"it's a shame it only lasts 3 minutes" 10 year old me was fighting for his fucking life praying for the sun to save me.

I think the singular skybox was genius. No matter what area of the game you’re in, you always had the same sky. It added to the sense of one complete world.

The nighttime skybox is also used on the file select!

I really like how the daytime skybox becomes a deeper blue the higher you look. It makes it feel bigger and more open, like it's a real planet with an atmosphere. Super pretty

why did i think this game had a million different skyboxes??? guess it just goes to show the power of a good atmosphere

This feels a little bit unfair. Yes, I suppose it's technically just one skybox. But that's one skybox that can display a seamless 24 hour day/night cycle and different weather conditions, I found it quite awe inspiring compared to what you saw in most other games at the time. Also, one interesting detail you might have noticed if you've ever looked closely is that there are seams in the sky. That's because the whole gameworld is in fact encapsulated within a giant cube that spins, and that's how you get clouds that appear to move. It's quite literally a sky-box.

get a partner who appreciates you as much as austin appreciates skyboxes

OOT's skybox is great for it's time. Not graphically speaking, but the fact that this is when 3D tech was in its infancy, and yet they incorporated MOVING and COLOR TRANSITIONING skyboxes. Gotta give credit where it's due.

Skybox serves the function. Mario 64 had simpler graphics as an early use of the system's engine but also had a more cartoonish style so its skies could get a little wilder. More than this, Mario 64 has floating levels, high altitude levels and a flight component, so large sky distances were a thing necessary to illustrate. In Ocarina of Time, the landscape is the focus and fills our vision and it's a thing that's modeled so we don't need to paint it. The art style's a bit more grounded as well, so we won't have crazy fantasy clouds. To make Hyrule feel dynamic, alive and breathing, we're gonna use low altitude clouds that move. The "static" clouds you admit to favoring represent larger distances and more massive cloud formations that move slower, or seem to anyway....so they convey a grander sense of scale and distance. Again, this is more necessary at perspectives at higher altitudes - uncommon in Ocarina of Time. A common sky connects the country, and again, simulates the feel of actual large world travel, something Mario 64's diverse, segmented worlds don't need to bother with. It's not merely the music....it's a vastly different game built with a different focus...the skybox doesn't need to lift as hard. Don't overexaggerate the CRT filter. The Castle Town graphics work if you apply the same efforts into enjoying them as you imagine are automatically applied in the mind with some overlay. You are literally looking at the pure assets. The filter just feels familiar to you...and lessens the crudeness. They're fine.

to be fair to OOT, life, too, has only one skybox

The file select screen!!! Austin you silly person you

I would chill in Hyrule field and watch the night sky. I don't know where the night sky was used elsewhere, please don't make fun of me.

love this new series

Thanks everyone. Don’t forget to check me out on Memoria’s channel for my first ever collab: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rJ6lZtp-z9KUpYE.html

I'm deeply saddened you didn't analyze the sky box on Kakariko village at night BEFORE you fix death mountain with red clouds. I love that feeling the game gives you at night. Also something to appreciate the sky boxes is how adaptable it is. So of course they can't make that many unique skyboxes that change.

It is amazing how much these old games only look right when they're seen on a CRT screen.

God. Fragile Dreams. What an experience that game is.

I really like how you take an idea and run with it. skyboxes might be niche but there's a surprising amount to talk about

The night time storm skybox scared the absolute hell out of me as a kid, it gave me nightmares.

This Channel ,It's like a friend i didnt have at the time. I used to get so immersed in zelda and mario etc, but had almost no one to talk about. Good work on your vids

I personally love the graphics in Zelda OOT and MM

I wanted to challenge myself by not booting up the game cause I kind of take pride in my stupid amount of Ocarina of Time knowledge but I'm honestly not positive on the answer to the question. My gut feeling says the file select screen.

I’m so glad this was recommended! I haven’t seen this channel in such a long time! Hope you’re doing good Austin!

At least 90% of ocarina of time nostalgia is derived from the sound effects/music. Even just hearing the select sound on the main menu turns me into my 9 year old self.

Hey Austin! I really the direction the channels been taking. The vids have felt super cozy lately. Its crazy to think I basically grew up watching you for for the past 7 years now. You're one of the few channels where I trust any video you put out will be great and I always make sure to watch. Keep it up!

WE DEMAND TREE WALL REPRESENTATION

i have been really enjoying ur content and its very relaxing to watch you

This is a great series man its the first one since eggbusters I think i'll be able to come back to every episode

I’ve always thought that Majora’s Mask was the better looking game (more vibrant colors, and better, less muddy textures) but I can’t picture the sky boxes from that game, either… now I’m wondering if they were any better? I know the outdoor night sky has randomized star constellations for each save file, so at least it’s got that! You should definitely give MM its own episode! 😁

3:20 I think the movement of the sun is key as well. I remember Hyrule Field feeling so huge. It felt like it took a day in-game to traverse.

this series is seriously tops , so good

Ocarina of time is one of my favorite skybox off all time and it's because, there is something so special about how time moves in this game and the music. the skybox and hyrule plain theme is what makes the skybox good. On it's own, sure it's not the prettiest my the time of day is not only shown with the skybox but with the music and man, when the sun is setting in this game, i just can't help but to take it all in.

Cool concept man! Love the originality, subbed and liked 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

the skyboxed have photorealistic colors and they perfectly mix with the distant haze. Thats what makes most places look real/believable

9/10 great video Many skies to be seen, so far not a single box

It makes sense to have one skybox used everywhere as OoT is one big world where all the areas are actually linked together. On the other hand, it also makes sense that they took more creative freedom with skyboxes in SM64 as each level exists on its own.

They made the sky really pretty in the 3DS version.

When you play Zelda's Lullaby to open Zora's Domain, the camera pulls way back, and on occasion, the moon will just happen to be passin at the right time It's a GORGEOUS shot. Best shot in the game. Reminds me of Kubrick. never seen it talked about

This is my favorite skybox appreciation channel

i could listen to my mans talk about skyboxes all the live long day gosh darnit

I would think pilotwings has some cool skyboxes

Okay, answering the question of where the nighttime sky box is used while watching mid video: GO! My answer is the file select screen.

Skybox gang.

I love the daytime skybox especially when you go to kakariko village and climb up the tower and look at the sky, the clouds beautifully spin around you it makes me so nostalgic

I used to like standing in the middle of Lon Lon Ranch in this game and tilting the first-person view upward to watch the skybox rotate while listening to the nice ranch theme. There may only be 1, but I remember scanning it for its seam lines and found it funny how it was basically a static globe that rotated on a centerpoint.

My favorite skyboxes would have to be the ones in Bioshock. Just looking at all the buildings and landmarks was really cool and made you feel so tiny and helpless

These are so satisfying. I thought I was the only weirdo that stopped and enjoyed skyboxes on the n64

Man I just love this series

Not sure if it counts but the skybox/wall pattern in the chamber of sages was really cool. The fairy fountains had a really freaky wall pattern as well.

this skybox is quite frankly the first of it's kind. in fact hardly is this even a skybox at all. this is a dynamic sky that is handling a day-night cycle, with seamless transitions, supporting many varied types of weather, including sunny overcast, cloudy, rainy, clear skies, etc. its amazing that it is the same sky in Kokiri forest showing a calm overcast day as in Hyrule field, just with different tuning values. quite remarkable if you ask me.

This guy deserves more views.

The painted representation of Kakariko Village is great, i was waiting for you to mention it

your shirt looks like a post apocalyptic skybox

Archeologists after the nukes hit are gonna be CLUELESS about what this channel is

top tier content creator

I enjoyed this video and would like to see more like this and stuff

I think I mentioned something about this on twitter at some point. God bless treewalls and skyboxes!

The moving clouds help it feel more real. Sm64 is otherworldly, but OOT feels like a real world. The blue sky and clouds is more subtle than super Mario 64, it’s a good skybox for the game

I like the skybox of the opening scene when you turn the game on

Oh this is wonderful

I don't know where else the night skybox is used. If I had to guess, I would say the fight with Bongo Bongo, maybe.

ocarina got a lot of flourishes right. figured out small details to bring into the nascent genre of 3d open world games that make them feel more like a location than a level (i.e. mario 64). like just from the hyrule field clip you showed at night, you've got the crickets in the background and the wind rustling to get the warm summer night feel, but also this corvid cawing aggressively to imply that something out there with possible ill intent may be at work, so don't get comfy. of course playing the game you know the main villain is at work corrupting the world, and it doesn't take much night travel to spawn skeletons up out the ground, but from your "stop and look at the game" perspective, it creates a quite palpable and poignant experience

i just discovered this channel. im obsessed

The moment you mentioned Fragile Dreams I subbed. Thought I was the only one who noticed

Man, I didn't realize this game had so few skyboxes! One place I always liked in this game was the Ice Cavern. It's not about skyboxes obviously, but I always liked the texturing on the walls and floors there. Especially the very back room with the mini-boss, which has a 'starry night' sort of thing going on (despite being indoors, very odd). As for the quiz... I wanna say either the file select screen or the area where you see all the Sages gather in some cutscenes...

I agree with you. You kinda have to use the appropriate filters to really appreciate them. Another game that give me the feels when ever I play it solely because of the backgrounds/sky boxes is yoshi’s new island for the 3ds. They. Are. Stunning. Yes ya like a real life painting 💚 anywayyyyyyyu thanks for the video. Also I love the outro song.

What about the sky box in the Forest Temple in the outside well area? Its a still picture of clouds and I always remember being entranced by it against the tall castle walls. It was such a strange sensation that everywhere outside the clouds in the sky moved, but in that outside area in the Forest Temple they didn't. It felt like time had completely gone still, like you were in another dimension. Couple that with the music and its perfection. Also I have no idea what the answer to the quiz is. I've sat here for like 10 minutes going through all the areas in my head methodically and can't pinpoint it.

Thank you Austin ur the best

Been playing this game since 97, but have no idea where the night sky is used outside of actual night time. Don't leave us hanging!

Why you called it skybox appreciation and then shat on the skyboxes

Never in a million years did I think I'd hear someone bring up Fragile Dreams in a video like this. One of my favorite games and very glad others appreciate it too.

I love that I’ve found a channel that talks about all the stupid things I spent too much time looking at as a kid.

this videos about oot are awesome. as a game developer making something similar, it's educational and helpful.

This is the kind of guy I want to go on a hike with. Same sky unless you really work for it.

OoT's day night cycle is beautiful.

Yeah pointing out the blue gradient made me realize the nighttime sky box is the Main Menu background 🤦🏾‍♂️😂

yay new any austin

The night time skybox is also the one in the file select

I like the morning atmosphere skybox from the beta quest and when you talk to Zelda in the sky void. I think what stands out about OOT skyboxes is that they were rendered with SGI tools and then downsized to fit the game. Not photo textures collaged together to make a low-res matte painting. Like most of the sprites in N64 games, they were all SGI renders turned into the sprite or texture. I love the N64 and I love that it's a result of all the SGI prototyping and tech demos. You can still kind of achieve those retro graphics by using the software renderer in Maya and just sticking to the alogirthms from back then. I bet you can get a sky composer software or figure out the exact cloud tool they used to make the texture, even if it's just a perlin noise alpha clipped.

austin made an entertaining video out of a pretty insignificant topic

i was just thinking of the pre-rendered areas in OOT, theyre so cool dude fuuuuuuck

Mad respect, the skybox isn't as amazing as Mario 64's. Not enough credit given to the sunrise/sunset dynamics, though! The way the colors filter through the whole landscape-- misty and rose pink for dawn, flaming orange for sunset-- is wonderful to watch. Used to climb to the top of the drawbridge and watch the day and night cycle, amazed at the rolling colors. ... Never occurred to me how weird the solid color Kokiri sky was until you pointed it out, though, haha

I remember thinking how gorgeous the sky was in ocarina of time as a kid. I liked how it was deeper blue at the middle, and the environment would change the sky

i think the skyboxes of both games reflect their respective levels of realism. the function of the skybox was fulfilled equally well in each game

My brain heard you say "Skyoramas" instead of "Dioramas" and now I think that needs to be the word to describe what you were talking about

You good man.

Love the music. Bug breakbot vibes

I've always been partial to the pastel sky you can see through the pot room windows as young link

Was gonna say spooky castle town is the got dang best!

Is the skybox used in the Forest Temple outdoor section?

Great video. I thought that there would be more than two skyboxes I must admit. I remember there being more but clearly that wasn't true haha

I think what should be appreciated about Ocarina of Time's visual design is that it does NOT rely on Skyboxes to create the illusion of the world. The replacement for Mario 64's skyboxes is Hyrule Field and it's size. The height of Death Mountain and the 2d renders of Kakariko, Hyrule Field, and the distant mountains in that one area. The distant 2d version of the desert Colossus. OOT doesn't need Mario 64's skyboxes because it is carefully constructed to restrict your height when not on Death Mountain.

Love this video and channel. Please check out the abandoned island in the first stage of 007 Goldeneye- it's my favorite weird place in video games.

beta oot had some beautiful skyboxes

the hyrule night time skybox of the 3ds version is really pretty

Hold up, that outro song is a heater. I need a title please

great video

fragile dreams episode confirmed...

F-Zero GX skyboxes are really good imo, maybe worth looking into. I think it's because it's a racing game with only a set amount of courses using the same textures for each type making the dev time shorter. This means they can dedicate more time on polishing the presentation through things like the skyboxes. Namely the Cosmo Terminal, Meteor Stream and Phantom Road skyboxes, but they all showcase out there concepts. Massive ocean structures, space casinos and greenhouses. The music also fit their respective scenarios pretty well in my opinion.

Glad to see another fragile dreams fan out here. The combat was terrible but that story was great!