Custom skybox not working? Created 6 years ago2017-08-15 16:57:02 UTC by NintyFan290 NintyFan290

Created 6 years ago2017-08-15 16:57:02 UTC by NintyFan290 NintyFan290

Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 16:57:02 UTC Post #336884
So I need to make a custom skybox for a mod I'm working on. Apparently you're supposed to use something called Terragen but it's way too complicated for me and the tutorials I read were for a much older version so they were no help. So I went the silly route and pasted the textures I wanted for the sky into MS Paint and saved them in HL/valve/gfx as 256x256 bitmaps and then saved them again as .tga files (before anyone asks, yes I did all the required angles: bk, rt, fr, etc.). Then I went to hammer and made a cube, textured it with "sky", hollowed it and created a platform. Then I went into map properties and put "ice" (the prefix for all my textures) in the sky section. But when I load the map in HL, the sky is one of the desert ones. Could somebody please tell what I'm missing/doing wrong?
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 17:25:52 UTC Post #336885
You don't have to use Terragen for making skyboxes, any tool like Photoshop will suffice, as long as it supports exporting compressed .bmp and .tga files.

Don't forget the naming conventions and where your textures go. Also don't forget to set the name in worldspawn.
<mod directory>\gfx\env\<skyname><suffix>.bmp/.tga
Names go like <skyname>lf for example. You can do: lf, rt, up, dn, bk, ft. Left, right, up, down, back, and front; respectively.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 17:43:04 UTC Post #336886
I have already done all that.
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 17:52:42 UTC Post #336887
Check the console for errors, it should print something like "R_LoadSkys: Couldn't load icert.bmp" or "LoadTGA: Only type 2 and 10 targa RGB images supported" if it fails to load.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 17:58:56 UTC Post #336888
Yep it came up with both of those. Is there any way to fix them?
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 18:14:45 UTC Post #336889
So I went the silly route and pasted the textures I wanted for the sky into MS Paint and saved them in HL/valve/gfx
They should be in gfx/env.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 18:16:57 UTC Post #336890
Woops, yeah I already did that, I just forgot to mention it.
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 18:21:56 UTC Post #336891
The TGA file needs to be either an "uncompressed true-color image (2)" or a "run-length encoded true-color image (10)". You'll need to make sure that they're saved with either encoding.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 18:31:25 UTC Post #336892
I use paint.net for .tga's. How do I change the encoding or is it automatically chosen when I save as .tga?
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 19:07:42 UTC Post #336893
I've never used paint.net myself, but when i use GIMP to export as TGA i get the option to use RLE compression. Check if that's an option, otherwise you may have to use GIMP instead.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 19:42:25 UTC Post #336894
I exported them all twice using GIMP with RLE compression but the error still shows up in console.
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 19:42:57 UTC Post #336895
And the skybox is still a desert.
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 19:49:50 UTC Post #336897
Can you give us a link to download your skybox files?

Maybe that could help.
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 19:59:23 UTC Post #336898
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-15 20:06:01 UTC Post #336899
Probably could of just used something like mediafire but too late now I guess...
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-16 02:10:14 UTC Post #336905
You saved the TGA's as 8bit; skybox TGA's are supposed to be 24bit full color. Also im pretty sure you don't use RLE compression.

As a test i resaved the TGA's to 24bit but the order you have the sides in are wrong.
User posted image
I have a guide with 5 different methods of Custom skybox creation. You can substitute GIMP out for the photoshop bits and i use irfanview which is free
http://www.the303.org/tutorials/gold_texture_p8.htm
Posted 6 years ago2017-08-16 07:35:06 UTC Post #336907
Ah, thank you. I will try that guide later.
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Posted 6 years ago2017-08-16 10:03:56 UTC Post #336908
!t works! Thank you!
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