I made this model to try and replace the flat moon that comes with reloaded but it didn't work so well.



@lee please change the mood so it isn't flat

Considering the moon is painted on the skybox I don't think it be possible to make it "not flat" though I did notice at many angles the moon does seem to stretch and bend as if it really is on a wall.



I've been curious how games like Skyrim/Fallout got away with such nicely shaped moons and planets. I know they use Sky Domes, which is similar to what is used in UDK. I don't think however Sky Domes would fix this perspective issue.



Creating a giant moon won't help too much though because you'd be able to move slightly to each side of it, which would suggest the scale of the moon to being that of only a few 100 feet in diameter.



I think this is something we need to look into more and discover the work around. Wonder if its something similar to like the decals we had in FPSC Classic where as you can have a flat image always facing the player when its looked at. This might be a possible solution.

Yea it can sometimes look like an egg lol i know it is painted but i believe when the day night cycle returns they could fix it.



I know with some games it would rotate with the player obv you don't see it move but it gives the effect its always facing you.



Basically what you said

LOL Egg... that's exactly what I thought at certain angles it looked like.

FOV plays a large part in perspective, also the design of the skybox, if you position the moon or sun in centre of a skybox 'plane' it won't distort so much



It does help a lot as the dome isn't flat, I would actually prefer domes but it may make it difficult for some Artists to get their head around creating these, pardon the pun



The simplest method is to create a 'box' skybox and then convert this model to a geodome, so it could be that the model generated by Reloaded for skybox could be one of these which would accept and display skyboxes created in the usual way.



I suspect this may already be on the cards to get a day/night rotating skybox effect, so probably already thought of.

It may be that they need some more thought put into Skyscroll as background clouds and lighting in the skybox would follow this rotation, I am not sure how they intend to do it for certain, except to change ambiance at present with a fixed light position. There a hundred different ways to pull it off and all have their own drawbacks.

I reckon the best way would be to have a simple dome with day/night graduations, rotate this in sync to lighting position and have Skyscroll cloud layers, which react to lighting position. Fog to blend the Dusk/Dawn transitions when they are directly overhead.....nice and simple.....maybe... imagine being able to use a 360' time lapsed video texture as your skybox. Might be an FPS drainer....maybe not.

Don't want to get too off topic here, maybe another thread for another time

I am hoping the day/night comes back as it would give games a better feel and look great .



Your Techmoon is great!

Thanks Tattie

Very simple solution to the tearing/stretching/distorted moon that changes as the player moves...



Ironically, I read this in a skybox tutorial that I got from TGC!

http://forumfiles.thegamecreators.com/download/1592166



In the engine's code, have the skybox keep a constant relative position to the player's. In other words, as the player moves, the skybox moves. I think it's a great idea! It's amazing how many commercial games out there have not done this, and it's so simple.