Creating Advanced Skies

In this lesson we are going to explore creating advanced skyboxes. A single layered skybox is just fine and dandy, but adding multiple layers can give your map that extra push towards professionalism. This lesson assume's you know how to create a simple skybox. If you do not know how to create a skybox, I suggest reading our Creating Skies tutorial. 

In this lesson we will learn:

How to use a transparent sheets to create multiple layers.

How to use masked decorations.

First we are going to load our original skymap. This will be our base map. All of the editing in this tutorial will take place inside our skybox room. Select the ceiling of our skybox. We are going to deselect the U and V Panning options for our ceiling. Next we are going to load the GenFluid.utx texture set. Select one of the NGHSKY textures. We want our sky to appear as space. I suggest NGHSKY2 or NGHSKY3. 

Next create a sheet. Set the U and V sizes to be equal to that of our skybox(512 x 512 if you followed our tutorial to a t). Drag this sheet so that it is aligned with our room, but a bit below our ceiling. If you are using Snap to Grid(default) then snap down two locations. We need to leave a little room for our decoration that we will create shortly. Select a cloudy texture for this brush. I used the clouds from SkyBox.utx myself. 

Click on Add Special Brush. Select Masked Decoration. Set it's properties to 2-Sided, Masked, and Non-Solid, and Transparent. Now enter the Surface Properties->Effects menu and select either U or V(or both) Panning according to your preferences.

We are now ready to add our planet. Create a 128 x 128 sheet. Select a sun, moon, or planet brush. I used RPL from skybox.utx. We will place this brush somewhat to the side of our sky, and in between the cloud and star brushes. Click on Add Special Brush. We will use the same settings as we did for our cloud texture, with the exception of Transparent, which we will deselect.

You may wish to tinker with the lighting a bit to meet your preferences. Rebuild geometry and run your map. Using these techniques we can create a variety of different sky effects. The sky is the limit. Enjoy!

