Animated Sky Box???

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darktoad

New Member
Aug 25, 2000
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I'm building a map, in which the sky box's bitmap needs to be animated. I'd like to have a moving sky, as I've seen in several examples, but there are other more complex elements to my map that also need animation(preferably to be animated through code)

I'm building a version of the Roman Colosseum and to truly re-create the architecture, I'm building the stands as a sky box. I'm making a crowd(as bitmaps) in the stands, and I need to control the crowds animations through code(to react to the players in the pit)...anyone have any ideas?
 
NVerxion

NVerxion

Ethereal
Sep 9, 2000
217
0
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Orlando, FL
That sounds like a cool idea, but you are going to have to watch out for high poly counts. Also it might look a little wierd from certain angles within the playing field. The fact that these surfaces would be animated eats up even more cpu power. If you were going to try it I'd use the least amount of surfaces as possible.

As for the crowd, I'm not sure about that.
If you want panning textures, such as clouds, just create a sheet in the skybox and give it the cloud texture you want, then select the surface and right-click on it to bring up the properties. Give it the U-Pan and/or V-Pan attributes. To make the texture pan faster or slower, in the SkyZoneInfo properties/ZoneLight, play around with the panning speeds until you get what you want (use the real-time mode to watch the movement).
 
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darktoad

New Member
Aug 25, 2000
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Yeah, I'm aware that the poly count could be very high, which is why I'm making the majority of the highly detailed areas, beyond the player's reach...in the stands...and completely faked with a well-made graphic.

The combat area will be a fairly simple oval shape with a handful of arch ways(6 maybe). The ground will be mostly simple flat ground, with staging platforms(5 of these) that can rise up from below to reveal the combatants. Additionally, there will be 4-6 pillars for the players to use for potential cover. The only other detail, will be the empirial box that presides over one part of the stadium(where ideally we'll see the emperor and his advisors).

If I can't get the stands to be controlled via code, is there a way to have an animated texture(ie flip through keyframes) on a brush?

Also is there a way to have dynamic sound and audio that can be triggered though special events in a map?
 
TaoPaiPai

TaoPaiPai

Commisaire Van Loc
Jun 13, 2000
1,626
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Matnik
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I don't think it's a good idea to make the stands in a skybox because the geometry will appear very strange.

Anyway if you want to do it that way,you could paint or digitalize the crowd as a masked texture.make it as a triggerable animated texture (I can't remember precisely how to do this,just browse the tutorials) and trigger the crowd at some times.The only problem is that you won't be able to make the crowd react to the players action unless you use Uscript.

Making the colosseum is a difficult project.Many people have tried and the main problem is with high polycount.
If you want me to give you an advice you should do an extensive use of masked sheets to mimics basic elements of geometry (like columns,etc...) when they are far and unreachable.
 
Kray

Kray

Time chaser
Sep 17, 2000
2,239
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36
Fool's Paradise
utgallery.tripod.com
Surprisingly, there are not that many UT maps available with roman themes. Quite a shame really coz I kinda like roman-based maps. The only one that I've found so far is DM-Pride'nGlory.

So, darktoad, let me know when your map is ready. :)
 
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Phragmites

New Member
Apr 26, 2000
262
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the wilds of Hampshire, England
www.blitzen.demon.co.uk
my map is 'medieval tuscan', rather than roman (how pretentious is that - no, dont answer).

darktoad, if youre after crowd cheering etc being triggered, you can use a special event to do that, but of course it would depend on the trigger being 'triggered' by a player or weapon fire, so it might not make much sense during a fight. mind you, if its a busy arena, nobody would notice how the cheering was triggered.
 
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darktoad

New Member
Aug 25, 2000
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The crowd could have a continuous loop of cheering at a certain level, then I'd program a new trigger that makes the crowd cresendo into a roar when a player's taunts, sustains serious injuries, and if a player is killed.

As for whether the sky box would look strange...I'd rather have it look strange and work, than look great and bring people's machines to their knees.

The feedback here is great. Any good mapping sites that show some of this stuff in action would be most welcome.

Thanks folks!
 
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Fuzzpilz

klkk
Jun 28, 2000
984
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:noitacoL
I think there aren't many Roman maps because there aren't any Roman-like textures in the default packages, and very few people want to do their own textures.
I hope you'll do some good ones.
 
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