use um alot!. I used the old night mod for SB1 a lot in single player. Sky mods and "mood" mods are awesome. I played the winter mod (in SP and MP) for so long that I forgot what a regular mission looked like. Same thing with the skies that were moded. I used them so much I forgot what the original looked like. ;)

[Scorpius]

My installation of SB Gold has Moggy's slush mod still installed. :thumbup:

Beautiful skies...!!!

[Banshee-66]

What is taking me so long is, I'm testing out alot of things, what does and doesn't work............Here is the red sky texture with some red light on the tank.....the second image, well you can see. lol

[mapman]

That tank better button up in a hurry....

[koga]

I LOVE IT!

[Banshee-66]

Doubt them buttoning up would help any when that blast wave hit. :lol:

Had to try a desert sky.

[mapman]

Homer! Hurry up and buy Pro PE so you can build a Skinner utility!!

[Banshee-66]

Added a new zip file with three sky textures, One with the sun, The red sky and the desert sky one........hope you all enjoy.
Going to be making a website to show off the new and redone textures.

[richard]

Again thank you Banshee..I also am a former member of the 2-34th Armor.. 1968-69 Vietnam B Co Dreadnaught 14-D..Welcome Home...

[Banshee-66]

Hello Richard, Thank you. I was also in Bravo Co. Tank B-23.

[VegasGeorge]

Banshee-66, I think I would need a little more light in the night scenes, else I'd spend all my time fumbling around trying to find my own arss! :lol: Actually, with a full moon, I think there would be more light than I see in the texture right now. Once your eyes become accustomed to the dark, a moonlit night reveals more detail than you might think. I'm sure glad you're working on this stuff!

[richard]

Banshee 66: While i was in Viet Nam i worked mainly in the night, thats probably why i have this obsession with night fighting...If i do say so myself i became pretty good at sneaking up on little bad guys...

[Banshee-66]

The first night mod when ever I get it done will be pitch black, no moon light what so ever. That screenshot I did with the moon was a test to see if and how bad the moon would stretch.

[Bluewings]

Banshee-66 , your work is absolutly beautifull :hallucine: :thumbup:

Maybe you should get in touch with eSim ...

Cheers . :3starSK:

[Banshee-66]

Banshee-66 , your work is absolutly beautifull :hallucine: :thumbup:

Maybe you should get in touch with eSim ...

Cheers . :3starSK:

Thanks, I still have alot to learn though. :D

[Banshee-66]

ah oh storms coming.........

[Jaguar]

That looks pretty nice, Banshee. :)

[Banshee-66]

That looks pretty nice, Banshee. :)

Thanks, been messing around with animated BMP files, can get them to animate outside the program, but can't get it to work inside the program. :lol:
Wish there was a way to replace the skybox model.

[Hackworth]

:shock:

aught oh.
Um, when are you going to post these skies? They are awesome.

[AlphaSierra]

Looks really good...

[Banshee-66]

:shock:

aught oh.
Um, when are you going to post these skies? They are awesome.

Sorry haven't been looking at this thread to much lately, I'll post them whe nI get a few more done. :-) Is there a sky you would like to see?

[Hackworth]

Um, all of them :D
Rather, I want them to download and install on my puter, eff your screan shots, no offense intended ;) But, you're teasing me like a Catholic school girl in heat.

I want that stormy weather as depicted in storm.jpg right now Mister. If I don't get it... well, I'll sick Koga on you.

[Banshee-66]

In case you didn't know I have a few sky textures in the download section. The URL is below.

Sky Textures (http://www.steelbeasts.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=725)
Sky Textures V2 (http://www.steelbeasts.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=734)

This is the storm one. I'll put this in the download section when I make a few more skys.
Stormy sky (ftp://ftp.wolvenshire.com/Storm.zip)
Now if I could just animate the texture we could have lightening. :lol:

[richard]

A humble request..Night with some ambient light..PRETTY PLEASE!!!

[Banshee-66]

A humble request..Night with some ambient light..PRETTY PLEASE!!!

It's coming, just doing the night mod.

[Banshee-66]

Man it's been awhile since I have done any sky textures. Guess if I am going to bring this thread back, I might as well bring it back with a golden sky.

[Bluewings]

Really , really nice :hallucine: :thumbup:

Cheers . :3starSK:

[Scorpius]

Banshee that's awesome!

[Banshee-66]

Thanks BlueWings and Scorpius.

Here is something I would like to see in SB2. Same program that did this animation also does the sky textures. :D

Sunrise (ftp://ftp.wolvenshire.com/sunrise.zip)

[Scorpius]

Do you use Terragen or Vue? I've used both for some time but I never thought about using them for SB.

[Hackworth]

Oh that would be the cat's ass if we could have an evolving environment. I'd love to start a mission at the crack of dawn and finish up with coffee and a cigarette sitting on an OBJ with the sun low on the horizon and a heap of burning vehicles to my rear ;) Off to take a cold shower!

[Banshee-66]

Do you use Terragen or Vue? I've used both for some time but I never thought about using them for SB.

Vue 5, export the sky texture only using the UV settings. Then crop in a photo editor.

Oh that would be the cat's ass if we could have an evolving environment. I'd love to start a mission at the crack of dawn and finish up with coffee and a cigarette sitting on an OBJ with the sun low on the horizon and a heap of burning vehicles to my rear Off to take a cold shower!

That stuff I think would be fairly easy to put into a game. I've also said in another thread that weather effects would be fairly easy as well.
Could you imagine playing SB2, a cloudy day and as the sun goes down a thunderstorm forms? Lighting, thunder, heavy rain? You hear a round hit the earth next to your tank, then hear the report of main gun fire. You look around see nothing, then a flash of lighting, you see something off in the distance a tree, or could it of been the enemy? :lol:

[MajorMagee]

Beyond the original scenario triggered rain and snow options, Aldo managed to add real time environmental lighting effects that are tied to the time of day and weather conditions into the Panzer Elite code three years ago. That really did make a big difference to the simulation quality.

You could move from the assembly area to the jumping off point during predawn twilight, and then launch an attack just as the rising sun is blazing into the enemy's sleepless eyes.

8 bit version
http://pedg.chollie.co.uk/files//MajorMagee/SkyTweaks.jpg
24 bit version

From left to right, Beginning of Twilight, Sunrise, Morning Light

The key to making this work realistically, was reducing the AI's spotting ability based on how well the human player could see under the same conditions to prevent "One Shot Erskin" Bots from from picking you off at will.

With TIS this would be much less of an issue for SB Pro PE. 8)

[Banshee-66]

yeah that environmental lighting would be awesome to see in both SB Pro PE and SB2.

[Jaguar]

Hey, in that video it looks like a Hurricane or Taifun is closing in. :wink:
Very nice work, Banshee! :thumbup: It would indeed be great to have such weather effects in either SB Pro or SB2.

For strict training purposes, such may not be important at all, but mood can add a lot to the experience on a PC.

[MajorMagee]

Trying to argue that it's not important for training is like trying to say that you don't need to train at night, in order to fight effectively at night.

Hogwash! Even when all of our modern technology is working perfectly, things never work quite the same when you're operating under less than ideal weather conditions.

[Jaguar]

Trying to argue that it's not important for training is like trying to say that you don't need to train at night, in order to fight effectively at night.
That's an extrem example. Of course there's a hell of a difference between day and night. I was refering to more 'simple' changes, for example from dawn to full daylight or some weather effects as seen in Banshees video.

[MajorMagee]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh. I'm just passionate about having a simulation that really simulates all combat conditions.

I always checked the forcast when planning combat operations. If it was suppposed to rain sometime after 1:00 I would have everyone in position with orders to start the attack no sooner than 20 min after the storm started so we could take advantage of human nature's low capacity for staying vigilent in the face of misery. We knew what we were waiting in the rain for, while they were busy convincing themselves that they didn't need to keep looking for us because you couldn't see anything anyway. They'd lose the internal argument after 15 min, and would duck in, out of the rain.

I know, it typically only works with green troops, but then it works like clockwork. 8)

[Jaguar]

I'm just passionate about having a simulation that really simulates all combat conditions.
There's nothing wrong with that. :)

[Banshee-66]

Rainy and foggy day.

[Hackworth]

oooo, gibt mir.

gimme, gimme, gimme.

[Jaguar]

That looks cool! :thumbup:

[DrDevice]

Despite the obvious advantages for training, I really don't think implementing weather or lighting is HALF as easy as everyone seems to think it is. It is not just about what a player sees.

I think the effects above are great! They look beautiful. While I am all for a better looking sim for the player, I think it is a mistake to think that changing the look has any material effect to the game.

For instance: TIS was mentioned as a cure for LOS calculations for the AI in night or low-light conditions. Too bad that only 1/3 of the vehicles have a TIS system. How do you affect the other 20+ vehicles that do not have a TIS system? If that AI can still see you as if it were daylight, how is that different?

To have training value, the weather must have realistic effects. Simple limits on LOS don’t work. Changes in traction in heavy rain, or lower sound travel distances in fog or snow, or position fixes in the dark are all factors of weather (or of the complete METT-C picture). I guess the question is prioritizing what factors come first.

I think a first step is to more accurately model the vehicle capabilities themselves. For instance, you don’t have a constantly updated map in an M113. You don’t have a digital battlefield system in a T-72. That digital capability is a true strength for vehicles equipped with such a system. LOS may be different for TIS vs. non-TIS vehicles. Overall situational awareness and detection varies by vehicle type. The problem lies in programming the game to recognize such things. How do you implement an AI that can get lost? Or one that can react to attacks where it cannot determine the origin of the attack?

If you can separate the capabilities, you make it easier to implement the effects of things like lighting and weather on the individual vehicles. But even then it’s no where near as simple as some folks are making it sound.

[Banshee-66]

I used to play an online MMO that had weather effects. The harder the rain fell the more difficult it was to see far away. The rain was
done by using flat polygon planes set verticle and with a rain texture. The more planes that fell and along with fog effects, the harder
it was to see distance.

SBPro has that capability to limit how far away you see by using fog. The fog also seems to effect how far away the CC vehicles see. It
also has ways to set how much traction your tank can have using the maps. Which if you wanted day or night, Rain, snow, nice weather, could be set randomly or with presets.

I know it's not as easy as we make it sound, I've been trying to learn how to model using Lightwave 3D, and I know how hard it is, coding is much harder, I have also tried that in the past.

As I have stated most of the weather effects like fog and traction limiting are already in game.

[Banshee-66]

Hey Sarg. I see Jet trails up there.

[121Nilsson]

Aloha!

Did a little test. Made a new skydome and uvmapped it to fit the bf2 skies. :)
And yes, I have and old comp :)

/121Nilsson

[Banshee-66]

Cool! been trying to redo the sky dome as well, but couldn't find a direct X exporter for lightwave 3D until today. lol
My sky textures will look much better, if I use the Sky dome that they are made with.

[121Nilsson]

Aloha!

heh, the ingame pics was with the SKY_d1 pic, saw it now.. doh :)
tested with the bf2 texture now too, but i think they looked like they where to far way couse of the size.

/121Nilsson

[Banshee-66]

The test I did had the texture bunch up around one spot. Must not of did the UV map correctly.

[Hackworth]

Despite the obvious advantages for training, I really don't think implementing weather or lighting is HALF as easy as everyone seems to think it is. It is not just about what a player sees.

I think the effects above are great! They look beautiful. While I am all for a better looking sim for the player, I think it is a mistake to think that changing the look has any material effect to the game.

For instance: TIS was mentioned as a cure for LOS calculations for the AI in night or low-light conditions. Too bad that only 1/3 of the vehicles have a TIS system. How do you affect the other 20+ vehicles that do not have a TIS system? If that AI can still see you as if it were daylight, how is that different?

To have training value, the weather must have realistic effects. Simple limits on LOS don’t work. Changes in traction in heavy rain, or lower sound travel distances in fog or snow, or position fixes in the dark are all factors of weather (or of the complete METT-C picture). I guess the question is prioritizing what factors come first.

I think a first step is to more accurately model the vehicle capabilities themselves. For instance, you don’t have a constantly updated map in an M113. You don’t have a digital battlefield system in a T-72. That digital capability is a true strength for vehicles equipped with such a system. LOS may be different for TIS vs. non-TIS vehicles. Overall situational awareness and detection varies by vehicle type. The problem lies in programming the game to recognize such things. How do you implement an AI that can get lost? Or one that can react to attacks where it cannot determine the origin of the attack?

If you can separate the capabilities, you make it easier to implement the effects of things like lighting and weather on the individual vehicles. But even then it’s no where near as simple as some folks are making it sound.

I totally get what you're saying. But you can shorten the visible distance for the player in the mission editor. I also believe most sce designers are setting the vis at about 3500 on average. Rarely does one place it at max. All I'm saying is if you really want to you can simulate it. What I would prefer would be for eSim to implement the logic and beauty of weather, not an aftermarket party. The AI needs to know it's dark too...

[cobrabase]

Hey Banshee! Any updates on getting us better cooler skies????

[Banshee-66]

Hey Banshee! Any updates on getting us better cooler skies????

Not ignoring ya, just been busy with other things. :-)

[cobrabase]

Any chance you can post some more of your high quality skies like the one in the pictures above????

[Banshee-66]

All textures in this thread have already been released. I released Sky Textures V3 some time ago.
Sky Textures V3 (http://www.steelbeasts.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=831)

[cobrabase]

All textures in this thread have already been released. I released Sky Textures V3 some time ago.
Sky Textures V3 (http://www.steelbeasts.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=831)

Im just slow on the uptake I guess Illini-Boy! 8)

I left school and I must have downloaded your V2 ones. Sorry to start a stink!

I'm native Chicago BTW. :wink:

[Banshee-66]

hehe no problem, no problems, I uploaded them kind of quiet anyway. :-)
Kind of stuck in created new sky textures, if you have an idea let me know.

[cobrabase]

hehe no problem, no problems, I uploaded them kind of quiet anyway. :-)
Kind of stuck in created new sky textures, if you have an idea let me know.

I was talking about this one. It turns out I hav V3.

Is this one on another version?

[Banshee-66]

oh those are not my textures. :-)
The top image belongs to 121Nilsson testing out a new sky dome model. I'm working on one as well but mine stretch the textures. :(
I'll get it working though.

[121Nilsson]

Aloha!

If you wanna test the skydome. You can do it.
http://www.freewebtown.com/121nilsson/sbpro/sbpro_skydome.rar
There it is.

/121Nilsson

[Stratos]

How can I get a clear blu sky in sert theme maps?? They all look grey at the moment. Very ugly!!