Skybox

Search for skydomes

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=359215

In order to implement skyboxes properly, you need to take into account the deformation and compensate for it in the texture first of all. That's why it doesn't look properly in your case.

Wrong.
Wrong.

Obviously the OP uses downloaded texture, so the deformation is taken into account.

Get the transformation matrix
Set the translation part: last row or column (depending on the matrix representation) to [0,0,0,1].

Why do you set one of the elements -10?

Could you post a screen-shot from 3ds Max and outside the skybox?

I've taken texture from: http://www.3delyvisions.com/skf1.htm

"Why do you set one of the elements -10?"
I changed, to -0.4. It solves the problem with going out of box, somewhat. But the sky itself looks very high and even more deformed.



Here's the screen from max:


P.S. What does OP mean?

1. A skybox should always be "fixed" to the camera, but should rotate with it. Hence (0, 0, 0) for the translation component.
2. OP = Original Poster
3. You want to model the skybox inside out - you only care what the inside looks like, not the outside. As it is, it's modeled so the outside is the front face.
I'd also move it so the centre of the box is at (0, 0, 0), rather than sitting on the XZ plane, otherwise the camera would be inside the ground plane when it's at (0, 0, 0).

I was curious about the screenshot from outside, because it gives more information simultaneously.

Yes, the center of the cube has to be in 0,0,0, so the x-y plane should 'cut" the cube in half. So you have to fix it in 3ds Max (or build the cube inside your program, it's simpler than using a model for that)
On the other hand, the texture itself looks okay.

An other important thing: lighting should be disabled when rendering the skybox.

Thank you Steve and szecs,
I used this tutorial: http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/skybox.html and it said to translate to matView._41 = 0.0f; matView._42 = -0.4f; matView._43 = 0.0f; Didn't get why he needed -0.4f, but using 0, 0, 0 works. Also I moved the cube so now 0, 0, 0 is at the center of the cube and the skybox finally looks like a real sky:

Szecs, didn't I turn off light before rendering with this?
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_ZENABLE, FALSE);
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_ZWRITEENABLE, FALSE);
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_LIGHTING, FALSE);

And after that turn it on:
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_ZENABLE, TRUE);
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_ZWRITEENABLE, TRUE);
pDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_LIGHTING, TRUE);

It would be also great if you could tell me where should I put this:
pDevice->SetSamplerState(0, D3DSAMP_ADDRESSU, D3DTADDRESS_CLAMP);
pDevice->SetSamplerState(0, D3DSAMP_ADDRESSV, D3DTADDRESS_CLAMP);
If I understand correctly it should make sky look even better? I just don't know where to put it. Does it make a big difference if this is used correctly?

Been a while since I've used FFP but I think:

pDevice->SetSamplerState(0, D3DSAMP_ADDRESSU, D3DTADDRESS_CLAMP);
pDevice->SetSamplerState(0, D3DSAMP_ADDRESSV, D3DTADDRESS_CLAMP);

Will just set the internal pixel shader to clamp the texture lookup to the 0.0f - 1.0f range so the texture doesn't tile. This isn't really necessary here I think.

I guess the reason the toymaker tutorial sets a -0.4f in Y is to set the player a little lower in the skybox, and since like they said your skybox isn't centered you just end up under it altogether. I recommend centering your skybox model in 3DS as recommended and leaving the translation at 0,0,0.