cubemap questions

[flamdar]

What exactly do cubemaps do? Do you need more than one?

Cubemap is a fancy term for a bunch of pictures taken in 6 directions which is then used to fake reflection on shiny surfaces like metal and glass. When you place an env_cubemap entity in your map, and run the buildcubemaps command ingame, the photos are taken at the point where you placed the entity, and the cubemap (collection of photos) is applied to either the surrounding surfaces that support it, or a specific face of a brush (wall) that you picked from the env_cubemap entity.

Also needed for water effects and for many props which will otherwise look like junk, funky colors or pitch black without a cubemap near them. (Usualy happens when the lighting changes adruptly near such model, thereby making the previous cubemap not a good representation of the actual lighting/color.)

Case in point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_mapped_reflection

(wikipedia ftw!)

Note: Even if your map has no traditional shiny surfaces, it is sometimes important to use cube maps as there are many textures that have bump mapping that do not work unless at least 1 env_cubemap is present within the vicinity of such textures and you have run the buildcubemaps command.

[satchmo]

I wrote a series of mapping tutorials a few years ago.

Many have found them helpful, and this is the one on cubemaps.

Originally Posted by satchmo

I wrote a series of mapping tutorials a few years ago.

Many have found them helpful, and this is the one on cubemaps.

Short, sweet, and to the point. Thanks for the link.