Chapter 4. Creating Water and Sky

In this chapter we will cover:

• Creating water within the HiDef profile

• Building skyboxes within the Reach profile

• Building skyboxes within the HiDef profile

• Cloud generation within the Reach profile

Introduction

Just like in a landscape painting, background elements such as sky, clouds, and water seem to add atmosphere and depth to a scene. They help to provide both visual complexity and a sense that your players are interacting with merely a portion of a much larger dynamic environment.

Water can be used to supply natural-looking barriers to players roaming, while a well lit sky can be amazingly effective at boosting what would otherwise appear to be a simplistic and unnatural scene into an artistic force of emotional impact.