Sky Set / Horizon Set

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

I've mentioned this idea before, but it came back to mind while adding a new "desert" skyset to Delenda Est today. What if we could have a "Horizon Set" that superimposes over the sky box to make the horizon and sky look nicer? Would probably be another set of DDS files with an alpha. That way the horizon could be a set of desert mountains or rolling green hills or whatever is needed for the scenario. 

 

I made this sky set from the new Kushites menu background and I couldn't help to think it would have been easier and/or more powerful to have had the mountains as a separate set of images that I could use over any of the skies in the game. 

Are there any relevant tickets or patches for something like described? Any pitfalls? 

[Stan`]

That's on @vladislavbelov's list I believe

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

2 minutes ago, stanislas69 said:

That's on @vladislavbelov's list I believe

Another challenge is those black edges of the map making the horizon look ugly, but that's a separate, but related issue. Would it be worth it to truly make the map round? Or perhaps we can think of other ways to make the map and horizon looks more seamless. 

[Trinketos]

11 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Another challenge is those black edges of the map making the horizon look ugly, but that's a separate, but related issue. Would it be worth it to truly make the map round? Or perhaps we can think of other ways to make the map and horizon looks more seamless. 

What black edges?

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 minute ago, Trinketos said:

 What black edges?

The map plane is actually a square, with the corners shaded in black to make a circle. 

[Sundiata]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I made this sky set from the new Kushites menu background and I couldn't help to think it would have been easier and/or more powerful to have had the mountains as a separate set of images that I could use over any of the skies in the game. 

Are there any relevant tickets or patches for something like described? Any pitfalls? 

That looks awesome!!! Would be a great addition to the game. I've wanted this for a long time...

Kind of reminds me of the horizons in Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War. 

[vladislavbelov]

15 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I made this sky set from the new Kushites menu background and I couldn't help to think it would have been easier and/or more powerful to have had the mountains as a separate set of images that I could use over any of the skies in the game. 

Are there any relevant tickets or patches for something like described? Any pitfalls? 

Currently we have no such ticket. We can easily add additional layer of skybox, but there should be a smooth transition between sky layers and map. It's a problem with the additional layer. A possible solution is to use a big low-poly terrain that's scaled up, like it's done in Half-Life 2. It's easier to make a transition, but a simple model won't work for different sizes of random maps.

15 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Another challenge is those black edges of the map making the horizon look ugly, but that's a separate, but related issue. Would it be worth it to truly make the map round? Or perhaps we can think of other ways to make the map and horizon looks more seamless. 

Usually players don't see horizons at all. Only in cutscenes or trailers (where we can use some hacks to reach the goal). So it's in my list, but not on the first place.