Skydome

[bnewton81]

Is it ok to use an image that is really big for my skydome? I mean like 10k x 10k px. I probably wouldn't use one that big. Actually it would be more like 7000x1080 (7000 being the width). The only way around using a large image that i can see is making it all blue and using lots of different uv stencils/maps to make clouds and objects that may be in the sky.

[tachzusamm]

I use an image of 2048 by 1024 for my skydome, and it's pretty enough. 10k x 10k is FAR too big.
Keep in mind you will not be able (at least, I assume it's true for your Age) to get a close-up view of the dome image. Normally it's just the surrounding, viewed from far.

[bnewton81]

Good point. I hadn't thought of that. As long as I keep it from being possible to fill the screen with my skydome, it will look fine at a smaller scale. Very helpful as always.

[bnewton81]

Also one more question. How do you see skydomes? Aren't they beyond viewable area as they are too far away, or does that "viewable area limit" blender has not apply to plasma? Do you understand what I'm asking? Whenever I create a skydome in blender I have to move the camera right on top of it to see it, else it is beyond the viewable area limit and gets cut out.

[bnewton81]

answered my own question. It is a camera option to clip the scene between .10 and 100 units. These parameters can be changed.

[bnewton81]

I'm thinking of doing a texture of a star field which is easy enough and will look fine tiled, and using decals of planets, moons, comets, nebulae etc. Am i on the right track with that thinking? Any tips?

[Aloys]

I'm thinking of doing a texture of a star field which is easy enough and will look fine tiled, and using decals of planets, moons, comets, nebulae etc. Am i on the right track with that thinking?

Yes.
You never see all of a skydome at the same time in the game, at best you only see a third of it. So tilling (and possibly decals to add details) is definitely a right way to go. Unless your Age doesn't use a lot of textures, in which case you can allow to create a very large non-tilling sky texture; but in most cases a tiling texture is the way to go.

[edit] to make my point clearer: because you never see all of the skydome at the same time you can get away with a tiling texture because you will never see the tiling effect on the screen anyway; no need to use a large non-tiling texture. That's how most Cyan skydomes are (Cleft, Teledahn etc)