[Script] Sky Cube Wizard

[Sanne]

Hi all,

I made myself a python script that helps with sky cube images, maybe somebody finds it useful also.

This is a python command line script to rearrange the parts of the top half of a Blender environment map to make a square cube map, typically used in 3D scenes for skies and environments. This version 0.2 also supports sky cube maps from CGTextures as input files, which have a different layout as Blender env maps.

Download: skycubewizard v0.2
The script needs Python and the Python Imaging Library to run.

Details:

A Blender environment map has a layout like this for the top half of the scene:



The script rearranges it into this image:



This is an image layout that is easily mapped to a half cube. Make a cube in Blender, cut it in half so that only the top half remains, mark the four vertical sides a seams, and unwrap it (Tab into edit mode -> AKEY to select all vertiecs -> UKEY -> Unwrap). The result should look like this:



This UV layout can then be directly used for the cube maps from the wizard. Since Blender tends to show seams at the vertical sides of the skycube when mapped to the edges of the image, the script automatically extends those sides by four pixels to prevent that. A different extend margin can be set by the -e command line option. The option -h shows a short help and further options.

Example usage:
python skycubewizard.py my-blender-envmap.png

[bongox]

wow looks really useful for game engine stuff. I'll give it a shot & let you know how it works for me. Thanks for sharing this dude!

[Sanne]

Hey, great to have a tester, you're the first, thanks for giving it a go. I'd be very interested in hearing if it works for you. If you're not on Linux, I'd be double interested, as I didn't have a chance to test it on other systems yet.

Thanks for your interest!