SkyDome

SHORT DESCRIPTION

SKYDOME v0.3x EXAMPLES
 

Time:8am, Contrast Thresh:0.0,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.	Time:8am, Contrast Thresh:0.2,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.
Time:8am, Contrast Thresh:0.5,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.	Time:8am, Contrast Thresh:0.5,  Intensity 0.8, 126 Lights.
Time:7pm, Contrast Thresh:0.0,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.	Time:7pm, Contrast Thresh:0.2,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.
Time:7pm, Contrast Thresh:0.5,  Intensity 1.2, 126 Lights.	Time:7pm, Contrast Thresh:0.5,  Intensity 0.8, 126 Lights.

MORE SKYDOME EXAMPLES:

• Ford Renderings with SkyDome v0.1
• The Very First Examples of SkyDome v0.1

INSTALLATION

• Download the Zip File.
• Unzip to your \Scripts directory.
• Place the file CLDSMAP.JPG  into your \Maps path. (SkyDome will NOT work without this file!)
• Start MAX 3.x
• Go to MAXScript drop-down menu in the Main Menu, select Run Script, pick the SkyDome MS file
• Right-click a toolbar, select Customize...
• Find the Category "Bobo_s Tools" and click on SkyDome
• Drag the button reading "SkyDome" to the toolbar
• Close the Customize dialog.
• To launch the utility, press the SkyDome button on the toolbar.

FEATURES

Fixed a bug that let the lights at their original position after moving and recreating a SkyDome away from world origin.
Thanks to Geoff Kornfeld for catching this one!
 

NEW IN Version 0.35 (9/8/2000)
 
 

When you move an existing Skydome away from the world origin and hit CREATE NEW SKYDOME to update geometry, the new SkyDome will appear on exactly the same custom position and not back at the origin...   Added control for Shadow Map Bias value and Absolute/Relative mode to avoid shadow problems and give even more control with large scenes.   Reordered the UI to make more sense - separate Lighting and Shadows areas with respective controls. Used more colorful checkbuttons and introduced some more tooltips to help new users with the usage...   Some other minor cosmetic changes...

NEW IN Version 0.3 (8/18/2000)
 

Included two new buttons to implement SunSystem support:

[>Pick Sun] lets the user select an existing MAX SunSystem Light. The light will be turned off after picking. The vector of the light will be used to define a major sky light direction.

The [X] button is for removing the SunSystem from the SkyDome setup.

When a Sun has been picked, a new value called "Contrast Thresh." will be enabled. It defines the contrast between the "sun side" and the cloudy part of the sky. When the value is 0, SkyLights that are parallel to the Sun vector will have their usual intensity. Lights that are not parallel will be proportionally dimmed down to intensity of 0. When the threshold is higher, SkyLights that are not parallel will not be dimmed down to 0 and the image will have less contrast (brighter shadows) but more brightness. (See EXAMPLES)

A progress bar has been added for both creating and updating the SkyDome.

The Horizon Height is calculated now in LOCAL coordinates. When set to 0, all vertices (even those at the lower edge) will receive SkyLights, no matter where in the World the SkyDome is.

All UI settings will be stored in the SkyDome object itself. If you save the scene, restart MAX and load the scene again, pressing the SkyDome button will launch the script with the exactly same settings as the current SkyDome. This will let you tweak/update settings even years later!

New checkbox: Show Falloff will toggle the display of SkyLight01 (the one from the zenith) with Falloff display enabled. Useful for tweaking the Falloff range of all lights.

Added Sample Range control (between 0.0 and 50.0) to allow for smoother soft shadows.

New Shadow Density control (sets the Shadow Density of all lights).

New Shadow Color selector (default is black)

To change any Sky Dome Lighting parameter, use the [Update Dome] button.

To change any Sky Dome Geometry parameter, press [CREATE NEW SKYDOME] button. Since all UI parameters are intersession-sticky, the resulting Skydome will be a copy of the old one with the new parameter updated!

Version 0.1 (3/5/2000)

• Press CREATE NEW SKYDOME to create a new dome. It will be placed at world's origin.
• The Dome is half Geosphere with the specified Radius and number of segments.
• The Horizon Height value is used when creating lights. Vertex Z coordinates that are bellow this value in world coordinates will NOT receive lights.
• By default, a new Sky Material will be created using the CLDSMAP.JPG bitmap. To use a custom Sky Material, place it into the first sample slot of the Material Editor and set the Radio Button to the second option.
• The custom Material should contain a Bitmap Texture in the Diffuse Map slot. If it doesn't, the default CLDSMAP.JPG texture bitmap will be assigned automatically.
• The "# Lights" value will show the current number of SkyLights in the scene.
• The "Sky Light Intensity" value specifies the total intensity of all SkyLights. It will be divided through the number of lights to define a base multiplier value. It will be then modulated by the pixel color value at the sky vertex.
• The Falloff defines the Light's Fallof Range. It is the region where shadows will be  generated. Overshoot will be turned ON automatically.
• The Radio buttons contreol the type of Light to be used. The default is TargetDirect. Optionally Target Spots can be used. The Targets of all spots will point at the focus point of the Dome. Both lights and targets will be linked to the Dome, so they can be moved around by moving the Dome. All Lights will be Frozen and Hidden.
• The Shadow Map Size defines the single light's shadow map size. You can use the 4 buttons to quickly set common values.
• The Saturation Limit value defines how much of the sky's color should be used in the light's color. You can increase the value for typical sunset scenes... Use the 4 buttons to quickly set common values. The value is used as a top limit - any values higher than the threshold entered will be clamped to the limit value. Values bellow the threshold will not be changed.
• The "Affect Specular Highlights" is checked by default. When unchecked, the sky will affect only the diffuse color of the objects but will not generate highlights.

The [Update Dome] button lets the user update all current SkyLights in the scene to the values in the rollout.

DOWNLOAD SkyDome

Version 0.37 MacroScript Source
This version provides an experimental fix for the International MAX Versions problem.
If your version of MAX R3 cannot run SkyDome 0.36, please try the above version. It is NOT
advised to use 0.37 if you can run 0.36 without problems.

3ds max 4 users can use the 0.37 version. Although not the official recompile for max 4, it turned out that
it works there. It avoids using the Slice Plane modifier at all, which solves the problems the original
0.36 version had with max 4.

You can also use the HDR Dome Light script by Chris Subagio which is pretty cool and very similar.