3D Skybox Question

[404UserNotFound]

I'm currently working on a complete revamp/rebuild of the first map I ever publicly uploaded on GameBanana, "achievement_idle_spytech", and I'm currently building my first ever 3D skybox.

I've been following the steps listed on this guide on the Valve Developer Wiki. I've already set up the basic flatland area that will be shown in the 3D skybox, props will be added later once I've made sure that the 3D skybox shows up correctly ingame.

I've just now gotten up to step 12:

Quote:

Your original map still needs the tools\toolsskybox material wherever you want to see the sky, however it will now show the 3D skybox as well as the 2D skybox (which is what it did previously).

Here's where I'm confused. To scale level geometry down to create a guideline for a 3D skybox, you open the Transform menu while you've got your sky_camera entity and the level geometry all selected, choose "Scale", and for X, Y and Z, put in ".0625" as the value.

My confusion stems from the process of building the skybox around the actual level geometry itself.

Does it matter if I were to copy the 1/16th scale skybox cube I've just built, and scale it up to fullsize, then drag it over to my level area and align it properly?

Or do I just have to create a sealed skybox cube again, around the actual level area, and not worry about the size of the skybox? I'm just afraid that if I build a sloppy, randomly sized skybox cube around the level that the 3D skybox won't display correctly, or that there will be highly visible seams/gaps where the 3D skybox is supposed to meet the level geometry.


So this brings up two questions in regards to what I need to do to make the 3D skybox work. Do I either:

1. Build a brand new skybox cube around my level with no regard to the size of the cube walls, or how close/far the walls/ceiling/floor is to the level itself?

2. Hope to god that someone here knows what values to put into the X, Y and Z fields of the "Scale" option on the Transform menu to enlarge the 1/16th skybox cube I just built, so I can simply drag it over to the level itself and be able to place it and make it set up just like the 1/16th scale skybox geometry?

UPDATE: I just tried making a basic skybox cube around the area of the level that I want the 3D skybox to appear in. Ran the game and went into the area. The 3D skybox appeared (as far as I can tell) perfectly. However, I could see the spawn rooms floating in the distance.

Here's an image of what I'm talking about. How can I prevent the rooms from showing up like this?

[Zeigh]

Making the map boundaries the skybox means the sky_camera entity is in the actual map, that's why you see your map "mirror image" in the skybox. What you need to do is make a small hollow cube in some inaccessible place, put the skybox tool texture on the inside faces, sky_camera in the middle and it works. You just need to make sure the skybox is somewhat bigger than 1/16 of the map.
And set a skybox texture in map options.

[404UserNotFound]

I fixed it. I made a whole new 3D skybox, after removing the old one.

Turns out it was the sky_camera entity being outside of the 3D skybox area. Tried moving the entity back in, skybox got screwed up.

But I fixed it.