07-12-2009 08:52
Topic for http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-14646, I think this would be an interesting feature and would like to hear thoughts.

Ever wondered how it would be like to have a city and see giant buildings sticking from far away, or a sim outside of Earth with many planets and suns over the sky? I think the ability to add brushes in the skybox is a wonderful effect in many games and 3D applications, and don't see why SL shouldn't have this possibility as well.

In my opinion the best way to do this is allowing attachments to the sim's skybox, if the avatar is a region owner. Just like you can attach an object to the HUD or avatar, an user could right click objects from the ground or inventory and select 'Attach to skybox'. Once attached the user could select it and move it around, resize it and everything else. Primitives on the skybox would have the advantage of scrolling with the sky to simulate the far away effect, and allow sun lightning to affect them for a beautiful huge environment like a giant city during an orange sunset.

Imo this would be a wonderful feature with a visual impact and would also make sims look larger and give users the feeling of walking around huge architectures. It could also be used for textured skyboxes, as one could center a hollowed sphere and texture it as they wish to have their own sky.