Source SDK Cubemaps

Oooh, what are these strange and wonderful orbs? In this tutorial I'll show you what they are, then after some examples I'll show you how to make one.

Download the map here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php...

Can't be bothered to wait? The tutorial starts at 1:50

The textures I used were;
(The 8 walls)
brick/brickwall014b
metal/metalwall048a (Also the ceiling)
metal/metalroof004a
tile/tilefloor009a
nature/sandfloor010a
tile/tilefloor009a
skybox/stonefloor008a
nature/rockfloor003a

and the ground was

de_dust/tilefloor02

If anybody wants to get really technical...
REAL TIME CUBEMAPS are available in Far Cry 1, not Far Cry 2 for some reason, you can see it in the sniper scope. Real time cubemaps may or may not have been used on NPCs eyes in Half Life 2, some how I doubt it.

You can fix the problem with the reflective floor not showing what's above it by placing loads of env_cubemaps every where and having separate floor blocks under every one.

Some people suggest placing an env_cubemap next to every window, quite frankly as long as it looks good with just one placed in the level I don't see the need unless you're aiming for absolute perfection.

Finally, that white shine on weapons and stuff is due to HDR being enabled. YOU HAVE TO BUILDCUBEMAPS if you use HDR, and these won't be compatible with people who don't have HDR enabled and so on. Every situation is different, I'm getting bogged down by hundreds of people asking for my personal opinion on the placing of stuff in maps so I really can't help individuals with their placement of cubemaps. Experiment, see what looks right, learn from your mistakes. If you wonder if something will work, don't ask- try it for yourself. You learn more about it that way.

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