CGSkies.com (From CGTextures.com)
polycounter lvl 11
Hi guys,
Just wanted to let you all know that I've been working hard with Marcel Vijfwinkel at CGTextures to present you with this:
We'd love to hear your feedback guys, especially from the game-art perspective. We wanted to make sure that the sample images would be enough for most personal uses
Just wanted to let you all know that I've been working hard with Marcel Vijfwinkel at CGTextures to present you with this:
300+ panoramic skies
HDR versions!
Up to 15.000 pixels wide
Free samples of every sky!
HDR versions!
Up to 15.000 pixels wide
Free samples of every sky!
We'd love to hear your feedback guys, especially from the game-art perspective. We wanted to make sure that the sample images would be enough for most personal uses
Replies
The license for the skies which were on CGTextures is still valid, so if you downloaded a sky in the past and used it in a commercial product you do not have to be scared that we will sue you (we are not that kind of people anyway and the last thing we want is make lawyers richer).
As for the reason why we don't allow the free samples to be used in a commercial work: we think paying for a sky is only fair if you use it in a work that makes you money. These skies are the cheapest on the Internet at these resolutions and quality, so we think it is a good deal.
We decided not to use a subscription based model for the HDR skies. The first reason is that the file sizes are simply too big so you would run out of download quota very quickly. The second (and sadly the more important) reason is that with a relatively small collection of images like this, the risk of somebody stockpiling the images and putting them on warez sites is too big. A lot of images on CGTextures ended up on warez sites unfortunately. It took us literally months of work to re-stitch these skies, remove the horizons, create preview renders, etc. We don't want our work to be pirated just so somebody can earn a few Rapidshare credits.
We are super happy that the website is finally launched, now we can focus on photographing more beautiful skies!
For the remainder of your membership you still have the access to them
Afterwards, www.cgskies.com has them in better quality
HEY! I'm going to sue you for libel!
Though the selection of nighttime skies is a bit lacking, I ended up having to darken daytime ones and masking in the moon and stars.
Does this new site have "Sky Box" (cube map style, 6 images) versions of your domes like cgtextures did?
This seemed like a very polite slap in the face. lol
Would love to see a tutorial for making cubemaps! For 3point Shader for example.
http://www.cgskies.com/resources_tutorial_transform.php
Here you go!
That's not really a fair comparison, those Marlin skies are not HDR and at lower resolution (and actually only 15 of them are full 360 skies, the rest are missing the top or are only 180 degrees).
Ofcourse if you don't need the HDR version or the extra resolution then I can imagine you find the price a bit steep. (But trust me, if you knew how much time and work went into this you would see that this is a realistic price :poly121:) For film and print work (architecture) the difference between 9.000 pixels and 15.000 pixels is huge. It means you can use the skydome as a background without having to use seperate backplates. This makes rendering easier, and your reflections more accurate.
If it turns out there is a demand for lower resolution non-HDR versions at a lower price then we'll certainly add that in the future.
We don't have cube map versions yet. I was under the impression that the cubemap versions were less useful because they are so hard to modify. You can't really do any painting on them, so they can be only used 'as is'
There is also the issue with scaling a cubemap. If you scale it down with any type of filtering method, then the borders between the cube faces will blurred over because of the filtering leading to slight seams in the sky. I don't know of any way to avoid this, except not scaling at all and converting to a cubemap directly at the target size.
this sucks
You still have the free skies on CGSkies at a higher resolution than they were originally on CGTextures with the exception that if you want to use them in a commercial project (make money with them in other words) you have to purchase.
Good deal, no?
Like I said, if there is enough demand for LDR only versions we'll certainly add these in the future. And just like you do not give away your indie game for free, we need to set a price for the skies as well. There is a reason why these skies (and most HDR panoramas on the internet) are not 5$ a piece, and that is simply because it takes a whole lot of time to create them.