Skybox Corner Gap

[Legacy_Guest_Chrysoli_*]

               We have a number of areas in our mod where the player can end up pretty high (on the area's z-axis) - either by being on the top of a tall tower or climbing a towering mountain.

Beyond a certain height (not sure what that threshold is), skyboxes exhibit a gap in the corners. Does anyone know of a way to adapt or create a skybox that closes up this gap?

Here's what is seen in-game by a player:

 
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               I'd also be interested in knowing the answer to this. And what tileset is that?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Guest_Chrysoli_*]

               That's the Rocky Mountains set:
http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=7749

I think about everyone and their cousin have worked on this over the years. The version we use is also pretty heavily modified.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               You might want to look over this thread for some more information on the issue.  From skimming it I wasn't sure there was ever a resolution so you might want to PM Andarian.

I am just guessing but I think it looks like a rendering issue to me.  IIRC, NWN does fog with two separate vertex programs- little programs that run directly on your video card.  The first one draws the fog itself and the second one appropriately fogs objects which intersect with the fog.  Because of the distance it could be that the values are falling outside of what the engine can/will calculate and so it punts, leaving a hole like that.

For anyone reading who would like to understand more how NWN does things graphically under the hood, the ShaderEdit plugin for GLIntercept is a good start.  You can change the shaders NWN uses on the fly and snoop how a NWN effect actually translates into OpenGL calls.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rubies]

               
I think the thread OTR posted makes my attempt unlikely to work, but can you try this and tell me if it addresses this issue? I'd really recommend NOT putting these in haks or updates (so just throw them in the Override, if possible) because they're not UVMapped correctly - I don't have that tileset to verify if this fixes it to test it myself.

http://dl.dropbox.co...530379/DSky.zip


Nevermind!
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rubies, 26 février 2012 - 07:36 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Guest_Chrysoli_*]

               Thanks OTR - that's exactly what I needed to read. Before I posted, I searched these forums for *skybox* and the search returned 3 hits - but not that thread. In general, I seem to get very few returns on any searches I do on these forums. Maybe I better figure out what I am doing wrong with the search engine before posting again.

Sorry for asking something that's already been discussed pretty thoroughly, I should have been able to find that info myself.

Thanks again.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <chiming in...>

The google search "site:social.bioware.com skybox hole" turns up 361 results with that one on top. Just "site:social.bioware.com skybox" turned up 10,000+

How do you search?

As far as asking something already discussed, if you hadn't I would probably not have found this discussion myself :-) When something's been fallow for a while, sometimes it helps to give it a good bump =)

<...with random noise>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <edging back...>

After reading that thread (a good one, OTR :-), I'm inclined to think the "hole" is interference with geometry reserved for edge tiles.
As the problem is fixed by scaling the skybox a bit larger (Six's solution), it's obviously interference with *something*.
As that something is *beyond* the laid tiles of the area, I'm thinking it must have something to do with the edge-tile rendering system.
If so, then the problem might disappear or reappear depending on the edge-tiles for a given tileset, making it that much harder to diagnose.

The good news, of course, is that there is a fix :-)

Edit: Is anyone active on the CSP?

<...into view>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 26 février 2012 - 08:43 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               @Chrysoli - No need to be sorry, the search function on this website is mostly useless.  The method Rolo suggested, using Google, is the way to go IMO.  It was also my preferred method on the old site, too.  Besides, if people stop asking questions the forum turns into a mausoleum and that would be awful.

@Rolo - Interesting idea about the edge tiles.  Did you check out the video Andarian had posted?  I found it easier to view by saving it then viewing it, FWIW.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <needing a few extra...>

No, actually. 1) I was doing some intense Gimping and had no memory to spare for just about anything but watching the board. And 2) my version of VLC won't play it. Get some interleaved garbage on the screen. Didn't think there was anything VLC wouldn't play...

D/ling WMP now to try that.

<...gigs, cuz he's not busy enough>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 26 février 2012 - 09:28 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <stroking his beard...>

Interesting. The invisible corner poking through the skybox is obviously far beyond the edge tiles, yet, it *is*, to my eye, lined up with that corner. So I stand by my opinion. I think it is *something* to do with the edge-tile rendering.

<...to get all the crumbs out>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Failed.Bard]

               Don't edge tiles render outwards from each side, generally duplicating the existing tile ad nauseum?  It would stand to reason if they do just use that method there'd be holes along the diagonals from certain distances, as that filled area would have to be calculated in some manner.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               If anyone would be kind enough to do some skybox fixes it would be immensely useful. Many of the skyboxes that feature a space scene and galaxy scene or other styles you'd use with the player suspended in the air have this problem and it really hurts the game immersion.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jenna WSI, 27 février 2012 - 05:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Guest_Chrysoli_*]

               Jenna, what worked for me was I took the TROD skyboxes into gmax and scaled then to 115%. That fixed my problem - no more corner holes. Is this something you can try with the skyboxes that are showing this problem for you?

If you need the bigger TROD skyboxes, I'd be happy to zip them up and upload them for you.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Fester Pot]

               But how can we go about fixing our skyboxes without using Gmax? Is it a simple text edit?

FP!