Skydomes, help please

[Niko Mouk]

Hi,
I created skydomes in blender and I can't get it working in mapview. Could you please help about :

- What should be the size of the skydome, related to the heightmap size ? Fixed ?

- After exporting to FBX format thanks to blender, I opened FBX2EDF and my god what have I to check/set here ?

Thank you !

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

Simple.. The origin is the center so build skydome around that. It's fixed as far as I can tell so you shouldn't need to make it bigger or smaller. Any size will do.

In fbx2edf, leave it on 'Mesh', load your fbx and click 'Save'. Call it clearsky.edf, cloudysky.edf or rainysky.edf, run fbx2edf and then put the generated .edf in your finished track folder.

Should work just fine

[Niko Mouk]

This is what I did and it doesn't work

With a small sphere the clearsky.edf was only 800kb so I did a bigger one which is near 7Mo but still not showing in mapview. No need to regenerate map right ?

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

Ah, no.. Like I said the .eff goes in your finished track folder not your project folder, I.e:

Program files / Mx bikes / tracks / your track / clearsky.edf

You can open final track folders .map files in mapview so then do that and you can switch between clear, cloudy and rainy.

I keep a mapview in my finished track folder for working on skydomes.

[Niko Mouk]

Yes exactly, as it's in the tutorial, this is what I do. Everything is in the final folder. The 2 original skydomes are working but if I customize the cloudy for example, it's not showing.

Hmm... it says my JPG isn't power of 2... now it's ok, my jpg source is 2048x1024 but it's still not showing in mapview 

My dome is a full sphere (not semi).

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

You can't use jpegs. It has to be .tga

[Niko Mouk]

Still the same using TGA (I tried to add/remove the alpha channel). What's strange is my fbx is only 36ko while the TGA is 8MB.

Here are the files : Test1.zip , could you or someone take a look and tell me what's wrong please ?
Many thanks

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

Sorry mate, cant help you there - Don't use Blender.

[Niko Mouk]

Don't use Blender.

Maybe that's my problem ? Blender files could be different. Could you tell me which program(s) do you use ? If it's 3DS MAx I should have an old version somewhere

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

Ha.. well I use Sketchup. When I export I save from Sketchup as .dae with textures in their own folder (say I export sky.dae, I get a folder called sky with my textures in).

Then I run that through Sket2FBX which makes an output folder with my fbx, and again a folder with the same name with textures in.

Then I run that fbx through FBX2EDF to make my .edf.

Sounds long winded but it only takes seconds, and works.

Have you exported track objects before? I know a few people who use Blender with no problems..

[Niko Mouk]

That was yesterday the first time I opened Blender. I followed this tutorial and in export options there is .FBX so I thought it was easy but it seems something's going wrong.

[Niko Mouk]

-I export I save from Sketchup as .dae with textures in their own folder
- Then I run that through Sket2FBX which makes an output folder with my fbx, and again a folder with the same name with textures in.
- Then I run that fbx through FBX2EDF to make my .edf.

Worked like a charm. Thank you for sharing.

[𝖙𝖋𝖈]

No probs. Sketchup is pretty good for very basic track objects. Never going to be as good as something like Blender but it does the job for me.