Please ask your basic (newbie) questions in here.

MorbusG on 14/7/2005 at 12:18

Could someone be so very kind, and tell step-by-step instructions for making sky?
It seems I desperately need some hand-holding after checking out GBM's instructions... :o

Ziemanskye on 14/7/2005 at 13:40

Subtract a brush, far out from the level as you intend to play it, texture, light and Actor/smesh it as you want it too look, place a SkyZoneInfo actor at the point in the middle (this is your 'eyes' into the sky), then either set any surfaces you want to look though the level into the skybox as either having the Fake Backdrop flag in the surface properties dialogue,or texture them with the BF texture (which is transparent in the flesh renderer, but looks like face texture in the browser)

MorbusG on 14/7/2005 at 14:28

Ok, so what I did was:
Made a brush on top of normal level brush with same size, and textured it with a star-sky texture (select surfaces -> same brush), and chose surface properties -> don't cast shadow & fake backdrop. After that I placed a SkyZoneInfo in the middle of it, and clicked build all. No luck. It creates a "surrounding textures replication" -thingie.
I know I'm missing something awfully basic, but can't find out what it is. :(

Ziemanskye on 14/7/2005 at 14:46

First of all: this is important - DONT set the surfaces of the sky as Fake Backdrop (I'm not sure if you were, but eurgh! that gets ugly)

Build the sky seperate from the level - it shouldn't touch it at all.

But the surfaces you want to look through, they should be set to fake backdrop, so that they become like windows between the real game area, and the seperate sky area.

The skyzone doesn't have to be as big as the world itself either, just big enough for whatever you put inside it.

MorbusG on 14/7/2005 at 14:55

Yay! :D That did it! Thank you very much!
I seemed to fail to grasp the idea of seeing through solid in between the two carved-out pieces (well to be honest, I still do... :cheeky: ).

Ziemanskye on 14/7/2005 at 15:02

It's really quite counter-intuitive, but it is easy once you know what you're doing, and can give some great results. Just don't try and get your head around the psuedo-science of it, and just build it.

SneaksieDave on 16/7/2005 at 15:28

Quote Posted by sysqc

I seemed to fail to grasp the idea of seeing through solid in between the two carved-out pieces (well to be honest, I still do... :cheeky: ).

Think of it instead as a movie theater. Off to the side, you have a skybox with a camera in the center. In your gameplay space, you have theater screens wherever you define them. While playing, the camera in the hidden skybox projects what it sees onto the sky walls you defined as screens in your gameplay space.

bigall on 16/7/2005 at 22:08

ok guys before you start i know most of your answers...( smile)
have checked all through the forums on newbies..
i have done new install of game and patched to 1.1
i installed editor as per instruction and renamed the files
i put the extra lines in user ini..
i am using launcher . that loads both game and editor as it should, i can load editor ,i can use editor( after a fashion at the moment ) BUT! .......and you knew there would be a but ..when i use the joystick icon ,its displays the dialog box says saving file blah blah ..then it disapears and leaves me on desktop screen doing nothing ..

i have opened xp firewall tried disablling it , still the same problem
tried setting port to 25001 still the same problem
the only thing i may have done wrong is when i choose to add a program to the firewall exceptions and add a port , shoud i use thief 3 or theif3edit , and is there a name i have to use as it asks for a name and a port to use .
hoping for some help as i want to start getting back to next gen dromed fun

please obi wan your my only hope...
cheers guys

Ziemanskye on 17/7/2005 at 14:12

Okay, bigall - I am unsure what the problem is exactly, so:

1) How many installs of Thief3 do you have? Just the one which you edit and play, or seperate ones for playing and editing?

2) Which version of t3main.exe are you using, (in the editor version of the install, if you have seperate ones)?

3) Where is the editor copy of Thief3 installed? Does it have spaces in the file path (eg. C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows...)?

Rantako on 17/7/2005 at 14:26

Does having spaces in the file path make a difference to anything?