I need help Lighting my skybox with an exterior scene!

Mazvix

Hi PolyCount,

I have been a lurker for a while now, and decided to be a serious member of this forum.

I have a tent scene that is going to be an interior scene, but because you can see the outside I have to fake the desert/ sky box with the lighting. I use sky light with directional light and few point lights. Any help lighting my scene to make it look epic in UT3 would be very appreciate it.

Thanks!

Maz

Mazvix

Like seriously, No response?

JordanW

Well there probably arent any responses because you didnt give many technical details like what software are you using? Is this realtime or rendered? It wouuld also help to show your scene.

MoP

I don't think you can fake a desert / skybox with lighting alone....
You'd probably do well to paint/edit/texture a quick image to go wherever you need to show outdoor sky/clouds/horizon, and just use that "fullbright" (don't inherit any lighting from the rest of the scene), this will probably be the fastest and easiest to control method.

Also, don't be impatient. It's barely been 2 hours since you first posted your question. Bumping up a thread with a response like that is not doing you any favours, and if anything will make people less likely to help you.

Your first post was quite vague anyway, it's hard to give any advice when we have absolutely no idea what the scene looks like. A work-in-progress or preview image (hell, even a viewport screengrab) would help a lot.

Mark Dygert

1) What app(s) are you using?
2) Why not use UE3 instead of faking it?
3) Pics would be extremely helpful.

Mazvix

Very Sorry.

I am using UT3. Thought it would correct it in the first post, guess not.

Anyways here are screen shots. Thanks again

I know the lights are overblown and that was on purpose for experimental purposes.



It kept crashing everytime I rebuild the lights, probably because I have more than one directional light and so on. so here are just view port screen shots:

Inside the tent, which is the only thing you will see (it is not a level it is just an environment). I will put post processing around it.






Thanks again and please accept my apologies.

JordanW

everything is really blown out, i would start with a shadow casting directional light, then use point lights to fake bounce lighting inside the tent

Mazvix

Ya the shadows work just fine with light maps. But what about the exterior? and is there anything I am doing wrong besides the overblown out? or Unreals lighting is limited. Because if thats the case then I have to do a lot in PS to fake "Jesus light" coming from the opening in the ceiling of the tent.

Thanks again Jordan.

JordanW

I'm not sure what you're asking "what about the exterior" and then references jesus light. Are you wanting to light the exterior as well to show that off or are you wanting to show light beams that light up from dust in the air? If the latter is the case then that has nothing to do with "lighting" in realtime, it's a transparent material effect you put on geometry.

Mazvix

you are never going to see the outside EXCEPT through that opening from the tent's door as you saw from the screenshots. Because to me the skybox looks really out of place with everything else. the sky box is a mesh and lighting it looks fake. as for the Jesus light you are right I will have to model/unwrap a tube for it. Because I noticed when I put a directional light and just point lights it still doesnt have that same intensity/contrast.

Mazvix

Hey guys, I am back, hope everyone is doing great!

So here is the deal I got the scene with the lights to work just fine EXCEPT when I have a skybox in there it does not render correctly with the lights, and yes they are inside the skybox. Any ideas? It is driving me nuts, everything has a light map, I was thinking of making the sky box into a cylinder instead of a geosphere since you cannot see anything further than just the backdrop?

If you guys got better ideas, I would desperately appreciate them. Thanks!
(Remember I want the outside to light up correctly, the inside of the tent is easy to take care of with point lights.)