3D Skybox

I know there have been numerous discussion on troubleshooting 3D skybox
already, but I didn't see anyone having the same problem as I do.

After carefully reading through Lep's excellent 3D skybox tutorial, I
attempted to make one. Everything turned out, but the models
appear very small (as if they're not scaled 16 times). I
double-checked the sky_camera entity to make sure that scale is set to
16.

In addition, these models in the skybox appear very distant. I
placed them very close to the perimeter of the actual map, but they
still look small and far away to me. Any clues on what's wrong?

I'll try to make a simple skybox on a boxmap to see whether I can debug it myself. Thanks in advance.

Are you making sure to take all of the brushes that are to be included in the 3Dskybox and putting them into their own skybox? That is, not just leaving them out in the middle of no where.

Also, are you including the sky_camera inside of the 3Dskybox, instead of leaving it in your regular world skybox?

I think the models look better when the sky is scaled down to an 8th
(just my opinion). Try having a refernce brush of where you want the
building when you sacle down everything, this way when its scaled down
you can just place the model in according to your reference brush.

The problem might be with your choice of models rather than you doing something wrong...

I think Lep is correct. I'll have to experiment with regular brushes later on tonight instead of using all models.

And yes, I have the sky_camera entity in the 3D skybox. And I also enclosed the 3D skybox in a sealed box with skytool texture. Thanks for the suggestions.

Oh, and a related question. Is it better performance-wise to have the floor of the 3D skybox textured as "nodraw"?

Actually, I figured out the problem today. It wasn't the models'
fault. I was spacing the placements of objects in my skybox too
far apart, forgetting to take the 16 times expansion of distance in addition to the size of each objects.

Now everything looks correct. Thanks for everyone's help.