use of cubemap

use of cubemap

Re: use of cubemap Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 2:03pm
Liberal.Nyulism
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Posted 2005-02-21 2:03pm
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I can't quite figure this out:

I have a sewer with winding water in it. It's a series of long hallways. At each 90 degree bend in the hall, is a new water brush for that section of hallway. I have a cube map at one end of the hall.

When you're inside the sewer, the water surface tends to be too bright.

Should I place additional cubemaps to address brushes in each hallway?

(ie: what is the radius of effect of a cubemap?)

Thanks
Re: use of cubemap Posted by $loth on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 2:51pm
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You basically need one for every area, the cubemap AFAIK needs to see
all of the faces which the player can see so you can have many
cubermaps.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by Gwil on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 3:04pm
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Posted 2005-02-21 3:04pm
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$loth has hit the nail on the head, bar one other thing, which I believe is referenced in the manual - for larger surfaces and water, you can tie cubemaps to the reflective surface.

Check the SRC SDK manual (open via the SDK browser or look here http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/ )
Re: use of cubemap Posted by $loth on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 3:21pm
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Look at the de_cbble vmf, it is used at player height and in every area.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by Liberal.Nyulism on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 6:37pm
Liberal.Nyulism
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Posted 2005-02-21 6:37pm
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Thank you.

So, in this long, windy set of hallways, each with it's own water brush, it sounds like I should get have one cubemap per hall segment.

I'll try it and post the results.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by $loth on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 7:20pm
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All at player hieght.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by DrGlass on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 10:26pm
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Posted 2005-02-21 10:26pm
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placing the cube map at player hieght dosn't do much for the texture,
it is more for the gun model. Like lets say there is a light 256
units above the ground, if you were to place a cube map above the light
then as the player walked in it would look like his gun had a light
under it.

There is a great command that will replace your gun model with three
shperes that test shaders, any one know what that command is?
Re: use of cubemap Posted by Myrk- on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 10:28pm
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Posted 2005-02-21 10:28pm
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Cubemaps are such an ancient tool, I dunno why they encoded them into HL2, they could have done something decent- i.e. 5 year old technology from Unreal Tournament or U2.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by satchmo on Mon Feb 21st 2005 at 10:51pm
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Posted 2005-02-21 10:51pm
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There is a great command that will replace your gun model with three shperes that test shaders, any one know what that command is?
...from Source SDK

Cubemaps are best tested by using the ?impulse 81? console command. This replaces the current weapon model with a set of spheres, each with different reflective surfaces. By moving around the level it is possible to see what cubemap is being applied at that position in space at any given time, as well as if that cubemap accurately describes the area?s lighting and color. This is the best way to assess the validity of your cubemaps.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by DrGlass on Tue Feb 22nd 2005 at 11:36am
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Posted 2005-02-22 11:36am
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blush hehe that will teach me.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by $loth on Tue Feb 22nd 2005 at 11:38am
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Posted 2005-02-22 11:38am
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I don't think that impulse 81 works in CSS, I tried yesterday and nothing happened.
Re: use of cubemap Posted by Myrk- on Tue Feb 22nd 2005 at 12:07pm
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Posted 2005-02-22 12:07pm
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In sv_lan 1 mode with cheats enabled?
Re: use of cubemap Posted by $loth on Tue Feb 22nd 2005 at 12:26pm
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Posted 2005-02-22 12:26pm
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I had sv_cheats set to one, but not sv_lan, will try that when I get back.