Game Development Community

DTS Shadows - random crash?

by PuG · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 05/29/2007 (9:35 am) · 6 replies

Hi, decided today to try and use shadows on DTS static items, so created following datablock for a cottage:

datablock StaticShapeData(cottage01)
{
category = "Buildings";
shapeFile = "~/data/shapes/Buildings/cottage01.dts";

shadowEnable = true;
shadowCanMove = false;
shadowCanAnimate = false;
shadowSelfShadow = true;
shadowDTSShadow = true;
shadowSize = 1024;
shadowAnimationFrameSkip = true;
shadowMaxVisibleDistance = 100;
shadowProjectionDistance = 50;
shadowSphereAdjust = 5.0;

};


The building with shadow appears fine for the first time when initially added to the mission - though once saved, when you next go to reload it causes an instant crash to the desktop when the item should comes into view.

Occasionally it will work perfect, just seems very temperamental.

Any suggestions?

Regards!



**UPDATE** - when it starts to crash, if I disable SelfShadow & DTS Shadow it seems to work fine - I can then renable the options and have no issues for a short while before the problem starts to reappear.

Self Shadowing doesn't seem to work correctly anyhow? the internals of the building are still ambient?

#1
05/31/2007 (10:48 am)
Where in the code is it crashing? Try debugging the engine to see what line of code it's halting on, that should give us an idea of what's happening.

Self-shadowing needs a little work - we're looking into improving it.
#2
05/31/2007 (11:35 am)
Thanks for the reply, when running Debug this is the error I receive on crash:

www.dark-forge.com/lc/tgea_debug01.jpg
#3
06/01/2007 (1:50 pm)
Does this happen on a clean copy of TGEA? If it does can you send over the DTS with datablock I'll see if I can debug it here.
#4
06/01/2007 (2:43 pm)
Yes clean copy of TGEA - will send it through to your email address.

Thanks again.
#5
06/06/2007 (4:25 pm)
I tested the difs over the weekend and again yesterday with an automated setup that calls CycleGame several seconds after loading the mission and skips the score window (in case the issue is timing related). The mission consisted of two instances of the object, one casting a shadow onto the other (though the shadow wasn't visible due to the bug mentioned above). But it didn't crash even while running all weekend.

Are you running a clean TGEA 1.0.1? Double check that the crash happens in a clean copy. If it does can you create a test mission that crashes and send over the mission with any instructions on how to cause the crash.
#6
06/07/2007 (12:05 am)
Very strange, ive just been testing my end again and unpacked another 1.01 and at the moment is seems to be working so far.

The build I normally use is fresh 1.01, all ive done is disable the car datablock and some of the demo UI.

Thank you for the time, sorry for sending you on a fools errand!

Anyidea what may have been causing the crash?

For me the DTS building certainly doesn't receive shadows or self shadow (atleast on the interiors), only casts. (Infact that maybe down to the sphere adjust?)