[1.0 Bug] Ground Plane Fall Through
by Ryan Mounts · in Torque 3D Professional · 09/30/2009 (10:56 am) · 5 replies
When I create a ground plane in the World Editor, the player typically falls right through it. I realized that if I moved the x-y-position of the ground plane to "0 0", it would become "solid" and the player would not fall through. The z-position of the ground plane did not seem to affect the solidness of the plane. Looks like once you move the plane about +/- 5 units away from "0 0" in the x-y-direction, you start to get unreliable collision.
#2
Here's the bigger issue, though, when I drop a new plane into the scene, without modifying it at all, the plane doesn't render in the correct place and the player falls through it. For example in the full template with terrain, if I create a new ground plane, I can immediately see it poking up through some of the valleys. Since the bottom of the terrain is a couple hundred units above (0,0,0) I shouldn't see this. The player does not collide with this incorrectly rendered plane, nor does it collide with the real plane located at (0,0,0) if I respawn beneath the terrain and fall down to it. If I click on the position field in the World Editor and hit enter to force an inspection update, the rendered plane jumps down to (0,0,0) and collisions work correctly. So it looks like the plane is not getting initiallized properly.
09/30/2009 (3:32 pm)
That's pretty much what I assumed. So then I would suggest removing the ability to move the plane's position, at least in the x-y-direction. I find it useful to be able to move it in the z-direction, which seems to cause no problems.Here's the bigger issue, though, when I drop a new plane into the scene, without modifying it at all, the plane doesn't render in the correct place and the player falls through it. For example in the full template with terrain, if I create a new ground plane, I can immediately see it poking up through some of the valleys. Since the bottom of the terrain is a couple hundred units above (0,0,0) I shouldn't see this. The player does not collide with this incorrectly rendered plane, nor does it collide with the real plane located at (0,0,0) if I respawn beneath the terrain and fall down to it. If I click on the position field in the World Editor and hit enter to force an inspection update, the rendered plane jumps down to (0,0,0) and collisions work correctly. So it looks like the plane is not getting initiallized properly.
#3
It should not move in X.
It should not move in Y.
It should not move in Z.
It should not rotate.
It should not scale.
By adding these "features" we've complicated a very uncomplicated thing.
09/30/2009 (4:27 pm)
Really... the plane shouldn't be movable at all.It should not move in X.
It should not move in Y.
It should not move in Z.
It should not rotate.
It should not scale.
By adding these "features" we've complicated a very uncomplicated thing.
#4
09/30/2009 (11:15 pm)
Agreed. Gut the "feature" heh. Keep it simple.
#5
09/30/2009 (11:59 pm)
I agree with gutting it. A plane is a plane. Like I mentioned before, though, I have found it useful to be able to move it along the z-axis, which seems to work fine already, but isn't really all that important. I could accomplish the same things I've been doing if it were locked at (0,0,0). 
Associate Rene Damm
I think it's not really safe to move/rotate the ground plane at all. It was initially written to always be an infinite XY plane centered at (0,0,0). Later the code was changed to allow the plane to move and rotate, but it seems the update was only partial and there are still routines assuming the plane's initial properties.