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Ah, it was on my list, now I can cross it, thanks. If someone knows how the sky of world of warcraft is made (and to a lesser extent the ground of warcraft3 wh

Ah, it was on my list, now I can cross it, thanks. If someone knows how the sky of world of warcraft is made (and to a lesser extent the ground of warcraft3 which I think is a clever use of marching squares), please let us know, Ive been wondering for 10+ years. It has an incredible amount of features (day, night, clouds, moon, stars, etc), it's gorgeous, light, updates beautifully every other frame or so and no, it's not rendered-to-texture. Well pretty sure it's not. It's so smooth, you dont see a poly nor a texel. It also runs on a 2002 computer. A marvel of tech-artistery.

dtech 3y ago
It isn't just a skybox?
- quadcore 3y ago
  The original sky is mostly procedural, I forgot to mention. The newer skies are more traditional skyboxes.
  - scrollaway 3y ago
    What's your question, more specifically? Also what do you mean by "the original sky"? Because it was already a skybox in the WoW original 2004 release, even if there were some procedural elements added on top.
    - quadcore 3y ago
      Someone in the discussion found an interesting technique from Homeworld 2.
- k12sosse 3y ago
  DayZ got a real nice upgrade to their vanilla skybox this year. Procedural weather also coming. You'd think this is all very simple to do and sure it is, to a pro and outsider, but the arma3 engine is long in the tooth and DayZ had some serious neglect for a couple years. Nice to see development has been reignited into overdrive in its 10th anniversary year.
dantondwa 3y ago
Here is a breakdown of a WoW skybox by a Blizzard artist: https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-skies-for-3d-games/ https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-skies-for-3d-games/ TLDR. it’s multiple skybox meshes layered
- quadcore 3y ago
  That's for the newer skies, the original is mostly procedural.
- keyle 3y ago
  That was a great article, thanks!
throwaway7679 3y ago
> and to a lesser extent the ground of warcraft3 which I think is a clever use of marching squares Ground textures, cliffs, and ramps are tiles.[1] A heightmap modifies tile corners.[2] Everything else is an individually-placed object. [1] https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/wc3search-tutorial03picture17-jpg.3494/ https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/wc3search-tutorial0... [2] https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/15-jpg.7734/ https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/15-jpg.7734/
waste_monk 3y ago
Unrelated but on the topic of skyboxes, I always thought the backgrounds of Homeworld were really nice... turns out it's just vertex color gradients. https://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds/ https://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds/ http://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds-tech/ http://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds-tech/
- quadcore 3y ago
  Well done, this is something like it. That tesselation is awesome. The result is gorgeous and fast. Really beautiful. Cant upvote enough.

dtech 3y ago

It isn't just a skybox?

quadcore 3y ago
The original sky is mostly procedural, I forgot to mention. The newer skies are more traditional skyboxes.
- scrollaway 3y ago
  What's your question, more specifically? Also what do you mean by "the original sky"? Because it was already a skybox in the WoW original 2004 release, even if there were some procedural elements added on top.
  - quadcore 3y ago
    Someone in the discussion found an interesting technique from Homeworld 2.
k12sosse 3y ago
DayZ got a real nice upgrade to their vanilla skybox this year. Procedural weather also coming. You'd think this is all very simple to do and sure it is, to a pro and outsider, but the arma3 engine is long in the tooth and DayZ had some serious neglect for a couple years. Nice to see development has been reignited into overdrive in its 10th anniversary year.

dantondwa 3y ago

Here is a breakdown of a WoW skybox by a Blizzard artist: https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-skies-for-3d-games/ https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-skies-for-3d-games/ TLDR. it’s multiple skybox meshes layered

quadcore 3y ago
That's for the newer skies, the original is mostly procedural.
keyle 3y ago
That was a great article, thanks!

throwaway7679 3y ago

> and to a lesser extent the ground of warcraft3 which I think is a clever use of marching squares Ground textures, cliffs, and ramps are tiles.[1] A heightmap modifies tile corners.[2] Everything else is an individually-placed object. [1] https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/wc3search-tutorial03picture17-jpg.3494/ https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/wc3search-tutorial0... [2] https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/15-jpg.7734/ https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/15-jpg.7734/

waste_monk 3y ago

Unrelated but on the topic of skyboxes, I always thought the backgrounds of Homeworld were really nice... turns out it's just vertex color gradients. https://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds/ https://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds/ http://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds-tech/ http://simonschreibt.de/gat/homeworld-2-backgrounds-tech/

quadcore 3y ago
Well done, this is something like it. That tesselation is awesome. The result is gorgeous and fast. Really beautiful. Cant upvote enough.