I was going to send this to massassi to put in the tutorial spot but I couldn't find anywhere to upload the zip needed, so I just posted it here

Xzero's 3d Skies Tutorial.


(This tutorial was made in assumtion that you know basic or advanced JED skills sutch as cleaving, resizing, scaling, adding templates and similar things.)

First start by Downloading the attachement at the bottom of this page.

Just to tell you what these files are, the clouds.3do is the 3do for the clouds (Obviously). The sun.3do is the 3do for the sun, and the skybox prefab is the blue that comes up in the back of the area. The mats are obviously just that, mats. You can modify them if you want as well, but it doesn't matter. What you have here is pretty decent.

Ok. Now we start. Extract the clouds.3do and the sun.3do to your 3do directory (Assuming you have a level ready to be used.)

Extract the mat files to your mat directory. Also, extract the skybox prefab (prefab.jed) into your projec directory.

Now, open the prefab in JED, multiselect it all, and copy it. Open your level and paste the prefab into it.

Once it's inside, you'll need to do some things. The small box in the middle of the prefab, is where your level will be located. Make sure the box is the size of the level (So that you can cleave the wall to the outside so you can see the skybox.)

Once you've played around, cleaved the walls and whatever else you needed to do to see the outside, go to your master.tpl (You can use the thing editor if you know what you're doing), and add these two templates to the bottom of the tpl file.

# DESC:

# BBOX: -34.080002 -34.07 -13.19 34.07 34.080002 13.21

CloudLayer _ghoststructure orient=(0.000000/0.000000/0.000000) type=cog move=physics model3d=Cloudlayer.3DO size=35.291348 movesize=35.291348 physflags=0x200 maxrotvel=3.000000 angvel=(0.000000/3.000000/0.000000)

# DESC:

# BBOX: -4 -4 0 4 4 0

Sun _ghoststructure size=5.656854 movesize=5.656854 model3d=Sun.3DO

Once you have those two templates in the tpl file, you will need to get them in game and positioned properly.

To do this, just add the things like you would normally, but make sure the cloud layers center is in the top box of the skybox (Right on top of the level.) Make sure it's right on top of the level, but not way at the top of the box. Also, make sure the cloud 3do is completely inside of the prefab (Make sure there is a big enaugh space around it too, it will rotate.)

Now, add the sun. Place it BEHIND the cloud 3do. Edit the x/y/z/pch/yaw/rol so that the thing is looking at the level. This way, when you look at the sun, you will see it and it will look round, not flat or anything stupid like that.

Now test your level and enjoy!


This is what I got the first time I did it:





You can also download the level and check out the sky effect for yourself.
Dead Cell


Note that the sun's blue color (in back of it) must match the sky color by 100%.

-Xzero

Special thanks to:

HellRaiser/PhantomCoder - Cloud 3do base

Shred - Cloud 3do base

DeTRiTiC-iQ - Skybox prefab

Im lazy and require pictures before I download anything.

I added some images.