Re: [CsMain] skybox

[<or...@vp...>]

timtos wrote:
> If I understand that right today map2cs creates a cs_skysector
> and one has to manually set a portal to this sector to get the skybox 
> around a given sector.
> Did I understand that right?
Yes. A skybox is nothing more, than a huge box around your map (at 
around 800 units (meters) from origin). It consists of 6 polygons, and 
it belongs to the cs_skysector sector. Wherever you wish to see the sky, 
you need to set a portal to the cs_skysector.
In Valve, you need to convert the wall, through which you want see the 
sky, to an entity (ToEntity button), and add the "sky" key with a value 
of 1 to it (Properties->[no SmartEdit]->Add). map2cs will make a portal 
of it.
Also, map2cs will make a bit of UV mapping for the sky, to correct the 
error of seeing the corners of the box.

> I have a cs_skysector and a sector called room. Around that room I want 
> to put the cs_skysector created by map2cs.
This case, you need to convert the walls to entities with the "sky" key 
(see above).

A bit about sectors: a sector is a collection of geometry (as far as I 
understand) and when you are inside a sector, you can only see, what 
belongs to that sector. So if you stand in your room sector, you won't 
see the sky, because it belongs to another sector. That's why portals 
are needed. You can set portals to look at any sector. So, where you 
wish to see the sky directly, just set that polygon to a portal to the 
sky sector.
MANY, MANY tricks can be done with portals, but I haven't found any 
editor, which had full support for portal-editing :(
Some ideas: endless stairway up, things in a room which can only be seen 
  through a special glass (a portal), turn the map upside-down (using 
the transformation matrix - I could do it, I was walking on my head in 
walktest :), etc.

I hope I could help, and haven't said any foolishness.
--
Regards,
   Balázs