SC2Mapster

Heya. I've never looked too deeply into the terrain data before. I'm trying to figure out how to make it look like the land/platform is floating above dark storm clouds or something.

I know space platforms and the Korhal platform can look like they're floating above stuff, so it should be possible. But I can't find any models for a skybox that would look like that.

I also tried messing with fog settings, but all that did is slightly grayed out my terrain. No matter how dense I tried to make the fog, only the terrain would be affected; the skybox would still show through just as clearly, which is the opposite of what I was trying to go for.

Is there a way, with skyboxes and/or fog, to make it look like your land is floating above thick, dark storm clouds?

From the FAQ:

Quote from Mozared: Go

How do I create the space 'background' you see in some Blizzard maps?

This looks more complicated than it is - just use the lower cliff function. Spacy 'background' really is the equivalent of lower (unpathable) ground on other non-space tilesets.

If your terrain is lowered as much as it possibly can and you still get regular terrain (instead of the 'background' you want), you're using a tileset that doesn't have a background by default. You can set it by altering the "(Basic) Background Model (Not Fixed)" and "(Basic) Hide Lowest Level" fields in the Terrain Types section of the data editor to pick a background and turn it on, respectively.

Ah yeah, I did figure that part out. I was testing various tilesets by creating 32x32 maps with them. Even if the lowest level isn't hidden, you can still see if there's a background.

What I meant to ask was more along the lines of, is there a model or setting that can get the look of dark clouds? If not, I'd have to figure out how to make my own.

I did try setting the Background model to Snow Wind, but that just makes little white breezes blow across the field.

Oh my god, I found the perfect one! Hybrid Gas Giant Skybox. I just need to make it gray and it will be perfect.

Ah, right - I may have misread your initial post.

In that case, I'd say getting that look would be pretty hard without the use of custom models or such. One thing you could try is turning a regular skybox into a doodad, coloring that black-ish (or just darker), and lowering/turning it to be beneath the map. It's a crazy idea, but it might just work. I don't think recoloring the models for the unfixed backgrounds can be done in the editor, though it's worth giving a try.

Give us a screenie of what you end up going with, though, I'm getting curious now.

I did it! And I didn't even have to export the model or make it a doodad!

After a bunch of searching for info, here's what I did:

• Viewed the 'Hybrid Gas Giant Sky Box' model in the Cutscene Editor. (Requires HotS dependency.)
• Went to Object -> Model Data. (Shift+D)
• Noted the texture it used that made it orange: smoketile2orange.dds.
• Found the texture I wanted (smoketile.dds), exported it, and renamed it to smoketile2orange.dds.
• Imported it back in again. (Now renamed.)
• Changed its location to Assets/Textures/smoketile2orange.dds.
• Exited and reloaded the map.

The imported texture now overrides the existing texture. The model is hard-coded to use a certain texture in a certain location, so overriding the texture it finds changes its color.

For extra fun, you can change the animation speed to make the clouds faster! But you have to exit and reload to see the change. (Though in the end I decided it's fast enough at default.)

The only way to make this better would be if this could be done without exporting and re-importing the texture. I don't know how to access the textures for renaming.

@Amaroq64: Go

Thanks for your follow-up! I'm thinking I should maybe add a section of 'useful ideas' to the FAQ to link to threads such as these. Either way, it's another nice entry into the 'database'.

@Mozared: Go

Let's be fair. All useful ideas can be boiled down to one thing: adding more rocks.

Wow, that looks amazing.

Also whoa, what's that twisty turny pipe thing? Does it come in sections? I may have use for that if it does...

How did she get that thick fog effect?

EDIT: On the original topic, I think the most important thing I took away from this is that you can easily recolor models without having to export the models themselves. Just find the relevant texture that the model is hard-coded to search for, and import the desired texture using the same name. Then position it on the file tree where the model looks for it.

So all you're really doing is just overriding an existing texture so the model uses the new one.

Quote from Amaroq64: Go

Also whoa, what's that twisty turny pipe thing? Does it come in sections?

It does, it's the "HotS - Starship Vent" doodad. You need to enable HotS campaign dependencies to access it. The "HotS - Starship Vent Door" doodad acts as an entrance, and it should be very possible to make the things walkable, like in the ZExpedition03 map from the HotS campaign. Try the "HotS - Umojan Lab Catwalk" doodads for a more Terran version of the same thing, by the way.

As for the fog; there are multiple ways to achieve that and it shouldn't be too hard, but I'll let her tell you herself.

Aw, it looks awesome, but I was hoping it would come in cross or T shapes too.