Custom Skybox From Google StreetView
Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:34 pm
Things you will need for the tutorial:
A brain (seriously you will)
Streetview Grabber Program http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... 27&t=50248 (you may need to disable your antivirus while downloading it, mine was going crazy but it is fine once it is downloaded)
Photoshop or another photo editing software (or not but you will really have to search streetview otherwise)
JLVs POVray Script http://forum.mxsimulator.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2868
Ok, so here are the instructions:
1.First we need to find a area in Google Streetview with acceptable quality (you can use a spherical panorama that you downloaded instead but that isn't very custom is it?). For this tutorial I am making a skybox for Arkansaw Cycle Park in Wisconsin (I didn't name it...). Unfortunately for me there is no streetview on the road the track is on so I started exploring. There are a few roads in the direct area that have streetview but the quality is junk.
As you can see that will not make a nice skybox for us. I explored some more and was having some hard time so I went back to the map, zoomed out and looked for a larger city. In this case I ended up on the other side of the State but it looks similar and the quality is much better.
High Quality:
Look At the Detail:
Facing North Before Copying Link (whatever you want North to be):
Keep in mind that you don't want a bunch of stuff (houses, trees, etc.) in the foreground because that is where our track is supposed to go. Of course you can edit it in photoshop but I recommend starting with something decent. Here we have some telephone poles to deal with and some cars but overall it is fairly nice.
2.Next step is to use the StreetView Grabber to make our spherical panorama. This is super easy, aim your streetview to where you want North to be on your track and copy the link at the top. Now open up Streetview Grabber and hit add Pano, it will ask if you want to import it from the clipboard say yes (alternatively you can say no and paste it in if you are a control freak). Turn the quality all the way up on the slider up top and hit grab at the bottom right. It will take a few minutes to get all the images from streetview and stitch them be patient with it. You should now have a spherical panorama in the output folder.
3.Cleaning up/editing the spherical panorama will be our next step. Open it in PS, it will look sort of distorted but remember this is meant to be on a dome, then it will look normal. We want to get everything out of the foreground and clean up and blurry or splotchy stuff. You can of course make changes (put in a different sky all together but keep mountains, add detail, add more mountains, whatever you want) this is the real benefit of working with the spherical once we use JLVs POVray script to make the 6 Skybox images you won't be able to tell that we edited it. Once you are done editing save it, if you are using JLVs POVray script without modification you will want to save it as "spheremap.ppm". Its important to note that you can rotate the skybox by using Filters>other>offset and moving it Horizontally. Whatever is dead center will be North on track. I have not actually tried this but I believe it should work without issues.
Before Editing:
After Editing:
4.Use the POVray script to change our spherical image into the 6 images we need for the game.
5.Put them into your track and check out your handiwork.
Troubleshooting:
If you are getting a black image from StreetView Grabber then the area you have chosen does not have full zoom data in StreetView. You can try reducing the quality on the slider but I would find a better spot to start with.
If you are having trouble with the POVray stuff please post in JLVs thread, they know more about it than I do.
A brain (seriously you will)
Streetview Grabber Program http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtop ... 27&t=50248 (you may need to disable your antivirus while downloading it, mine was going crazy but it is fine once it is downloaded)
Photoshop or another photo editing software (or not but you will really have to search streetview otherwise)
JLVs POVray Script http://forum.mxsimulator.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2868
Ok, so here are the instructions:
1.First we need to find a area in Google Streetview with acceptable quality (you can use a spherical panorama that you downloaded instead but that isn't very custom is it?). For this tutorial I am making a skybox for Arkansaw Cycle Park in Wisconsin (I didn't name it...). Unfortunately for me there is no streetview on the road the track is on so I started exploring. There are a few roads in the direct area that have streetview but the quality is junk.
As you can see that will not make a nice skybox for us. I explored some more and was having some hard time so I went back to the map, zoomed out and looked for a larger city. In this case I ended up on the other side of the State but it looks similar and the quality is much better.
High Quality:
Look At the Detail:
Facing North Before Copying Link (whatever you want North to be):
Keep in mind that you don't want a bunch of stuff (houses, trees, etc.) in the foreground because that is where our track is supposed to go. Of course you can edit it in photoshop but I recommend starting with something decent. Here we have some telephone poles to deal with and some cars but overall it is fairly nice.
2.Next step is to use the StreetView Grabber to make our spherical panorama. This is super easy, aim your streetview to where you want North to be on your track and copy the link at the top. Now open up Streetview Grabber and hit add Pano, it will ask if you want to import it from the clipboard say yes (alternatively you can say no and paste it in if you are a control freak). Turn the quality all the way up on the slider up top and hit grab at the bottom right. It will take a few minutes to get all the images from streetview and stitch them be patient with it. You should now have a spherical panorama in the output folder.
3.Cleaning up/editing the spherical panorama will be our next step. Open it in PS, it will look sort of distorted but remember this is meant to be on a dome, then it will look normal. We want to get everything out of the foreground and clean up and blurry or splotchy stuff. You can of course make changes (put in a different sky all together but keep mountains, add detail, add more mountains, whatever you want) this is the real benefit of working with the spherical once we use JLVs POVray script to make the 6 Skybox images you won't be able to tell that we edited it. Once you are done editing save it, if you are using JLVs POVray script without modification you will want to save it as "spheremap.ppm". Its important to note that you can rotate the skybox by using Filters>other>offset and moving it Horizontally. Whatever is dead center will be North on track. I have not actually tried this but I believe it should work without issues.
Before Editing:
After Editing:
4.Use the POVray script to change our spherical image into the 6 images we need for the game.
5.Put them into your track and check out your handiwork.
Troubleshooting:
If you are getting a black image from StreetView Grabber then the area you have chosen does not have full zoom data in StreetView. You can try reducing the quality on the slider but I would find a better spot to start with.
If you are having trouble with the POVray stuff please post in JLVs thread, they know more about it than I do.