sky rendering

[joevenzon]

I think I know what you mean. You want vertical movement with the camera's movement, but the length of the vector reperesenting the camera direction ending at the skybox is always the same distance.

That's the way skybox objects currently work. They didn't used to work that way, but they do as of R1560, and you can turn the vertical camera following on and off in the track.txt file (the default is to do things as thelusiv describes above).

[alex25]

I think I understand what you're saying now, and that's the way skybox objects currently work. They didn't used to work that way, but they do now, and you can turn it on and off in the track.txt file (default is on).

the way i think it works now, is that the horizon get projected onto the skydome (which is at some arbitrary distance far away) but instead of being projected from the origin is projected from the current car position.

what i would like implemented is something completely different. i would like to have the horizon drawn at its actual size but centered on the current viewpoint, so as you drive around the track the horizon sort of encircles the car and follows it around.

like in this diagram (top view):



where 1,2,3 are the car positions along the track, the coloured circles are the horizon and in black is the track.

--alex--

[joevenzon]

i would like to have the horizon drawn at its actual size but centered on the current viewpoint, so as you drive around the track the horizon sort of encircles the car and follows it around

That is exactly how it currently works. There is no "skydome projection." All skyboxes work the way you described above.

[alex25]

i would like to have the horizon drawn at its actual size but centered on the current viewpoint, so as you drive around the track the horizon sort of encircles the car and follows it around

That is exactly how it currently works. There is no "skydome projection." All skyboxes work the way you described above.

i don't think so and i'll try to explain with a series of pictures from mosport. in this picture:

neither the sky nor the horizon were marked as skyboxes. i hope you can see the horizon is drawn in front of the sky and it's clearly visible.
in the second picture

both the sky and the horizon are marked as skybox objects. the horizon doesn't show up. the only explanation is that both the horizon and the sky are drawn at some arbitrary distance. in the third picture

i made the horizon a transparent blended texture and it shows up again. clearly when you mark objects as skyboxes they are not drawn the same size as when they are not, otherwise the horizon would've showed up without having to make it a transparent blended texture.

hope this helps.

--alex--

[joevenzon]

The objects are drawn the same size as they are... the problem is that the skydome is a smaller object than the horizon, and so it's covering up the horizon. Mark the horizon as a skybox and comment out the skydome, and my bet is that you'll see the horizon.

[alex25]

The objects are drawn the same size as they are... the problem is that the skydome is a smaller object than the horizon, and so it's covering up the horizon. Mark the horizon as a skybox and comment out the skydome, and my bet is that you'll see the horizon.

the skydome is not smaller than the horizon, that was the whole point of the first picture: the horizon is smaller than the skydome when neither one is marked as a skybox. tomorrow i'll try to make a horizon that's some 10 metres around the car, so i should have very limited visibility and we'll see if that's the case.

--alex--

[joevenzon]

tomorrow i'll try to make a horizon that's some 10 metres around the car, so i should have very limited visibility and we'll see if that's the case

Sounds good. You could also set both the horizon and the skydome to not be skyboxes to see what their relative sizes are.

[alex25]

Sounds good. You could also set both the horizon and the skydome to not be skyboxes to see what their relative sizes are.

i've been swamped at work so it might be a little while before i get around to doing it, but in the first picture above both the horizon and the skydome are not skyboxes, and the horizon is smaller than the sky, but when i make them skyboxes the horizon doesn't show up unless i make it transparent.

--alex--

[joevenzon]

in the first picture above both the horizon and the skydome are not skyboxes, and the horizon is smaller than the sky, but when i make them skyboxes the horizon doesn't show up unless i make it transparent

Good point. There must be a bug in the object code, because it's supposed to work the way you want it to. I'll check it out.

[joevenzon]

I did indeed find a bug... to summarize, it was causing the skybox objects to be drawn over each other depending on the order of the objects in the file, instead of based on which objects are actually in front or behind others. Fixed in R1577. Does this fix things for you? Are there any other bugs you've found?

Sorry about the difficulty with communication in this thread... you were right all along!

[alex25]

Sorry about the difficulty with communication in this thread... you were right all along!

no problem, i am glad you were finally able to identify and fix the bug. i've removed the no longer needed horizon transparency for barcelona and jarama. things look good. and don't worry. if i find more bugs i'll let you know.

--alex--

[thelusiv]

This may be related, it seems now that the horizon on Zandvoort is very small and so while driving it is hard to see far into the distance, like with the View Distance setting on Very Low. This makes it hard to anticipate sharp turns after long straight sections...

[joevenzon]

There was a bug in my fix. Should be fixed now for real, R1582.

[thelusiv]

Zandvoort seems normal now, thanks.

[alex25]

Are there any other bugs you've found?

not really a bug per se, but a possible optimization. now that we have the horizon following the viewpoint around, should be also set the far clipping plane to the size of the horizon? there is no point in drawing objects behind the horizon and it should speed up the drawing of scenery somewhat. the view distance would be the minimum of what gets set in the menu and the size of the horizon/sky.

--alex--