Looking out the window...

I need to make a window which you can look out and see the sky. I can only get the floor and ceiling textures to be real sky textures - the walls of the outside sector don't have any texture like that. The only sky textures they have don't scroll. How do I do this? I know it's possible because I've seen it done in other wads.

Here's an easy way. It involves having three sectors. Let's just label them sectors A, B, and C.

Sector A is your "window"

Sector B is exactly the same as the room, except that it has the sky ceiling.

Sector C is the Sky. It has a sky ceiling, and is adjacent to sector B. This sector's ceiling height should be set to 1 higher than the floor.

If you want, you can set sectors B and C to be hidden from the automap, to unclutter some things.

ravage said:

height should be set to 1 higher than the floor.

what?

You need 2 outdoor sectors - sector A (adjacent to the window, where any scenery etc. will go) and sector B (surrounding sector A, except the window and the wall next to it). Imagine that sector A is a square attached to the wall and the window, and sector B is a C-shape wrapped around it, but also attached to the wall.

If the window has heights of (32, 96) and sector A is (0, 128) and sector B should be (0, 0). Both sectors should have F_SKY1 on the ceiling, floors can be anything you want. There should be no upper textures between sectors A and B.

The heights can be anything you want, but the important bit is that sector B should have identical floor/ceiling heights and, for your application, should equal the floor height of sector A.

(You can have these heights higher than the floor of sector A, in which case put a lower texture between the two sectors, to create the sky effects seen in many Phobos maps where the brown wall round the outside of an outdoor area is not as tall as the buildings)

Ultimate DooMer said:

There should be no upper textures between sectors A and B.

But that would generate a texture error. So I found another way: I used the SKY1 texture for that. Actually, I read somewhere that two sectors with different ceiling heights, but which both have F_SKY1 as the ceiling texture, should automatically have that no matter what you put in. Anyway, it worked! I now have a simulated mountain and cliff. Thanks, everyone. My wad is going to look really cool now.

netnomad312 said:

But that would generate a texture error.

It wouldn't, as upper textures between 2 sectors with F_SKY1 ceilings are invisible. (an important feature for changing the ceiling height in the middle of an outdoor area - usually to create a building with a different height to the others - without being able to see the change)

netnomad312 said:

But that would generate a texture error.

As Ultimate DooMer pointed out no texture is required, and in some cases will look wrong. Most editors will warn that the upper texture is missing, but they only check the difference in adjacent sector heights.

For a good example try map24 of the new Alien Vendetta, you'll find plenty of examples of the effect.

It's not that. It's for the sake of checking the level; WadAuthor will see it as an error if I have no sky texture there.

Thats what I said, the editors (wadauthor etc) will see an error and report it even though a texture isn't nescessary.

WadAuthor doesn't report missing upper textures if the sectors both have F_SKY1 as the ceiling. (as it's not a bug)