Vanishing Building - please help
by Andrew Edmonds · in General Discussion · 05/27/2006 (3:18 pm) · 7 replies
Hi all,
I've come across a strange rendering problem that I don't understand and am hoping one of you guys can shed some light on the matter...
I have a very tall building in my game which I need to be able to stand on top of - I'm talking about 6500 world units tall. I don't need to go in it so I'm not using interiors for it. I've split it into 5 DTS sections, stacked on top of one another (when I used 1 DTS it crashed the engine if you were stood on top).
However, when I put it into the game, 2 strange things happen:
i) Once I get to about 2000 world units up, the building simply disappears. I'm guessing that this is a fog or draw-distance related problem as that is when the terrain starts to disappear from view.
ii) When I return to ground level and the building is back in view, it has lost it's texture - it has turned a washed-out grey/white colour.
Please help to shed some light on this issue as this building absolutely has to be in the game and it has to be this size...!
Thanks,
Mike
I've come across a strange rendering problem that I don't understand and am hoping one of you guys can shed some light on the matter...
I have a very tall building in my game which I need to be able to stand on top of - I'm talking about 6500 world units tall. I don't need to go in it so I'm not using interiors for it. I've split it into 5 DTS sections, stacked on top of one another (when I used 1 DTS it crashed the engine if you were stood on top).
However, when I put it into the game, 2 strange things happen:
i) Once I get to about 2000 world units up, the building simply disappears. I'm guessing that this is a fog or draw-distance related problem as that is when the terrain starts to disappear from view.
ii) When I return to ground level and the building is back in view, it has lost it's texture - it has turned a washed-out grey/white colour.
Please help to shed some light on this issue as this building absolutely has to be in the game and it has to be this size...!
Thanks,
Mike
About the author
Formed in 2005, EiKON Games is an indie games development project based in the UK working on the tactical first person shooter "Epoch: Incursion". See the Join Us or Contact Us pages at http://www.eikon-games.com/
#2
You're absolutely right... The only reason is that I hate quark! I try and use dts shapes whenever I can but I've just done a simple test and everything works as it should when I use a dif so it looks like that's the way to go.
Thanks,
Mike
05/27/2006 (5:13 pm)
Hi Sean,You're absolutely right... The only reason is that I hate quark! I try and use dts shapes whenever I can but I've just done a simple test and everything works as it should when I use a dif so it looks like that's the way to go.
Thanks,
Mike
#3
05/30/2006 (5:42 pm)
The reason this happens is because of the nature in which Torque renders DTS. That's why it has been reported over and over again that "big" things should be DIF. If you're going to be working with any engine, you better get used to it's art pipeline, and follow the rules :)
#5
05/30/2006 (6:08 pm)
..But at the end of the day, follow the rules! ;) 
#6
05/30/2006 (8:33 pm)
I believe that the problem is that you are crossing the centerpoint of the model and the engine suddenly believes that it cannot be seen and is culled. There are topics about changing this, but I can't remember if they are on the private forums or not (most likely). It's been a while since I've thought about it.
#7
Thanks for the replies - I have now built it using a dif and it all works great. On a side note, I'm not entirely sure why I posted here. I meant to post in the SDK private forum - not sure how it ended up here!
Thanks again,
Mike
05/31/2006 (2:02 am)
Hi all,Thanks for the replies - I have now built it using a dif and it all works great. On a side note, I'm not entirely sure why I posted here. I meant to post in the SDK private forum - not sure how it ended up here!
Thanks again,
Mike
Torque 3D Owner Sean H.