The Sky Tutorial W A V E L E N G T H
by HellBringer December 26, 1998
Foreword:
This tutorial assumes that you have both Half-Life and Worldcraft 2.0, and are fairly proficient in the use of Worldcraft, in that you have completed the previous tutorials in this series.

Remember to start small and build up in complexity; it will save you a lot of frustration in the end! If you have any questions or problems as a result of this thing, definitely email me and I'll try to help clear the confusion.

This article covers how to:
- Make "sky" brushes

Welcome to the sky tutorial - this one's gonna be pretty brief and assume a lot about what you already know; but its scope is pretty limited. As always, feel free to email me (link at the bottom of the page) with any questions or comments. Don't be shy if something confuses you or raises any questions you want answered right away. Blue statements are the functions I want you to perform.

  NOTE: I AM going to assume that by now you've mastered how to perform the functions we've done in previous tutorials here at Wavelength.

  You came here for this tutorial -so without further ado, why don't you load up Worldcraft now.  All tutorials are going to assume you have the latest version, and use the default setup with a 2-button mouse - you should also have all of the proper directories and tools configured before using this tutorial.  Refer to the documentation, my WC Setup FAQ, and my Compile FAQ for details.

    Once Worldcraft has been loaded, go up to the "File" menu item and click on "new". 

  Okay, first on the list is to create a room for our sky to shine down on. So, pick a texture in the texture browser for our room and create a brush that is 256 units on all sides (make it a perfect cube). Now, select it and hollow it with a wall width of 16. Switch your grid spacing to 8, and zoom in a bit on your room. Select the hollowed room and ungroup it. Then select the roof brush. Use the texture browser to find the "sky" texture. Apply this texture to all sides of the brush with the "Apply texture" tool . Now, go to the "Map Properties" (under the "Map" menu), and in the "cl_skyname" key, type in a name for the sky you want to display. Possible skies are:

Compile and test, and you should be all set! For info. on lighting an area of sky, see my lighting tutorial; in there the "light_environment" entity is discussed.

Here are some screenshots to help you understand things:

This is the room with the sky brush.

This is the Worldspawn entity having its skyname changed.

  
Here are two side-by-side shots of the sky in the game. Notice how the texture changes based on the viewer's position - thus creating the effect that it is a distant sky, instead of a nearby brush.

  As always, feel free to email me any comments, questions, or problems!

HellBringer's E-mail address is: noelwade@hotmail.com
Half-Life, and the Half-Life logo are trademarks of Valve Software and Sierra Online, used with permission. All screenshots and drawings of Half-Life are (c) copyright Valve Software, 1998. All rights reserved. All original content (text and art) are (c) copyright Wavelength, 1998, and may not be reproduced without permission.