[Tutorial] How To Add A Skybox To Your Map

How To Add A Skybox To Your Map

So you have come to the point where you want to add a skybox to your map. Don’t worry, its extremely easy in Pacific Assault. No more worrying about how well your brushes fit together or if they interfere with one another. Forget what you know about MOH skyboxes and let’s talk about what it takes in Pacific Assault to add a skybox.

To add a skybox it’s as simple as adding a key/value pair to your worldspawn brush. There are a few “tricks” though that we will go over so that you can add a skybox to your map and have it look as good as the game designers. This tutorial will not cover areas of map creation that may involve preexisting radiant knowledge, however, if I cover something that makes you say “What?”, I will cover it mostly likely in a future tutorial. Now let’s add a skybox to our map.

Open the MDK version 1.1 and then open the “Configure Mod” feature.

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure1_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure1_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

Now within the “Configure Mod” feature we want to make sure our mod is “enabled” and is the “current mod”. To enable your mod simply highlight it and click “enable”. Once enabled click on “set current mod” and select your mod from the list within the new window that appears. That completes our use of the “Configure Mod” feature so click “OK” to close it.

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure2_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure2_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

We will now want to edit our .map file in the “Map Editor”. Open the “Map Editor” feature and click “OK” within the status window that pops up stating the mod in which you are about to edit.

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure3_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure3_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

Once the “Map Editor” (Radiant) loads, click “N” to close the entity window. Next, click “File” from the drop down menu and then select “Open Map”. A dialog window will appear in which you can select your .map file. Once the .map file is selected click “Open”.

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure4_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Compiling%20and%20Testing/Figure4_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

After your .map file loads, click “N” once again to close the entity window. Then, locate your worldspawn brush. Without getting to far off track a worldspawn brush is simply an untextured brush under your map that worldspawn values can be “attached” to. Once located hold “shift” and then click on the brush with your cursor to highlight it. With it hightlighted hit “N” to bring up the entity window which is where we will input key/value pairs. There are two key/value pairs you need to input for any skybox that you add to a map. One is for the skybox model and the other is for the farplane color. If you do not add a farplane color Pacific Assault will by default make it a weird blue color.

So for our example, I am going to use the Gavutu skybox in my map. My two key/value pairs would be as follows:

•Key: sky_model, Value: models/SkyBoxes/gavutu_skybox1.gr2
•Key: farplane_color, Value: 119 118 119

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Adding%20Skybox/Figure5_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Adding%20Skybox/Figure5_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

Once you have your two key/value pairs entered, close the entity window by hitting “N” again and save your map file. See I told you it was very easy. You just need to be aware of a few tricks in order to get it to look great.

Now you may ask, “How do I know what farplane color to use?”. Well, that is based off of the skybox model you want to use. You can open a levels bsp file in a text editor and see what farplane color was used for the skybox model used. I will not do all the work for you but here are the MP skyboxes with the farplane color that should be used:

•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/airfield_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 24 24 33
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/bataan_skybox.gr2, farplane_color: 124 111 105
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/bougainville_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 104 124 126
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/bridge_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 49 45 51
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/gifu_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 85 91 97
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/matanikua_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 102 117 143
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/wake_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 24 24 33
•sky_model: models/SkyBoxes/gavutu_skybox1.gr2, farplane_color: 119 118 119

<a href="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Adding%20Skybox/Figure6_1.jpg"><img src="http://www.modtheater.com/Tutorial%20Images/Adding%20Skybox/Figure6_1_thumb.jpg" border="0"></a>
Image(s) edited for clarity

If you have any questions concerning adding a skybox simply post within this forum or contact me at GeneralDeath@modtheater.com.

Important Note:
Please do not link to the pictures within this tutorial. If you want to copy this tutorial for your website, download the images to your host and simply give credit as follow:

Author: General Death
Site: www.modtheater.com