[No] Let sector rotation affect sky angle

[gramps]

Currently the angle the sky is viewed from isn't affected by sector rotation (as in Sector_SetRotation or the UDMF rotation fields).

Rotating the sky angle according to the sector rotation would be useful for getting a panoramic sky texture lined up properly across a portal.

Also, it would be useful if that sector rotation angle were applied to the viewing angle of skybox cameras as well, so that setting the proper rotation on a sector would also fix skybox rendering in the same situation.

[Rachael]

Has this ever worked? This almost looks like it should be a feature suggestion rather than a bug...

[gramps]

Not sure if it ever worked. Some issue trackers I've used would probably class this as an "improvement" instead of a bug or feature.

It was something I expected to work, but didn't, so I thought it was more of a bug than a feature. Feel free to move it, though.

[Gez]

Sky rotation is already handled in MAPINFO. And for MBF's sky transfers you can even make them rotate by using a texture scroller on the control line if I'm not mistaken.

[Rachael]

I'm moving this to feature suggestions then.

Bugs are only for things that have worked at one time and now don't, or for features that are not working as the developer who created them originally intended (that is, anything a system library or driver is not otherwise responsible for). "Improvements", as you would say, count as feature suggestions.

[gramps]

@Gez: I mean having the sky in one sector rotated differently from the sky in another, so if you put a portal linking those two areas between two lines with different angles, you can adjust the sky angle to agree with the portal angle so it doesn't look screwed up when viewed through the portal.

Actually I might be able to use that as a workaround for now though, thanks. I can just set up different copies of the sky texture for each possible portal angle and set the sky to that texture in the affected sectors. Of course that won't fix skyboxes but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

@Rachel: So "bugs" is only for regressions? I can't be sure about what the developer originally intended; all I know is it looks like a partly-implemented feature. This is why "improvements" is actually a useful category; I didn't just make it up, for example I'm pretty sure it's built into Jira along with "bugs" and "features."

[Gez]

In this case it's not a bug because the ceiling of the sector is not drawn; it's replaced by the sky. The sky flat itself is irrelevant, as long as it's the sky flat it's replaced by the sky, so the ceiling's offsets and angle do not matter, they modify something that is not visible. I agree that being able to control sky rotation on a sector basis can be useful, and that using ceiling angle for that (or floor angle, for a sky floor) would be logical, but that's definitely a new feature -- call it improvement or enhancement if you want.

It may even need to get a MAPINFO keyword to enable, if there are maps that would apply unwanted angles to skies as a consequence of this change if it were implemented. (Relatively unlikely, but who knows?)

[gramps]

that's definitely a new feature -- call it improvement or enhancement if you want.

I would definitely file it under improvement or enhancement if I could, and of course you guys could move it if it looks more like a new feature on that end. From a user perspective it just looks like there's a floor/ceiling rotating feature that doesn't work properly on skies... actual behavior differs from expected behavior, not "I have an idea for a cool new sky-rotating feature".

[Rachael]

Look - Gramps - you think the way you do, we have our way of doing things, we're obviously not going to convince you - let's stop doing this. You made your point, we made our's, let's move on to the merits of the issue of the ticket itself, not whether it should be a feature/improvement/whatever.

[gramps]

Fair enough, I reworded it to look more new-featurey.

[Graf Zahl]

Sector_SetRotation has nothing to do with the sky. This is an entirely different feature and should not be combined.

[gramps]

Alright, I guess sector rotation is intended to be more single-purpose than I realized. I figured since it fixes the alignment of flat surfaces, it would make sense if it fixed the alignment of skies in the same way.

Of course adding new fields and new functions to call would be great too, we can just fill both sets of fields out or call both functions if we want everything lined up.

Interestingly there doesn't seem to be any possible workaround at the moment, with Static_Init and SkyPickers only working at map init time, and only up to two skies available outside of that. I'm curious if anyone can think of a workaround for this in the meantime.

(One thing that could work is creating a separate skybox camera for each area that needs to be rotated, and then rotate them all after the portals are linked up, but that could involve a couple hundred skybox cameras in my case and I'm not sure how it would affect performance).