Poor sky rendering

[jjzelinski]

I should probably know this by now but why does it seem like ever since they introduced DXTC on Q3 the sky boxes in games have become cruddy? By cruddy I mean instead of smooth gradients of blue or whatever there's banding, splotching, and what generalyl looks like crappy textures. Everywhere else the textures may look great, but still the sky looks like crap. Any recommonendations?

NEC LCD 1280*1024 native, 16.7m colors
ti4200-6800nu-7900gt
XP Pro SP2, 50 generations of video drivers

 

[BFG10K]

What games are you talking about specifically?

Sky problems should be a thing of the past and if you get them in modern games you've probably got your gamma cranked too high so it's washing the colours out.

 

[jjzelinski]

Well Q4 for instance. I don't THINK it's a gama thing since everything else looks fine, but I suppose I can take a look at it. I had always figured it was some texture compression issue. Perhaps I'll take a screen shot for you when I can get back on my system.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
Well Q4 for instance. I don't THINK it's a gama thing since everything else looks fine, but I suppose I can take a look at it. I had always figured it was some texture compression issue. Perhaps I'll take a screen shot for you when I can get back on my system.

Quake 4 sky looks like crap, yes.

 

[BFG10K]

It looks fine to me.

 

[jjzelinski]

If the sky in Q4 naturally looks that bad that's really dissapointing. How can you possibly take an outdoor environment seriously if the sky looks like crap?

And BFG, what I'm refering to is the graininess of the texture they used; it looks horrendous. Kind of like a 128*128 stretched across a sky box.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
Kind of like a 128*128 stretched across a sky box.

That's usually what it is in iD engines. Look to QuakeWars to change this, maybe?

 

[xtknight]

The textures are usually JPEGs AFAIK and I also notice some pretty ugly skies in Quake 3 and especially Wolfenstein. Not sure but the Q4 skies have always looked decent to me.

 

[apoppin]

i just played Q4 and the sky textures did not look out of place. . . . nothing i would call 'crappy textures'.

For an old game, Painkiller has some pretty cool sky boxes . . . i guess it's also the attention to detail and the priority the devs assign it.

 

[Dkcode]

Off topic but Oblivion & Morrowind have some of the greatest sky boxes ive ever seen.

 

[BFG10K]

How can you possibly take an outdoor environment seriously if the sky looks like crap?

[shrugs]

Again it looks fine to me, what I would expect an alien sky to look like when it's filled with smoke and debris.

If it bothers you that much try running Ultra Quality and see if that improves.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Dkcode
Off topic but Oblivion & Morrowind have some of the greatest sky boxes ive ever seen.

I'd agree to that. The character you play as is a brick simulator that can't realistically go downhill without getting hurt, but the sky does indeed look very good.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

How can you possibly take an outdoor environment seriously if the sky looks like crap?

[shrugs]

Again it looks fine to me, what I would expect an alien sky to look like when it's filled with smoke and debris.

If it bothers you that much try running Ultra Quality and see if that improves.

agreed . . . Q4's sky does not look out of place with the rest of the game . . . NO "banding, splotching, and what generalyl looks like crappy textures"

and i didn't see any difference between Hi and Ultra quality
- x850xt @ 11x8 . . . all good
:thumbsup:

 

[jjzelinski]

See that's my concern, if you're not seeing the graininess I am that suggests I've got some kind of driver issue. Just to be clear, I am looking for perfectly smooth color transitions in the sky box like what you would find in Far Cry.

 

[BFG10K]

Why don't you post a screenshot to show us?

 

[McArra]

Could it be your monitor?

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Why don't you post a screenshot to show us?