[C++] Metin2 | Skybox Rework - Kaiser

Kaiser · April 16, 2025

WARNING
This edit is not an edit that can be added and used immediately. After doing the operations here, no matter how many sky options you have in your game, none of them will work as they are and will break the world scene. After doing the operations here, you will have to re-edit all your sky textures with programs like Photoshop, GIMP, etc. You need to edit the ambiance, material, light position and other features in accordance with this new editing and texture processing logic!

I have just finished the system that I started to do a long time ago with curiosity or enthusiasm and then put it aside. Metin2's sky structure works as a cube and separate textures are used and dressed for each face of this cube (6). I think it would be more useful to change this logic and dress this cube with a single horizontal cross texture. Thus, instead of searching all forums just to make it compatible with Metin2 to use a new and different sky, you can now add a sky that you find even on Google to the game.

It was difficult to prepare, and it will be difficult for users to use. However, after creating and settling the basic structure, this arrangement will give you flexibility and comfort in the future. The only condition here is that the texture you will use is in the "cross" structure and horizontal. I had thought of something like this to make the use dynamic and it is finally ready. It has a structure that is open and suitable for development and editing.

Before we start:
What is cross sky?

It is a texture map of the cubemap type and can be used in different sizes in each project. (1:1, 3:2, 4:3 etc.)
The size Metin2 uses is usually 4x3.

Example used in this explanation (4 columns, 3 rows):

To explain more clearly; you can use only this type of image as the sky by putting it in a pack. However, there is a small but important detail about the subject. I will state it below.

I will make the explanation simple and broad so that people will be careful. Please pay attention to the operations.

This is the hidden content, please

That's all the changes. The small and important detail I mentioned above is that you need to rotate the +Y position (top) 90° right in the sky texture you will use. I don't understand why, but Metin2 processes the texture in this coordinate this way. Otherwise, the texture of the top point in the sky will be upside down.

Pic:

Final(only skybox):

The file format can be chosen as PNG and DDS.
DDS format without alpha channel: DXT1
DDS format with alpha channel: DXT5 (File size may increase.)

Example usage in msenv file:

Group SkyBox
{
    bTextureRenderMode    1
    Scale                 1500.000000 3000.000000 1500.000000
    GradientLevelUpper    4
    GradientLevelLower    1
    SetSkyBoxImage	   "D:\ymir work\environment\Skybox\vanilia\test1.dds"
    
	CloudScale            0.000000 0.000000
    CloudHeight           30000.000000
    CloudTextureScale     0.000000 0.000000
    CloudSpeed            0.000000 0.000000
    CloudTextureFileName  ""
    List CloudColor
    {
        0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
        0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
    }
    List Gradient
    {
        0.764706 0.792157 0.823529 0.000000
        0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
        
        0.796078 0.835294 0.874510 0.000000
        0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
    }
}

Edited April 18, 2025 by blaxis
changed pic links