30 réponses à ce sujet

[_six]

Actually, on taking a closer look at your screenshots I'm inclined to agree with that, Andarian. It seems that the skybox may actually be disappearing beyond the limits of what NWN will render, in which case it should indeed be made smaller. Although it's puzzling why such clipping would happen on the corners specifically - perhaps NWN renders the skybox by distance from the closest area edge as opposed to distance from the player. 

Oh, and to answer a point invisig0th noted, I'd indeed be happy to have a mess around with the model if you're unable to come up with a solution yourself.

Modifié par _six, 04 décembre 2010 - 10:18 .

[AndarianTD]

AndarianTD wrote...

_six wrote...

Surely the simplest solution would just be to make the skybox bigger? Maybe 105% or so using NWMax's built in scaling tool.

Actually, after some more tests I think the solution may well be to make the skybox cylinder tighter and/or lower.

Well, that'll learn me not to argue with the master. It turns out that six's suggestion was right on the mark. Shrinking the skybox made it worse, and scaling it up by 105% fixed it perfectly.

It's as though there's some kind of virtual box-shaped space around the area, and any skybox geometry that falls within it is getting cut out. Geometrically, the corners are the parts that would fall furthest from the skybox center, and it looks like they were poking slightly through it. The holes look like they were shaped correctly for that explanation, too, and expanding the skybox a bit corrected it.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, and especially to six for nailing the solution so exactly!

Modifié par AndarianTD, 05 décembre 2010 - 04:15 .

[AndarianTD]

Pstemarie wrote...

Try lowering the cylinder - maybe so that the very bottom of the second line - where it no longer angles - rests at z -0-.

I've been messing around a bit more with customizing skyboxes, since they'll be critical to get just right for some areas on my upcoming modules. For a different modification I actually have need to do what Pstemarie suggested above. I tried to do this using the "select and move" tool, which seems to work, but for some reason it seems to be getting lost when I export the model. When I re-import it, the cylinder is back where it started. If I save and re-load it as a gmax file, the edit sticks.

Is there something about this process that I don't understand, like something special about how the nwn format identifies the origin of the model coordinate system?

Thanks in advance for any help - Andarian

EDIT: OK, I think I've finally figured this out. I was assuming there'd be a single coordinate system reference point for the whole model that I could just move, but it turns out (at least for this model) that's not the case. I had to find the two high level objects corresponding to each half of the cylinder and move them individually. Selecting the entire model and trying to move it as a whole doesn't seem to work.

Modifié par AndarianTD, 09 décembre 2010 - 10:55 .

[Michael DarkAngel]

AndarianTD wrote...
Is there something about this process that I don't understand, like something special about how the nwn format identifies the origin of the model coordinate system?

Create a dummy at 0,0,0.  Link anything you want to move to the dummy.  Select the dummy, move as desired.  Re-link your moved objects to the original modelbase.  Delete the dummy.  Select the modelbase and all its children, under the "Mesh Tools" rollout click on the "ResetXForm" button.

This will, in effect, "bake" your new positions.


  MDA

[AndarianTD]

Michael DarkAngel wrote...

Create a dummy at 0,0,0.  Link anything you want to move to the dummy.  Select the dummy, move as desired.  Re-link your moved objects to the original modelbase.  Delete the dummy.  Select the modelbase and all its children, under the "Mesh Tools" rollout click on the "ResetXForm" button.

This will, in effect, "bake" your new positions.

Michael, thanks. Please bear with my very fragile grasp of how to use gmax. For example, I don't know how to "link" objects in the UI, although I think I understand the concept (I presume it's to make it a subnode in the scene graph with a fixed local coordinate system offset). Is that done by creating a compound object?

In any event what I was trying to do is to reuse the (fixed up) sort-of cylindrical TROD_Vale skybox model from earlier in the thread for several other skyboxes that have "square" models, which is causing noticeable distortion in the corners of the area. The most important one for me right now is grass_clear, which uses sky*_001.mdl in the hotu patch data. Unfortunately, what I'm discovering is that TROD_Vale is actually two beveled hemi-cylinders placed together. This is creating two rather noticeable "seams" in the sky, and they get worse the more I play around with moving the hemi-cylinders to get the proper look for the area. It's obvious to me that what I really need is either a hemi-sphere, or more likely a beveled cylinder, that's all in once piece to get rid of the seams. (The square model for sky*_001 is in one piece, but the number of sides is just too few to avoid some serious distortion.)

It sounds like your solution would be better at keeping the existing positioning between the hemi-cylinders intact, but I can't help thinking that what I really ought to do is just re-build the model. Do you (or does anyone else who may have played around with skyboxes a bit) have any advice, or know of a suitable model that I might use instead of building one from scratch?

EDIT: I'm checking the CSP for prospects, some of which look promising at first glance.

Modifié par AndarianTD, 10 décembre 2010 - 12:58 .

[Michael DarkAngel]

AndarianTD wrote...
Michael, thanks. Please bear with my very fragile grasp of how to use gmax. For example, I don't know how to "link" objects in the UI, although I think I understand the concept (I presume it's to make it a subnode in the scene graph with a fixed local coordinate system offset). Is that done by creating a compound object?

Select the objects you wish to link to something.  In the top menu bar press the "Select and Link" button



Press the "h" button on your keyboard to bring up the "Select Parent" dialogue window



Select the object you wish to link to, press the "Link" button.

To exit linking press the "Select Object" button



Done


  MDA