
 Updated November 2014

 TESTING SKY BOX TEXTURES

 TGA sky texture sets can be used such as those available
 from http://kell.quaddicted.com/skyboxes.html The author
 has given permission allowing these to be used with
 Risen3D maps.  If doing so then please credit the author
 in a text file together with the pwad.

 The following explains how these textures should be stored
 for testing/comparative purposes and then goes on to explain
 how to extract the kothic sky textures.

 First create the following directory;

 Risen3D\skyboxbyname\

 All sky texture sets should be placed in this directory.
 They are distinguished by the common name used.  Each
 set should comprise of six textures with an identifier
 as to which face they should be rendered on. A unique
 common name must be used so as not to overwrite any
 existing set of textures.

 E.g. common name skytex
 
 skytex_up.tga	top texture
 skytex_dn.tga	bottom texture
 skytex_bk.tga	back texture
 skytex_ft.tga	front texture
 skytex_lf.tga	left texture
 skytex_rt.tga	right texture

 NOTE: jpg textures are also supported. Do not use the same
       common name, however, as R3D only uses the name_ part
       of the file to select them. E.g do not put name_up.tga
       in with another named name_up.jpg.

------------------------------------------------------------

 Extracting textures from skies-kothic.zip

 1)	extract the *.pk3 files.
 2)	rename these from .pk3 to to .zip
 3)	open the zip and extract the tga textures
 	from the \name\env\name\ folder to the
 	Risen3D\skyboxbyname\ directory.

 To load a set use the common part of the set name. For
 example to use the dragonfire_xx.tga texture (where xx
 will be up, bk, lf, ft, rt and dn) then put

 -skybox dragonfire

 on the global command line. 

 You can also change a skybox in game by dropping the
 console and entering; skybox dragonfire (note: only
 use the preceding '-' with a global command)

 This allows for easy selection of the required texture
 when deciding which to use when creating a custom pwad.

 To return to the default skybox just enter skybox none

 Note that skybox must be enabled in the Launcher and,
 where using the console option, an active skybox must
 already be loaded.

--------------------------------------------------------------

 DEFINING SKYBOX TEXTURES TO BE LOADED FOR A GAME

 For a custom game the skybox files must be placed in a game
 specific folder. If your wad is called ABC.wad then first
 create a folder in the \Risen3D\Data\Custom.hires folder
 with the same name as the wad. In this case;

 /Risen3D/Data/Custom.hires/ABC/

 Next create a folder in this called SkyX where X is the
 number for the sky in any particular map. You can look at
 the /Risen3D/Defs/Base/Maps.ded if you are unsure. For
 example this shows that SKY! is used for the episode of
 Doom so to use a replacement skybox for these maps then
 create a folder called Sky1;
 
    \Risen3D\Data\Custom.hires\ABC\Sky1\

 Then transfer the files for the sky that's wanted into
 this folder.

 The next step is to rename the files as follows;

 from name_dn.tga to Side1.tga
 from name_rt.tga to Side2.tga
 from name_ft.tga to Side3.tga
 from name_lf.tga to Side4.tga
 from name_bk.tga to Side5.tga
 from name_up.tga to Side6.tga

 All skies to be automatically loaded use this naming con-
 vention as they are differentiated by the folder that
 contains them; not by name.

 If required a graphics app can then be used to change the
 files from .tga's or .png's to .jpg's if a smaller dis-
 tribution size for your wad is wanted. Note that jpg uses
 a lossy compression method but, in practice, for textures
 not containing lines this is not noticeable. In any event
 textures have information stripped when being rendered as
 the texture's size has normally to be reduced to fit the
 area of the screen it is mapped to.


 Nov 2014
