Skyboxes Tutorial

What you will need

- Terragen
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/wi … dwin.shtml
- Terragen render script
- Blender 2.56

Using Terragen

First part of the tutorial is taken from :
http://forums.virgal.net/faq-creation-m … rragen.htm

However it's in french so im gonna translate (if we can call this a translation =p)

1) Launch terragen -> customise & generate your terrain -> use the preview button
2) In the rendering window :
- Uncheck "Fixed height above surface"
- Pick the best possible quality
- Choose 512*512 as image size

3) Open Notepad, copy/paste the script and save it as skyboxscript.tgs

4) In terragen, click on terragen menu at the top, then "Execute script" -> select your skyboxscript.tgs
5) Once rendering is complete, open the path where you saved, and here are your 6 BMP files -> you can convert them as JPG if you want
6) Ur done!

NOTE: Take a look at the script,
Below each camera rotations there is a

;_ft (= Front)
;_lf (= Left)
;_up (= Up)
;_bk (= Back)
;_rt (= Right)
;_dn (= Down)

This is the order of your rendered images
so when you done rendering, rename them using these names so you know
what your images are.

Using Blender

If you want a little shortcut, here's a .blend file with a prepared box:
(Including Skybox.blend1 and Skybox.blend2 i dont know if they are needed to start Skybox.blend)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19970067/Blender/Skybox.rar

Or if it works just with just skybox.blend file :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19970067/Blender/Skybox.blend

And as example the 6 images i used for this tuto (2.577ko) :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19970067/Skyboxes/Images.rar

What i did there :
- Splitted all 6 cube faces
- Unwraped them
- Applied a material on each face, Set material "Emit" at (1.11). (thanks anael)
- Applied texture & bind UV coordinates (you just have to open your images now)
- Named faces, materials and textures UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, FRONT, BACK
- Moved each face by 0.004 / -0.004 on the correct x/y/z so the edges of the cube aren't visible
(there was a very small space at each cube edge that was visible, so like this its ok) 

From here you have to:

- Load a texture on each cube face
- Set texture for each face on UV map window (Edit mode)

- Change viewport to "Textured" (its hard to select faces when you are in texture viewport with no texture applied)
- Once all faces are textured, select face one by one and apply on each of them :
1) In Object mode -> Select a face
2) Press TAB to enter Edit mode -> in Tool shelt, under "normals" tab, press "Flip direction"
(Texture will be displayed inside of the cube instead of outside)
(In the UV menu (EDIT MODE only) use UV -> Mirror -> X Axis or Y axis if the texture isn't displayed correctly)
3) Press TAB again (to go back in Objet mode) and repeat the 1-2 steps for each cube face
- Once it's done, press "A" (select all) then export as maratis mesh (you dont have to join faces)

This is how it must look when ur done :
Outside box

Inside box

In maratis

I'm not saying that's the best way to make a skybox but it worked for me and that was quite fast & easy,
so it should work for you too.
And take note you can change settings in Terragen to make completely differents atmospheres

If you find this tuto not clear enough / possible error / better way to do it / way to improve,  just tell !

And thanks anael for showing me the way !

Results :

NOTE: in maratis, try changing the camera FOV and see the results

Last edited by Vegas (2011-03-09 14:00:52)