You Can't Take the Sky(dome) From Me

jerriecan

Hi there. I'm having a problem when it comes to skydomes. I'm trying to make my own in the style of Dreamlight's Light n Go series - basically, taking a large city scene and making a skydome of it to save on resources. But I can't figure out how to alter the image - the texture is distorted as a flat image, only looking correct on the dome. And when I try to apply a flat image backgrounds to a sphere, they become distorted. Does anyone have any tips or links to tutorials so I can create my own skydomes? I'd really appreciate it. :)

Jaderail

First your image must be a 360 degree panoramic image file, this can be done in Bryce. This will be a Sphere type image but DavidB has some nice free tutorials in the Bryce Forums on both methods, Sphere and Dome, I do Believe. The next part is the Dome itself. If you use a Default Sphere from the Create menu keep in mind the higher the Division level the Smoother it will be, same applies to other Modeling software. You will then have a Object with the TEXTURE surface on the Outer surface, you will need to reverse the Normals so the texture applies to the Inner surface, also doable in DAZ Studio or other modeling programs. In DAZ Studio its the Polygon Group Editor, select all and then Reverse Winding. After you have your Object, Sphere or Dome, Save it as a OBJ file. Now apply the texture to the object, apply any surface settings you will use such as ambient white 100% or other, be sure you set the Item to NOT cast shadows. Save your Material File. Now Build your lighting for the Dome on the OUTSIDE so the lighting Lights the image on the dome and falls as you wish to match the image. Parent the Lights to the Dome or Group the full set, now Save as Support Asset> Figure/Prop Asset for DAZ Studio. For use in Poser the Full item will need to be saved as a Prop with one of the Script based Object to PP2 export utilities.

If you need more info just ask here...

sriesch

If you have Bryce, here is the link to the Spherical Mapper product: http://www.daz3d.com/bryce-7-pro-spherical-mapper
and some more about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezaIjl97EGc

Here are some threads discussing this:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2895/
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20776/

jerriecan

Thank you both for your replies. I have a copy of Bryce 7, and have been trying to render my own skydomes using your advice. I can't afford the Spherical mapper yet, but have had some success at duplicating the effect I want. The problem is that the render times for a whole city on my less-than-powerful PC (Stonemason's Urban Sprawl 2, to be precise) will be prohibitive at the quality I need. Basically, I could make it work, but the time and effort it would take are just not worth it when other means will suffice. Live and learn, I suppose. :)

Thank you both again for your assistance. :)