If you want arty to be useful or have commanders on the map, then you probably will have to make one hueg (like xbox) skybox for the map.
hollowing out gives the same effect as making 6 brushes and putting them together like a box, both is sloppy http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b...ife/empires/?action=view¤t=440a778e.png 1 is what normal maps should look like, skybox is made in a way that all the space where a grenade could never fly trough, a player could never get to, and still is visible is filled with as much skybox blocks as possible every building that is not enter able should be func detailed up to the pont that if you would hide fun_detail it should look like a solid brick with only minimal architecture (preferably, none) visible, i sometimes make a block in nodraw texture and dress it with func_details until it is a proper building enter able buildings should be the same as with not enter able buildings, only hollow, floors should stay world brushes for larger buildings, and walls for small interior rooms should be separate funk_details per "stacked rooms" inside the (in closed position) door that leads to the outside world should be an area portal linked to the door that seals off the building, and all windows should be sealed off with area portals, so that once the door is closed, and the window isn't looked trough the buildings insides do not get rendered 2 is what empires maps should look like, important is that the top skybox is flat, or else the commander scrolling over the map at highest zoom altitude could get stuck very very often 3 some of the most seen flaws in common and popular maps (including some official maps) is that the skybox is one giant box, this makes up for a lot of unused space that is still rendered and compiled, and the fact that water is used to fill up space that does not need filling with water both combined lead to the lag that is seen today the best result is to make the orange areas as small as possible in your map, and the red fields (the void) should be kept as big as you can (note, the thickness of your skybox brushes/world brushes that make up your boundaries to the void has no effect n them, only the texture that seals off your map gets compiled)
To double check that I understand: The orange is the unused space contained within the skybox, that wouldn't normally be considered 'sky' anyways, correct? So you are saying that the mappers make the mistake of making the skybox extend too tall (too thick) over the playable area (e.g. adding skybox height over the skyscraper brush that a player couldn't stand on anyways)? And you are saying that it's wrong to extend the skybox subterranean (i.e. it's wrong to have a skybox brush extend below the the playable area)? And the skybox should be contained, in whole, within an untextured void brush? Thanks for info. I think this should be added to the Empires wiki as a "Empires mapping standard" if it is correct.
On a minimum height for a skybox, so it doesn't interfere with the play---nading, wired alt-fire of RPGs, highest mortar angle---are there any specs for skybox brush height, so the skybox doesn't contain the weapons fire unrealistically?
What? A displacement does not block visbility. A func_detail does not block visibility. A displacement does exactly the same as a func_detail, except you can displace it. Therefore tying it to a func_detail would serve no purpose. As high as you can make it. If it isn't stuck to the top of some of your geometry it isn't doing any optimisation work, so it doesn't matter how high you make it.
