Hotsun's 4K skybox pack

Hi there,
I am currently making 10 realistic skyboxes which have 4096x4096 textures for 5 sides and a 32x32 for the buttom.

First you may think why should you use 4K textures for your skybox,Here are 2 important reasons:
1.We are going to a new generation of graphic in video games and why you don't,there are 4K monitors out there and their prices are going down by the time,don't forget to consider some gamers with 3 or more monitors.
2.If your player can zoom in your game(like using a sniper gun in an FPS game) then you will really need 4K skyboxes as the player can easily zoom into it's pixels.

I will also include alpha maps for the skyboxes so you will have more control over them when you are using image effects which can use alpha channel ( like bloom).
And also there will be a very short tutorial for removing the alpha channel in Photoshop for those who won't use kind of that image effects.
Here is a preview of the first skybox inside of Unity :


Just wonder what price is good for this package?!?
I want your opinion about both the package itself and it's price.

 

Just remember that 4096*4096*RGB*5 = 240 megabytes of video RAM if uncompressed.

 

Yes,and those with 4K monitors should have at least 2GB of VRAM.

By the way,anyone new to game designing can easily lower the resolution of the textures if they don't need 4K.

And about the download size I have to tell you that the textures are in .tga format so they can be extremely compressed using winrar.
Each skybox will become about 5.2 MB and the whole package will become 52MB while the uncompressed textures are about 48MB each.

 

And you can always reduce the size or compression your self. Having HQ starting material is always a +.

 

Using 4k maps is good idea, but what i found out mostly problem with all skyboxes on Asset store or even Sky creation tools - systems is simply that quallity and density of clouds is too small. With that said i am looking for generally clear sky with clouds here and there and using 4k maps to get their resolution nicely going, maybe even using billboard clouds in clear sky skybox is also something interesting. For example check any skybox of Rome total war 2 to see what i mean.

 

So I will make another skybox package(maybe free) which will include 10 empty skyboxes with different daytime and sun position ;-)
There is a package in the assets store called "3D Cloud Models" from "Quantum Theory" which includes some nice billboard clouds with specific shaders,but as I remember shaders didn't work with DX11,check before buying.

 

are these 4k skys, hdr?

currently hdr skyboxes go for around $100 for about 20+ skyboxes
non hdr skyboxes go for around $10 for about $20+ skyboxes

so theres a big difference because hdr has information that can be used by image based lighting shaders such as marmosets SkyShop, which itself is $100+ and doesnt include skys as open as yours. Infact they only include 2 or 3 that come from free sources that arent really made for games.

Also skyshop allows you to use the information from .hdr images to bake the lighting into the scene. Which is the one thing that skyshop requires a .hdr file for.

Let me know if these are HDR =)

 

Sorry for late answer,I just completed some other skyboxes,I bought Marmoset Skyshop and tested some HDR things

I think I can include the HDR textures too,but I need some more tests to be sure if everything is ok ;-)

 

Today I finished more basic tests on HDR skyboxes,I just imported the .hdr format of my skybox into Unity and it automatically made the .png files and I made a cubemap using the 6 textures of my skybox and added to the marmoset skyshop scene,everything was working just fine but I need to import 6 textures for each skybox and make a cubemap inside of Unity but Marmoset Skyshop's skybox examples are only one texture which can be bad because in this type they can be 4096x2048 as maximum but it is only one texture and is a little more optimized.


If you add 6 sides of a skyboxe to a cubemap independently you can have 2048x2048 pxl for each side so if you consider all 6 sides are one texture then it is working like a 8192x4096 sky which is better at quality and if you don't like this size of textures,you can easily resize the texture sizes to make it more optimize.

If anyone think having one texture worth it just tell me( if I convinced) then I will try to find a way to make one texture for each skybox.

 

I see not so much activity on my topic.
Anyway I done ten 4K skyboxes in both normal shape(six 4096*4096 textures per sky) in .tga format and HDRI shape(each skybox is a 4096*2048 texture) and is in .hdr format and certainly all of the HDRI skies(Panorama) are Marmoset ready.

Here is an example of a cloudy skybox.



I think it just take 4 or 5 weeks to be complete and available on Assets store.(I hope)

This can be your question:
One of my friends asked me why we need the lower half of the Panorama's skies which are blue?
Answer:
You can easily change the color to your own ground,for example you can change it to asphalt texture if your scene has to many asphalt roads.

 

I'm glad to see your able to get the hdr information into the images.

Im not sure about the blue ground on the bottom as a default.

if its baked into your textures. what ive mostly seen is a darker shade of the general colors used in the image. like if a sun is setting but its a blue sky, i would see orange darkened towards that sides bottom and blue for the rest darkened towards the bottom.

I simply dont have time to edit bottoms, i love when they are generalized and common to be used in many scenarios, plus a gray or black bottom is neutral, and will allow for a blue ocean bottom but with a gray bottom on your skymap would look natural. since gray is a neutral color.

 

Thanks.

You're right,what I said about the Blue part was only an example,in different skies it will change.

It actually wont take lots of time,not more than making a new skybox for yourself
I will test the gray color and will ask other guys before uploading.

 

Did you render them with Vue or Terragen?

 

Nope,But I can make mountains with VUE and add them to the skies using photoshop ;-)
Do you like this???

All of the skies are complete but unfortunately my bank account is having some problems with my commercial paypal and they have to answer because I didn't anything wrong and it's all their problem,anyway I have to apology because it's not your problem too.