Talk:Skybox (video games)

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This article was moved from Skybox because of the prevalence of the term "skybox" for suites at sporting events, and because the Klingon language and Terragen articles link to a company by the name. I apologize to the author for the need to do this. Geogre 18:12, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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In the first Quake, the skybox was animated, there were two blue cloud layers above each other.

Actually Quake had no skybox at all, just two layers of texture overlapping eachother. Unreal didn't have skyboxes, but the more advanced skyrooms which is basically an area in the level where the sky is rendered in. It's possible to do much more than moving clouds (such as moving clouds with lighting, spinning asteroids, even creatures flying) Leileilol 05:50, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I just spent several minutes in Unreal Tournament 2004 playing with the skyroom. I was hoping someone with a bit more knowledge could add a section on skyrooms, and how they work. All I can see is that they take what's in the room, make it huge, and put it around the player. — SheeEttin {T/C} 19:41, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

I saw the editor, they just put a camera on the center of the skyroom, called Sky Zone Info, close to the ground. Some polygons and texture of the playable world, are instructed to show what this sky camera is looking, via Surface Property. Anto —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.15.210.108 (talk) 12:44, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

The principle of a UT "skyroom" (i'm sure all the tutorials I read reffered to it as a skybox) is just the same as a simple skybox or skydome. If something is drawn behind all the other objects, doesn't move when the player moves (but does respond to the player turning) and is appropriately scaled it will appear to be a long distance away. Allowing arbitary objects in the skyroom makes it much easy to produce animated scenes in the sky, what it doesn't do is provide a way to make a background that seemlessly blends with the foreground so to make it look good you have to design your levels so that the transition is hidden behind a cliff or whatever. Plugwash (talk) 22:30, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Citations

This article is in need of citations. However, I don't want to see this article gutted for lack of citations in true Wikipedia style; I'd actually like to see sources added for once. It currently provides interesting and (almost) useful information about skyboxes that I can't find anywhere else. I suppose this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for not gutting it.

I'm especially interested in understanding how HL2's skybox (or skyroom) works for The Citadel. By my basic understanding, it would be impossible to "seamlessly blend" a map object and a skybox object except at one precise distance. Any farther and the skybox object will appear larger. Any closer and the map object will appear larger. Allowing the skybox to "move" a bit only reduces the speed at which the difference in size grows. There has to be more to it, and I imagine the answer would be found in a source for these statements.

If you respect the scale isn't it possible to seamlessly blend? If HL2's skyroom use a 1/16 scale and 1/16 speed the relative worlds are blended. I tried to scale a model to 1/3 and put it at 1/3 as the distance from the camera of the 1:1 model, they look like being the same scale and the same distance. Anto —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.15.210.108 (talk) 13:13, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

I've tried looking for sources, but the problem is that search engines just really aren't good at finding anything. It seems the only way to get knowledge is to already have it, or know someone who does. It is for this reason I consider Wikipedia sources a kind of portal to information. Please, someone who knows about this topic and knows where to find sources, expand and cite.

--99.241.97.241 (talk) 20:12, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

"Newer engines, such as the Source engine, continue on this idea, allowing the skybox to move along with the player, although at a different speed. Because depth is perceived on the compared movement of objects, making the skybox move slower than the level causes the skybox to appear far away, but not infinitely." -- Article

I think this line is incorrect. I believe the way the skybox works the movement of the camera in the skybox is slower than the player but not to give an appearance of depth but because the skybox is being scaled down to 1/16 the normal size of geometry thus the camera moves at 1/16 the speed of the player. There isnt a perceived depth but instead actual depth when the skybox is scaled back up for viewing in the level. This allows objects in the skybox to match up with objects in the real level. A good place to look at this would be in the Counter-Strike:Source map de_dust where palm trees match up perfectly across real level and skybox. Also, source uses two skyboxes, one which is map up of a box and 2d images of a sky, which is added to the 3d skybox (the miniature) which is then added to the level.

For the person asking above, check out the valve developer wiki. http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Making_3D_Skyboxes 70.247.10.107 (talk) 18:32, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

I think this article is a bit misleading - the engine used in Unreal had full support for moving skyboxes as well as "3D skyboxes". This was not something introduced on "newer engines, such as the Source engine". As far as I know, the _game_ Unreal did not make use of either technique but the engine has full support for both. 216.36.188.184 (talk) 10:54, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

The problem is as I understand it with sourcing articles about game design techniques is that most of the documentation on these subjects is in "self published" sources such as wikis, tutorials on gaming sites and the like. You might find a book or two but even then the technical content probablly hasn't had much verification by anyone except the author. Plugwash (talk) 22:37, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

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Skyback

Some 3D games employ a skyback - with rather shoddy results if the skyback is not picked carefully. NAM skyback - sorry for my DOSbox settings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.173.12.68 (talk) 22:23, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 22 May 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved  — Amakuru (talk) 12:37, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

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• Skybox (video games) → Skybox
• Skybox → Skybox (disambiguation)

– This is clearly the primary topic for "skybox" as it has heavy significance within video gaming. The article for "luxury box" in the disambiguation does not even mention the word "skybox". _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 15:15, 22 May 2019 (UTC) --Relisting. Steel1943 (talk) 12:53, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose as WP:NOPRIMARY. Perhaps if you're focused on video games it seems "clearly" primary, but a sports fan would say Luxury box is the "clear" meaning. Unless some more evidence is provided, I don't see a reason to change. -- Netoholic @ 18:35, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

• No sources currently in luxury box mention the word, and its usage in sports is most likely not the "single word" variant but two words - "sky box". Googling "skybox" brings up mostly video game apps and assets._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 19:44, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

• Support. No MOS:DABMENTION of "sky" at luxury box. -- JHunterJ (talk) 15:27, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose. For one thing, the single word "Skybox" is certainly in use for luxury boxes as verified by the OED. In fact, it's more common than "sky box" ([1] vs [2]. Second, and most pressingly, the video game use isn't the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC in terms of use, receiving only a fraction of the total page views for ambiguous topics.[3]--Cúchullain ^t/c 19:09, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

  If that's encyclopedic (and it seems to be), it probably should be added to the article. The usage of the ambiguous titles shows favor for the video game. -- JHunterJ (talk) 12:20, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

I've added it to the article. That link doesn't include all the hits for Luxury box, but even still the video game use is only at 52% of all page views.--Cúchullain ^t/c 14:30, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

The link doesn't include all the hits for Luxury box because not all the hits for luxury box indicate a reader seeking it through "Sky box" (i.e., Skybox (sports)). And 52% is "more than all others combined", right. -- JHunterJ (talk) 13:31, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

IMO, 52% is too close to call, especially as quite a lot of readers will have searched for luxury box with "skybox", the common North American term for it.--Cúchullain ^t/c 16:12, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.