Too Many Details for Mesh?
by Jon Jorajuria · in Artist Corner · 09/01/2005 (10:09 am) · 13 replies
I am using 3DS Max 7 and the DTS exporter and I have made some progress since yesterday. I am trying to understand what the error "Too Many Details for Mesh" means. I am a musician and sound effects guy I have no skills with 3d modeling so please excuse all the questions.
About the author
#2
09/01/2005 (10:44 am)
I've gotten away with 8 meshes before (one collision and 7 detail). I dont know about trying to get more but 8 sould be more than enough for almost anythig.
#3
09/01/2005 (11:00 am)
I personally have never run into this problem.. I have used quite a lot.. where this is usually seen is where you have a large number of objects with trailing numbers that indicates to the exporter that they are detail markers. If you have numbers at the end of the names that are not specifically added to indicate details, it will sometimes treat them as markers (sometimes being dependent on how the scene is setup.
#4
I thought it might be something to do with the total number of meshes in my scene. I just have everything at detail 128 (just to start out), and I had about six objects with the suffix "128". So I deleted all but one of the six "128" numbered objects, and it still crashed.
It only works if I delete a collision mesh so that there's only 20 meshes in the scene.
This is surprising because I thought there was supposed to be no limit on the number of collision meshes these days.
I'm going to go try it with Max 7 and its exporters.
UPDATE: Just tried it with Max 7 exporters and I still get this crash. This is with the off-the-shelf GarageGames exporter as well as the new Dark Industries exporter.
UPDATE2: Strangely, if I have 20 collison meshes and then add a bunch of LOS collision meshes, it doesn't mind. But add a 21st collision mesh, and it produces an error and crashes.
07/28/2006 (4:15 pm)
Just an FYI, I'm getting this error when I have 21 collision meshes in my DTS. I'm using 3ds Max 5, and it crashes when I get the error. I thought it might be something to do with the total number of meshes in my scene. I just have everything at detail 128 (just to start out), and I had about six objects with the suffix "128". So I deleted all but one of the six "128" numbered objects, and it still crashed.
It only works if I delete a collision mesh so that there's only 20 meshes in the scene.
This is surprising because I thought there was supposed to be no limit on the number of collision meshes these days.
I'm going to go try it with Max 7 and its exporters.
UPDATE: Just tried it with Max 7 exporters and I still get this crash. This is with the off-the-shelf GarageGames exporter as well as the new Dark Industries exporter.
UPDATE2: Strangely, if I have 20 collison meshes and then add a bunch of LOS collision meshes, it doesn't mind. But add a 21st collision mesh, and it produces an error and crashes.
#5
07/29/2006 (6:22 am)
Thats wierd... I was under the impression you could only have 8 collision meshes. The fact that the exporter is allowing 20 is quite a surprise.
#6
07/29/2006 (11:57 am)
Even if you have 20 + collision meshes only 8 will work. Unless you changed the allowable number within the engine.
#7
I don't think we did anything to change the allowable number. I'm pretty sure it just worked with the latest code, or 1.4 or something like that. If it's not obvious, I'm not the guy who deals with the code, but I'll ask him what the deal was there.
07/29/2006 (2:47 pm)
All 20 collision meshes work, I checked. I had thought the same thing about the 8 mesh limit when we first started the project, but it's not the case. I did a test object with way more than 8 collision meshes early on to make sure. I don't think we did anything to change the allowable number. I'm pretty sure it just worked with the latest code, or 1.4 or something like that. If it's not obvious, I'm not the guy who deals with the code, but I'll ask him what the deal was there.
#8
1) Old exporters may not support more than the old limit (8+1).
2) Having too many collision meshes for a DTS object (like more than 30) can have a serious impact on framerates.
-David
07/30/2006 (7:45 pm)
As of TGE 1.4, DTS objects don't have a limit on the number of collision meshes. However...1) Old exporters may not support more than the old limit (8+1).
2) Having too many collision meshes for a DTS object (like more than 30) can have a serious impact on framerates.
-David
#10
@Eddie, do you mean cull for better performance? I've often wondered if that would be possible with DTS collision, since it's supposed to be inefficient, at least when compared to DIF collision.
One solution I saw in the art pipeline of a game company I worked at was to do arbitrary mesh collision as a tree, so that you'd have a parent mesh, child meshes, and grandchild meshes. Only the grandchild meshes would do the actual collision. The child meshes were only there to arrange the grandchild meshes into efficient sub-groups, and the parent mesh encompassed them all. So, for instance, there might be four child objects, each containing six grandchild objects. As a player collided with the object, it would first encounter the parent object, and then one of the child objects. Because the engine knew which child mesh the player was colliding with, it could cull the other three child meshes, and all the grandchild meshes they contained.
An artist could set up a hierarchy like that pretty easily in Max or Maya. The only restriction we had at this other company was that the parent had to encompass the children completely, and the children had to encompass the grandchildren completely.
That's just my best impression of how it worked. And I'm not a coder so I can't give details. I don't think Torque can do this, but it could be nice.
07/31/2006 (1:11 am)
DavidRM is the "guy who deals with the code" I spoke of :). Thanks David!@Eddie, do you mean cull for better performance? I've often wondered if that would be possible with DTS collision, since it's supposed to be inefficient, at least when compared to DIF collision.
One solution I saw in the art pipeline of a game company I worked at was to do arbitrary mesh collision as a tree, so that you'd have a parent mesh, child meshes, and grandchild meshes. Only the grandchild meshes would do the actual collision. The child meshes were only there to arrange the grandchild meshes into efficient sub-groups, and the parent mesh encompassed them all. So, for instance, there might be four child objects, each containing six grandchild objects. As a player collided with the object, it would first encounter the parent object, and then one of the child objects. Because the engine knew which child mesh the player was colliding with, it could cull the other three child meshes, and all the grandchild meshes they contained.
An artist could set up a hierarchy like that pretty easily in Max or Maya. The only restriction we had at this other company was that the parent had to encompass the children completely, and the children had to encompass the grandchildren completely.
That's just my best impression of how it worked. And I'm not a coder so I can't give details. I don't think Torque can do this, but it could be nice.
#11
^_^
~K-MAN~
09/25/2007 (3:44 pm)
Well You can't have anymore then 20 Collision boxes "col-" It seems to crash... Try to impervise... ^_^
~K-MAN~
#12
"Too Many Details for Mesh" sounds to me like you have meshes floating around that are not parented into the system. Sometime I import stuff to use simply as reference and that throws up the "Too Many Details for Mesh" error.... maybe check that out?!
~C
10/05/2007 (7:12 am)
Off the topic of Collision...."Too Many Details for Mesh" sounds to me like you have meshes floating around that are not parented into the system. Sometime I import stuff to use simply as reference and that throws up the "Too Many Details for Mesh" error.... maybe check that out?!
~C
#13
10/22/2007 (10:53 am)
I was having the same issue for a while until i figured it out. You need to set up a detail marker (or a dummy object) and name it detail# (i used 2) so detail 2. Then on your meshes named them with the 2 or whatever number you choose after them. so say i made a knife. i call my hilt mesh hilt2, the handle i call handle2 and the blade i called blade2 then set up a dummy object (im using max 9) and called it detail2. i hope this helps. I'm very new to modeling so this might be wrong as well but i got my object to export by doing this. 
Torque Owner Magnus Blikstad