The SkyBox Stuffer takes 6 images (or 5, if you want to exclude the ground) and
puts them into a single file with a .bisb extension. The images are unchanged; they
aren't compressed or stitched together, they're just crammed nose to tail in a single
file, for convenience. It's a lot easier to keep track of one file instead of 6,
and, paired with the SkyBox Viewer that will extract the images from the custom
file and texture a cube as intended, it's a quick and simple way to test how photogenic/suitable
a given scene might be.
SkyBox Stuffer will work best if the image files are in one directory and the file
names meet one of two criteria: the last two characters before the extension should
either be numbers running from 01 through 06, or the letters shown in the table
below. If your file names meet this criteria, all you need to do is click the 'Select
First Image...' button and specify the first file name in the sequence and the program
will fill in the remaining names for you. If your file names don't meet this criteria,
or if they not all in one directory, use the individual selection buttons to specify
the individual paths. The SkyBox Viewer support images in .bmp, .png, .jpeg, .jpg, .ppm,
.gif, and some .tga formats; only these extensions will be recognized by the SkyBox
Stuffer.
Note! The .NET
PictureBox control on the front panel of the SkyBox Stuffer will show a preview
of the first image if the image is of a type the PictureBox recognizes. Unfortunately
(or fortunately), the SkyBox Stuffer and Viewer work with some image formats not
recognized by the PictureBox control (e.g., compressed .tga); consequently, the
PictureBox will not preview some images correctly, although they will work as skyboxes.
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