Quick question about skies

[Rewind]

Allright, im just starting to get into the whole mapping world. I've checked out loads of tutorials around here, but I can't seem to find (or i possibly skimmed over) how to make skies (I.E. have an open map). Is the sky just a brush?

[Laged]

SEARCH
HARDER

Anyway, to test your lightning make sure to export the map with fastvis rad.bat.
When you decide to release the map, make sure to final compile the map.

[Rewind]

:S sorry. Thanks though, I'll be sure not to 'release' the map until I'm ready to final compile.

[Laged]

I'm glad to hear a new mapper say that

[Rewind]

Oh wait. Well I'm glad you managed to help me out with lighting, since prior to reading any of that I was somewhat clueless, but my original question remains. Im not so much worried about the sky's affect on the map, I mean the actual image of the sky.
As in, when I start up the normal qbsp. rar or whatever to test, I get the 'mirror' thing. I know you get rid of this by getting rid of the leak by making it water tight, but what I'm wondering is instead of making a giant box around the map, I'd rather use a sky, but I dont know how to add one.

[ViciouZ]

You select the SKY1 texture and make the giant box - not all around the map, just sealing it in on 3 sides.

[Eiii]

Make sure each section of the map is sealed, with sky in the appropriate place-- but DO NOT just encase the map in a skybox. Example forthcoming!

EDIT:
Quick example-- two outdoor areas connected by an indoor tunnel. The selected brushes are sky brushes in both cases.

First of all, the first example is the thing to do because it's much easier for the compiler to handle. If the map were more complex, the VIS compile would take forever and RAD would probably have to be lower quality and slower, as there's significantly more area for it to cover.
Gameplay-wise, you certainly don't want players to be able to jump out of / beneath the map, so even making it possible is a bad idea.
Basically, try to use as little sky as possible. Know that sky brushes are drawn differently than normal brushes so that they look like a sky (gasp!), so you don't have to worry about putting them far away from the player or anything.

[Rewind]

thank you that helped alot. The map I'm making is an indoor/outdoor mix so thats the perfect example aswell.
Thanks!

[Silly]

you can also press "E" to bring up the entity list. Click on the questionmark when "worldspawn" is selected. From there you can see what different skies are available

[Rewind]

nifty. I'll check that out.