problem with scatter sky band at the bottom
by Chris Breckenridge · in Torque 3D Beginner · 04/09/2010 (4:33 am) · 9 replies
Hi i am sorry if this has been brought up before but i am new to T3ds and i am having a problem where i put a scatter sky in and i get a band at the bottom of it. so i have a black band or other colours from the terrain to the bottom of the scatter sky i have adjust the canvas clear colour to match as best you can, and that works fine but if i add a timeofday function and run iy i get the blue sky colour still at the bottom of the scatter sky. The ret is fine it goes from day to night with the moon and stary sky but just the band at the bottom.
Can any body help as it is driving me nuts.
Thanks in advance
Can any body help as it is driving me nuts.
Thanks in advance
#2
The scatter sky is expensive... we only draw it to slightly below the horizon and use a special patch mesh to render it.
The issue your having is your player can see off the edge of your terrain and see below the horizon line.
In the future we may provide a hack to hide that as wrong as it will still look, but for now your best bet is to keep your player from getting to those positions.
04/10/2010 (10:31 am)
This is more of a level design problem than art.The scatter sky is expensive... we only draw it to slightly below the horizon and use a special patch mesh to render it.
The issue your having is your player can see off the edge of your terrain and see below the horizon line.
In the future we may provide a hack to hide that as wrong as it will still look, but for now your best bet is to keep your player from getting to those positions.
#3
04/10/2010 (2:03 pm)
Thanks for the reply and it is a shame that this can not be fixed as this is a great feature and was looking forward to being able to use this in our game design as the timeofday function would fit right in with what we are planning if you do get a fix then please let me know 
#4
04/23/2010 (5:06 pm)
Just to post in reply, this kills any kind of flight games 
#5
04/26/2010 (8:12 am)
It doesnt kill any kind of flight games it just requires you to be creative, there are many different techniques for hiding the scatter sky band, distance fogging for example will do the trick as well as a water plane just to name a couple,and if it is a big issue there is no reason you cant use a sky box either. and case in point a flight game has already been developed for T3D... mach i think it is called.... 
#6
If you are making a flying game, I suggest using Water Plane and then making the visible range very long, like over 10 kilometers. Then just build terrain rising out of the water and there you go.
Ground plane works fine if you're on the ground but gets artifacty as you gain altitude.
Another possibility is that during a flight game, you'd want to be flying above a stratus layer, like afterburner. I'm making such a game, and am currently hacking CloudLayer to make bands of clouds around the horizon and underneath the player. Then I am going to make the canvas clear to the current sky color to soften up the edge of the scatter sky. Should work okay, results are interesting to say the least.
07/13/2010 (8:34 am)
Well, it is a weird game where there is not SOME kind of horizon. Ground plane, water plane both give you resources to put something to the edge of the horizion, which will cover the ugly banding at the edge of the scatter sky.If you are making a flying game, I suggest using Water Plane and then making the visible range very long, like over 10 kilometers. Then just build terrain rising out of the water and there you go.
Ground plane works fine if you're on the ground but gets artifacty as you gain altitude.
Another possibility is that during a flight game, you'd want to be flying above a stratus layer, like afterburner. I'm making such a game, and am currently hacking CloudLayer to make bands of clouds around the horizon and underneath the player. Then I am going to make the canvas clear to the current sky color to soften up the edge of the scatter sky. Should work okay, results are interesting to say the least.
#7
If I set the visible distance higher it gets smaller and eventually vanishes.
However I don't think setting the visible distance high is a good solution because it is asking the graphics card to do much work and sacrifices will have to be made elsewhere.
I have a water plane to make the sea, isn't this infinite? I can see it both above and below the pink band.
If I move towards it, it moves away, if I move back it comes with me.
We have some high altitude areas in our game plus we have flying so this is a real problem.
Is this a bug? if so it needs fixed.
Or is there some solution?
01/29/2011 (12:42 pm)
I'm having the same problem with scatter sky. If I fly up high with the camera I can see the clear canvas colour in a band, I have set it to pink to highlight clear areas better. If I set the visible distance higher it gets smaller and eventually vanishes.
However I don't think setting the visible distance high is a good solution because it is asking the graphics card to do much work and sacrifices will have to be made elsewhere.
I have a water plane to make the sea, isn't this infinite? I can see it both above and below the pink band.
If I move towards it, it moves away, if I move back it comes with me.
We have some high altitude areas in our game plus we have flying so this is a real problem.
Is this a bug? if so it needs fixed.
Or is there some solution?
Associate Scott Burns
GG Alumni