Tutorial: Suns and moons on a outdoor map

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Feralidragon
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Tutorial: Suns and moons on a outdoor map

Post by Feralidragon »

So, I allways saw many outdoor maps with suns or moons made by BSP Sheets.

But, I tried something different, and the result was a more realistic sun/moon with no problems at all.

So, how do you do a more realistic sun without any problems at all?

Well, the answer to that is very simple, you use actors instead:

- Place any decoration actor on the skybox, like a "barrel" for example;
- Then set its properties, not by code, but by the actor properties window (right click on the actor, then click "properties"):
1) Display:
Texture: <The sun or moon texture>
bUnlit: True
DrawType: DT_Sprite
DrawScale: <Whatever you want how big is your sun/moon (1.0 for normal size)>
DrawStyle: STY_Translucent for sun case, STY_Masked for moon case
2) Advanced:
bNetTemporary: False
3) Movement:
Physics: PHYS_None
4) Collision: Everything which is boolean set to False

What are the advantages of this?
a) More realistic sun or moon on the sky
b) You can place it anywere without having rebuild all the map geometry/BSP
c) You can resize it without mading calculations to set the right scale and size
d) It's one less bsp to care about, one less motive to have a HOM or a BSP Hole
e) Other ones that you can find :P

This tutorial is originally made by me, and that is one thing I tested and worked on my own maps. Enjoy
Myth
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Re: Tutorial: Suns and moons on a outdoor map

Post by Myth »

There is one flaw.
Actually it is not realistic. The referrer simply draws a NOT ROTATED, NOT PERSPECTIVE sprite. So no matter where you turn you still see the EXACT same image. BSP moons/suns are actually more realistic. If the moon/sun/star or whatever is small then it's better to do it whit an actor.

Usefull
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Feralidragon
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Re: Tutorial: Suns and moons on a outdoor map

Post by Feralidragon »

Myth wrote:There is one flaw.
Actually it is not realistic. The referrer simply draws a NOT ROTATED, NOT PERSPECTIVE sprite. So no matter where you turn you still see the EXACT same image. BSP moons/suns are actually more realistic. If the moon/sun/star or whatever is small then it's better to do it whit an actor.

Usefull
Yep, you're right there :D , my fault...
I forget to mention on what circunstances this is usefull:
- Like you said, when the sun/moon/star is small
- And the other one is when the sun isn't above your head, but is on the horizon, as with sheet or actor, the image will be the same on the horizon, but not above your head, as your player view never "rolls"

I used this way in many of my maps, where there were this circunstances.
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niX
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Re: Tutorial: Suns and moons on a outdoor map

Post by niX »

some pictures would be nice
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