What's a skybox exactly? And why does it have to be a 3DO? Couldn't I have the skybox textures on a wall?

Also, all the Wadfather skyboxes are formats for other games, and I need a Fileplanet account, I tried using bugmenot, it doesn't work.

I never liked using Sky Boxes myself, but I think I know enough about them to [slightly] enlighten you!

First off, skyboxes do not have to be 3dos. They can be, but sectors work just as well, especially if you used HellCat's terrain generator, and just made the level a giant ground 3do.

If you want a sample skybox, one's available on Massassi over here - http://files.massassi.net/misc/skybox_prefab.zip Detty made it a few years back, and it should include the instructions necessary to use. If you want some textures that are already in .mat format, Cave_Demon has a pack of landscape backdrops here on Massassi as well - http://files.massassi.net/mats/skyboxes1.zip

I hope that helped a little bit.

Thanks for the textures. But if I want to use this skybox, and my level's already built, how can I insert this skybox into my level?

Do I have to start back my level?

This is where my level of expertise diminishes. Again, I've never been a huge fan of SkyBoxes for JK, since the sky flag does the job pretty well for me.

I do have a few ideas in mind, but it would depend a lot on your level, the complexity and type of architecture you use. If your level is under 100 KBs, perhaps you could upload it here as an attachment, or maybe email it to me. You could even put it on the JK Hub, if you have a project page set up.

My email is [URL=wondermog@direcway.com]here[/URL]. I'm pretty busy lately, but I'll try to have a look at it!

In case you're wondering how to make the actual skybox textures, you should download http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

Well, actually, I didn't finish my level. I just started, and it's already 3000 KBs (That's another point I would like to fix. ). I have a project page, but didn't upload my level yet, as it is in early stage. I'll think I'll put my level on the Hub, as the e-mailing might not work. Thanks again.



Thanks. That will help me.

Know that JED gobs up everything that lies in your project directory. So, if you got a 600MB divx in there, your level will be 600+MB. The only two things that can make a level's filesize big (aside from unnecessary stuf in the gob) are custom sounds and textures.

Well, I do have other stuff in my project directory (3DO's JED files, mats and the actual 3DO's.) Also, my level's just custom textures. Is it normal if a texture is 161 KB's big? A lot of my textures are 129-161 KB's big.

Nah, that's a normal size for them. Maybe even smaller than most.

He's right. Not much you can do about the size then. Just make sure you remove everything unneeded (even .jed files) before the final gob.

Or you can just go to F12 3D preview, select options, click the misc options tab, and tick the checkbox labeled as "Smart GOBbing". This will make it so that jed only includes files used by your level in the GOB, and leaves out all of the unecessary stuff!

Woah dude!
Daft Vader, my level editing life would've been (and will be) so much easier now that you gave me that tip. (I would manually have to look and search for the textures that I wasn't using in my level if there were extra)

Thanks Daft_Vader. My level's size dropped from 3500 KBs to 2000 KBs.

My city level is inclosed in a sky box.

I should've made it bigger. But what I did, was made a box 256x256x256, applied the textures I had (which were 256x256)

Then I selected the sector, and scaled it too what I thought was large enough. My mistake was I did this after I already strated the level. So it's good to start with a skybox. And make sure it's really big. I can show you a wireframe if you'd like to see what it looks like.

Yes, I would like to see the wireframe please.

I just don't get how can you include the skybox sectors when the level's already started... Xzero used a skybox 3DO, set th GEO to 0 on the outer walls, and used a flicker cog so that the skybox doesn't disappear. Is this a good method?

Finally XZero explained his method with the 3DO skybox and the filcker cog to me. It works just fine. Thanks all.