How important is a map's Skybox?

[Kuro]

Oh this is really cool, I'd love for this to be an option and for us to be able to change the color of the skybox

Though I feel like rooftops is one of those maps I would always leave the skybox on for, it really helps make the map feel like rooftops to me.


Purely playwise I know there will be people who will abuse something, probably change their skybox to just white to make out anyone anywhere on some maps

In the end I think the benefits outweigh the potential abuse

[wind]

I dont think it should be server wide, would it be possible to make it client side? because most maps are built with a 2d skybox not a 3d so the actual effects of changing the skybox wouldnt be too much of a boost maybe like 5 - 10 fps, most skybox's are just flat images that dont move at all so i mean its literally the difference of a flat color jpeg vs a 2 tone to like 6 tone jpeg. I mean maps can be made with no skybox at all, i guess the best increase would be going on maps that have decals in a seprate skybox that renders around the 2d skybox, but again those can just be deleted off the map, i dont think the color will make much of a difference.

edit: If it is something you can change in the f1 menu then yeah itll help, but set it to either a gray or a blue color not adjustable cause adjustable could be abused. other than that ignore me if it is something f1 menu only

[2bias]

(02-02-2017, 12:43 AM)wind Wrote:  I dont think it should be server wide, would it be possible to make it client side? because most maps are built with a 2d skybox not a 3d so the actual effects of changing the skybox wouldnt be too much of a boost maybe like 5 - 10 fps, most skybox's are just flat images that dont move at all so i mean its literally the difference of a flat color jpeg vs a 2 tone to like 6 tone jpeg. I mean maps can be made with no skybox at all, i guess the best increase would be going on maps that have decals in a seprate skybox that renders around the 2d skybox, but again those can just be deleted off the map, i dont think the color will make much of a difference.

it is clientside...

[Bathory (She/They)]

(02-01-2017, 01:51 PM)Brassx Wrote:  I can change the sky color to anything needed.

Perhaps I'll have a color picker in the settings to allow people to choose, and just have a 'gray'-ish color by default. (neutral color)

Only if you add special colour patterns for events and such. (boss/dragon rounds, speedy, tdm, Actual events ie: christmas/halloween, lobby events: worm queen)

Maybe for godlike drops/rolls it could have a flicker for everyone? (with option to turn off)

[Brassx]

Yes it's clientside. Not serverside.

@Wind - Skyboxes are drawn via shaders. There are some calculations to apply the selected skybox texture and the HDR settings of it to the blue skybox 'material' in hammer. Ever notice on some 2d skyboxes that are more than just a cube (like the lobby), it looks the same from everywhere and you can't see the corners and everything of the actual skybox? That takes shaders to do, and thus takes up a bit more render time than just drawing a flat image.

Yes. It won't be as good on some maps, which is why I said "It offers a pretty decent FPS boost on some maps so it may be worth it."

It actually gave me +20fps on gm_construct alone, so this could definitely help the lower end PC's play more efficiently on more maps (like rooftops).

One more thing, having a cube around a map for the skybox is terrible to do in hammer, it makes the visleaf calculations take like 10x as long, and just runs like shit compared to manually placing skybox brushes where needed.


Also, how exactly do you guys think people would abuse this? Having pure white is pretty cancer for your eyes, it doesn't help you at all from my testings (think the pure white room in gm_construct). Pure black feels sort of normal. Charples aren't too hard to spot unless suuuuuper far away, because unlike the pure black back-drop, the player models have lighting applied to them so it's fairly issue to make them out.


EDIT:

I should also note this can maybe be a fix for the broken skybox on that zelda map.

[Terran]

That broken skybox was total cancer. A black void would be better. This sounds like a good idea all-in-all, to be honest. Simple and hey, if it works and helps people, go for it. I honestly don't understand how people lag on Gmod, but not everybody has a $50 GPU I guess. Solid plan there old chap, I'd be game for it for the freshies. Er, the nakeds. Er, the newbies. Too much Rust for me.

[Jake1o]

That "broken" skybox on the Zelda map simply requires TF2.

[2bias]

(02-02-2017, 12:46 PM)Jake1o Wrote:  That "broken" skybox on the Zelda map simply requires TF2.

Well a majority of the server isn't gonna install tf2 for a single ttt map that rarely gets played

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Also, it would be cool if you could set it to only work on certain maps.

[wind]

(02-02-2017, 07:31 AM)Brassx Wrote:  Yes it's clientside. Not serverside.

@Wind - Skyboxes are drawn via shaders. There are some calculations to apply the selected skybox texture and the HDR settings of it to the blue skybox 'material' in hammer. Ever notice on some 2d skyboxes that are more than just a cube (like the lobby), it looks the same from everywhere and you can't see the corners and everything of the actual skybox? That takes shaders to do, and thus takes up a bit more render time than just drawing a flat image.

I should also note this can maybe be a fix for the broken skybox on that zelda map.

Well if its clientside it should be fine, and possibly with a higher end pc ive just never seen what i have never seen how much a skybox can effect it because it only changed my fps by around 5 or 10 when playing with it, I think its a good idea if it really helps people and knowing its client side is fine. And i said 2d skyboxes are flat images because most of the maps that have a full open box skybox use a non moving just default jpeg from css, most skyboxes are hdr capable but not all of them are hdr, im sure garrys mod supports hdr aswell but most people just drop the skybox in there map and never consider hdr, for instance i love the l4d2 skyboxes like i think sky_l4d_night02_hdr is one of the prettiest skyboxes but well most people dont just have l4d2 installed and i avoid it because its hdr, and the most common skyboxes are tides and office and hav imo and from what i remember none of those are hdr, i think the only css hdr skyboxes really are like what cobble, milita, dust, and train.

but again maybe just because of having a high end rig i dont notice the fps change much, But i admit to reading the original post wrong because i looked at it quick while waiting to respawn in overwatch, then replied to it w/o re reading it. So yeah client side it can fix issues.

[Awesome]

(02-01-2017, 01:51 PM)Brassx Wrote:  I can change the sky color to anything needed.

Perhaps I'll have a color picker in the settings to allow people to choose, and just have a 'gray'-ish color by default. (neutral color)

on top of a color picker can you have an option to enable to the default skybox as well? I dont much have fps problems with my rig and think in some cases would prefer to have the skybox over a solid color.