[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Fos Tis Krisis I still remember in Halo CE when skyboxes mostly consisted of a blue sky, some clouds, and a massive ring, I was in awe. Halo 2 impressed me further with levels like Sacred Icon, Gravemind, and Cairo Station. But Halo 3 topped the cake, Tsavo Highway, The Storm, Floodgate, The Ark, the Covenant, and Halo all had amazing skyboxes. And in Halo 3 the multiplayer skyboxes improved drastically as well, Orbital, Assembly, Construct, Sandbox, Isolation, Blackout, and Avalanche being my favorites.[/quote]Yes, Halo 1 had established a fantastic atmosphere as well. Threshold, the planet the ring essentially orbits, was very convincing and showed its size and scale very well. However, admittedly slightly contrary to my previous post, I don't think Halo 2 was anywhere near as special as Halo 1 and 3. While the sky-domes looked great, you could really see that, like every company of the day, Bungie was using them to help increase the general size of the world, but in the end I felt they ended up looking like they were pushing set pieces, rather than believable places in the distance. In some cases it created inconsistencies. Metropolis made the city's center look much bigger, and higher up than it actually was, yet when actually in the center, the bridge would then look bigger than that actually was. The space elevator and its surrounding buildings feel much smaller in scale than they actually are. Though viewing the space elevator from Outskirts did present a great sense of scale, given how "far" away it is. The biggest gripe I have is that the transition between Delta Halo/Regret and Sacred Icon had no continuity or consistency whatsoever. It's hard to tell that that large wall structure in the background of Regret is the same one the Arbiter is dropped off at in the next level. Given that the ring is a concave, instead of a convex like Earth, you should expect to see more of the wall from Regret, but you can barely see it. Upon breaking through the map's barriers and climbing up the high mountains, you can see that there is a lot of the wall drawn onto the sky that you will never see within the game's barriers, and I believe this came about due to time constraints. What makes it even worse is that with how little you see of the wall, as soon as you start up Sacred Icon and look down, what you're seeing is where you were just playing at - look high high above it all you are now! If the sky-domes were to make sense, this wall should take up your entire view! Not to mention the strangeness of how bright that area is (not that it is relevant to this topic) Although the one that really excites me is the one used for Gravemind/High Charity - I still cannot wrap my head around how they managed to convincingly represent your position in this vast synthetic world - the closest edge of it to you practically looks like real geometry. Cairo Station has another amazing one. The resolution is a little low, making Earth not feel quite as "real", but the moon looks great. I remember the countless cumulative hours I used to spend standing on an engine of the In Amber Clad just looking out at the planet, the sun, the moon, and the rest of space. I much prefer it over the High Charity one. One thing I failed to include in my previous post as well is that a good technique companies like to use for their sky-boxes is to draw it at a small size, encompassing the camera, but yet drawn behind everything in the game world, while Halo 3 has the sky-domes as big as the actual maps. This helps to keep the sense of vastness for the environments, even while zooming in on the sky. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] EPIC Zuul Here is a new picture I just took of Sierra 117. [url=http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=86131621]Linky[/url][/quote]Oh how I love Sierra 117 - I set that as my desktop wallpaper. [Edited on 07.14.2009 4:55 AM PDT]

It looks like art you would see on display.

Here is a new picture I just took of Sierra 117. [url=http://www.bungie.net/Online/Halo3UserContentDetails.aspx?h3fileid=86131621]Linky[/url]

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Uniblue Yes bungie must put so much time into this if you look at all the detail.[/quote] Yes and they make the background and sky awesome but the maps are -blam!-. Assembly sucked. The details of the sky were awesome though.

I still remember in Halo CE when skyboxes mostly consisted of a blue sky, some clouds, and a massive ring, I was in awe. Halo 2 impressed me further with levels like Sacred Icon, Gravemind, and Cairo Station. But Halo 3 topped the cake, Tsavo Highway, The Storm, Floodgate, The Ark, the Covenant, and Halo all had amazing skyboxes. And in Halo 3 the multiplayer skyboxes improved drastically as well, Orbital, Assembly, Construct, Sandbox, Isolation, Blackout, and Avalanche being my favorites.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] BattleRifle BR55 I could write a novel on the sky-boxes (or rather sky-domes) of Halo 3, however for me the most impressive ones are the most subtle ones. Sierra 117, The Storm, and especially Tsavo Highway have my favourite skies of all time. Coupled with the HDR, there's just something about them that invoke such awe-inspiring atmospheric emotions. Moving the camera about with nothing but clear blue sky in view just feels......like, I can't even describe it - the motion blur adds to it as well. Looking back at the clear sky while on The Storm makes me feel like I'm still in the same general area, it presents a sort of feeling of continuity in the game world, even if it is a completely different sky-dome. It really adds to the experience of it that most of what you see in the sky isn't even part of the actual dome. The basic clouds are mostly 2D elements that just sit near the edge of the maps, however with some or the more intricate ones (like in The Storm) they are actually drawn onto them, but neither execution ruins the illusion in any way. To me, the Halo games are the only ones to ever inspire such a great sense of vast distance and space. Games like Half-Life 2, and Crysis on (whether on low settings where sky-boxes are used, or high settings where they're not) could never do for me what the Halo games do. And for some strange reason, Halo 3's sky-domes and backdrops, with everything I've said up to this point, instill a great sense of fear into me. The vastness of everything creeps me out to the point that it makes it just as believable as it is unbelievable that a place such as the Ark could exist in a universe so seemingly calm and devoid, with Earth's beautiful skies as well. ESPECIALLY with Bungie's fascinating technology used. Silent Hill could never scare me like what flying into Valhalla's sky does. The fact that you can push yourself into the atmosphere, blackening the sky and exposing the light of the stars more clearly whilst seeing the light reflecting off one of the Ark's arms is just so amazing (which is not even drawn onto the sky-dome either!) Bungie is truly amazing in this regard, and I don't think any other company could even come close to what they do.[/quote] Wow man, that post literately almost made me cry.

I could write a novel on the sky-boxes (or rather sky-domes) of Halo 3, however for me the most impressive ones are the most subtle ones. Sierra 117, The Storm, and especially Tsavo Highway have my favourite skies of all time. Coupled with the HDR, there's just something about them that invoke such awe-inspiring atmospheric emotions. Moving the camera about with nothing but clear blue sky in view just feels......like, I can't even describe it - the motion blur adds to it as well. Looking back at the clear sky while on The Storm makes me feel like I'm still in the same general area, it presents a sort of feeling of continuity in the game world, even if it is a completely different sky-dome. It really adds to the experience of it that most of what you see in the sky isn't even part of the actual dome. The basic clouds are mostly 2D elements that just sit near the edge of the maps, however with some or the more intricate ones (like in The Storm) they are actually drawn onto them, but neither execution ruins the illusion in any way. To me, the Halo games are the only ones to ever inspire such a great sense of vast distance and space. Games like Half-Life 2, and Crysis on (whether on low settings where sky-boxes are used, or high settings where they're not) could never do for me what the Halo games do. And for some strange reason, Halo 3's sky-domes and backdrops, with everything I've said up to this point, instill a great sense of fear into me. The vastness of everything creeps me out to the point that it makes it just as believable as it is unbelievable that a place such as the Ark could exist in a universe so seemingly calm and devoid, with Earth's beautiful skies as well. ESPECIALLY with Bungie's fascinating technology used. Silent Hill could never scare me like what flying into Valhalla's sky does. The fact that you can push yourself into the atmosphere, blackening the sky and exposing the light of the stars more clearly whilst seeing the light reflecting off one of the Ark's arms is just so amazing (which is not even drawn onto the sky-dome either!) Bungie is truly amazing in this regard, and I don't think any other company could even come close to what they do.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Mysten Once upon a time these kind of threads were common. Then we all realised we'd much rather be complaining about 'unfair' game mechanics and dividing ourselves into camps based upon our preference for either the assault rifle or battle rifle than compliment the designers and artists who produced such a stunning campaign mode. [/quote] One day, everything will be back to normal.

I like standoff

Once upon a time these kind of threads were common. Then we all realised we'd much rather be complaining about 'unfair' game mechanics and dividing ourselves into camps based upon our preference for either the assault rifle or battle rifle than compliment the designers and artists who produced such a stunning campaign mode.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Uniblue Yes bungie must put so much time into this if you look at all the detail.[/quote] Yeah, which irritates me when the 07's game awards were on I don't think Bungie got an award for anything graphical.

Yes bungie must put so much time into this if you look at all the detail.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] PureDarkness Yes i always liked to look up and have a good look at the sky, the campaign ones are the best, also assembly has a good one i think. and orbital is good to look out the window[/quote] The one on the covenant is amazing too, especially if you're in the hornet.

Well my favorite sky box "map" is probably orbital or construct, as for campaign i would say the ark.

Yes i always liked to look up and have a good look at the sky, the campaign ones are the best, also assembly has a good one i think. and orbital is good to look out the window