More Questions regarding T3D 1.0 - LOGGED
by J · in Torque 3D Professional · 10/21/2009 (1:53 pm) · 6 replies
First off:
These are all in the same level. Three terrains. Pics and videos are kind of dark, sorry about that.
Lighting(sun) effects terrain; using Zones and Portals:
First pic is with a Sun object, second pic is without and what it should look like:
The terrain blocks overlap. I add a sun (scatter or basic). I want it to effect only the top terrain and not the others. So I add a Zone and portal and I still get the light effecting all the terrains. I have the level setup with Basic lighting because of preformace issues. When I change to Advanced Lighting, it crashes(another issue perhaps? idk).
So do zones separate lighting? (from what I seen; no) How do I do this? Is this a basic versus advanced lighting issue? I've also tried to just put a 3D plane DTS to over lap the under lying terrians. no luck.
Collision on mulitple terrains
The collision on the player works fine on the bottom terrain, but once I walk up the terrain to the point at which it intersects the other terrain. The collision of the bottom terrain takes presidence and I can walk right through the top terrain. Now if I was to just jump up into the top terrain, then the collision on the top works. Projectile collision seems to work great.
Is this a bug? Is the terrain supposed to work like that? And how to I change it to get accurate collisions on both terrains? Btw, 3rd terrain block's collision works fine...its just the overlapping of the two that screws the players collision up.
Ground Cover with Multiple Terrains
First pick is the line that the groundcover stops at, second shows the underlying terrain
Same level again, I have the three terrains that overlap. The ground cover needs to be on the top terrain only. There used to be a field that you could tell the groundCover which terrain to work on. What happened to that? And can I make it so it will work?
Also, I have adjusted the elevation min/max, and won't show up on the lower terrain blocks. But it will still only render before the overlap.
Lighting Bug or Glitch
This one is real annoying. I have many point lights and they look great. Save the fact that certain ones make sections of the terrain black at one angle and just fine at another. I am using basic lighting. Any fixes? Ideas?
I noticed the range of the light and the priority can make this go away. BUT, when you reload the mission, it does it at same/different locations. Would the priority field cure this? Could someone please explain the Priority field a little? I assume, just the priority of how it renders. Do I need to set all my lights to this priority? (i'd have a look at UnderCity to see how you guys did the lights there, but I deleted it with Beta 5)
Camera Issues; Doc camera scripting tuts
I'm trying to get the camera's control object to be the player with newtonRotation enabled. Is this even possible? I want a 3rd person lagging camera.
The tutorial's "hack and slash" camera really doesn't give you anything to work with. You have the camera orbiting the player, but you have no control over the player. So its not really a hack and slash camera; which would work for one of my games...hehe, if i can get it to work like I'm thinking.
But a handy tut indeed! Makes you want to make an RTS.
Any help info or a nudge in the right direction on these issues is greatly appreciated! THANK YOU!
These are all in the same level. Three terrains. Pics and videos are kind of dark, sorry about that.
Lighting(sun) effects terrain; using Zones and Portals:
First pic is with a Sun object, second pic is without and what it should look like:
The terrain blocks overlap. I add a sun (scatter or basic). I want it to effect only the top terrain and not the others. So I add a Zone and portal and I still get the light effecting all the terrains. I have the level setup with Basic lighting because of preformace issues. When I change to Advanced Lighting, it crashes(another issue perhaps? idk).
So do zones separate lighting? (from what I seen; no) How do I do this? Is this a basic versus advanced lighting issue? I've also tried to just put a 3D plane DTS to over lap the under lying terrians. no luck.
Collision on mulitple terrains
The collision on the player works fine on the bottom terrain, but once I walk up the terrain to the point at which it intersects the other terrain. The collision of the bottom terrain takes presidence and I can walk right through the top terrain. Now if I was to just jump up into the top terrain, then the collision on the top works. Projectile collision seems to work great.
Is this a bug? Is the terrain supposed to work like that? And how to I change it to get accurate collisions on both terrains? Btw, 3rd terrain block's collision works fine...its just the overlapping of the two that screws the players collision up.
Ground Cover with Multiple Terrains
First pick is the line that the groundcover stops at, second shows the underlying terrain
Same level again, I have the three terrains that overlap. The ground cover needs to be on the top terrain only. There used to be a field that you could tell the groundCover which terrain to work on. What happened to that? And can I make it so it will work?
Also, I have adjusted the elevation min/max, and won't show up on the lower terrain blocks. But it will still only render before the overlap.
Lighting Bug or Glitch
This one is real annoying. I have many point lights and they look great. Save the fact that certain ones make sections of the terrain black at one angle and just fine at another. I am using basic lighting. Any fixes? Ideas?
I noticed the range of the light and the priority can make this go away. BUT, when you reload the mission, it does it at same/different locations. Would the priority field cure this? Could someone please explain the Priority field a little? I assume, just the priority of how it renders. Do I need to set all my lights to this priority? (i'd have a look at UnderCity to see how you guys did the lights there, but I deleted it with Beta 5)
Camera Issues; Doc camera scripting tuts
I'm trying to get the camera's control object to be the player with newtonRotation enabled. Is this even possible? I want a 3rd person lagging camera.
The tutorial's "hack and slash" camera really doesn't give you anything to work with. You have the camera orbiting the player, but you have no control over the player. So its not really a hack and slash camera; which would work for one of my games...hehe, if i can get it to work like I'm thinking.
But a handy tut indeed! Makes you want to make an RTS.
Any help info or a nudge in the right direction on these issues is greatly appreciated! THANK YOU!
About the author
I used to be obsessed with building my own open-ended RPG and a 3D Side Scroller RPG. But the job/house/girlfriend got in the way. I know, I know. Now I concentrate on doing architectural renderings (with the help of T3D of course) and VBA programming.
#2
I think I understand what you're saying about the terrain's collision: So if the terrain is turned upside down then it is not facing the earth core direction and therefore neither face of the terrain would have collision?
Throw a wrench in the gears:
Projectiles respect collision on both top and bottom terrain w/ np. But if you stand above the up-side-down terrain, you can shoot a projectile right through it and it colides with the bottom terrain.
When you have contact with the bottom terrain then your player "ignores" the upper terrain's collision (like in the video). So I'm thinking maybe; its more of a objectMask that handles the collision differently?
idk
edit: Tonight, I'll see if when I jump and hit my player's head on the top terrain, will collision be respected? Or will I jump right through. I know you can fall right through the top terrain.
10/21/2009 (2:43 pm)
Ah ha, the clones for the terrain material...didn't think about that. I'll try it tonight.I think I understand what you're saying about the terrain's collision: So if the terrain is turned upside down then it is not facing the earth core direction and therefore neither face of the terrain would have collision?
Throw a wrench in the gears:
Projectiles respect collision on both top and bottom terrain w/ np. But if you stand above the up-side-down terrain, you can shoot a projectile right through it and it colides with the bottom terrain.
When you have contact with the bottom terrain then your player "ignores" the upper terrain's collision (like in the video). So I'm thinking maybe; its more of a objectMask that handles the collision differently?
idk
edit: Tonight, I'll see if when I jump and hit my player's head on the top terrain, will collision be respected? Or will I jump right through. I know you can fall right through the top terrain.
#3
Collision: the player can jump and hit his upper bounds against the top of the cave and the player respects the terrains collision. Its only when you have contact with the bottom, that the top doesn't work. I can use physical zones or, collision planes. Kind of a tacky solutuion. Any ideas?
Still having lighting issues. Any thoughts?
I figured out the camera. LocalClientConnection.setCameraObject()
Thanks, Jeremy
10/26/2009 (4:08 pm)
The clones materails worked...but didn't work completely...that is. It did make the surface terrain look acurate, but still appears on many of the terrain materials else where...seems its the layer you are on versus the different material.Collision: the player can jump and hit his upper bounds against the top of the cave and the player respects the terrains collision. Its only when you have contact with the bottom, that the top doesn't work. I can use physical zones or, collision planes. Kind of a tacky solutuion. Any ideas?
Still having lighting issues. Any thoughts?
I figured out the camera. LocalClientConnection.setCameraObject()
Thanks, Jeremy
#4
original post
Sun/sky lighting bleeds through ALL objects if shadows are off - as it's the shadows which geometry uses to stop light.
Are your sun/sky shadows on or off?
edit:
And abviously you need some sort of geometry with normals facing the correct direction to cast that shadow. Terrain "should" do this.
10/26/2009 (4:17 pm)
double edit: You are asking Basic Lighting to do something it cannot do, that's what Advanced Lighting is for - and this is why you are having issues with pointlights and black geometry.original post
Sun/sky lighting bleeds through ALL objects if shadows are off - as it's the shadows which geometry uses to stop light.
Are your sun/sky shadows on or off?
edit:
And abviously you need some sort of geometry with normals facing the correct direction to cast that shadow. Terrain "should" do this.
#5
I am using Basic Lighting, one for FPS and two because once I turned that terrain up-side-down to make the cave and reloaded the level, it kept crashing on me. Also, once in the level, if I select Advanced Lighting, it crashes.
sun/sky shadows are on. I've tried using a dts plane with and without collision with no luck. I've used a dif object and it actually does block some of the light, but not all of it. Tonight I'll try making a "box" dif that encompasses the cave terrains with a portal and see if that helps any.
I do have some of the same lighting issues with pointlights with Advnaced Lighting also, just not as bad.
10/30/2009 (7:11 pm)
Steve, sorry it took so long to get back with you. Out of town for a few days.I am using Basic Lighting, one for FPS and two because once I turned that terrain up-side-down to make the cave and reloaded the level, it kept crashing on me. Also, once in the level, if I select Advanced Lighting, it crashes.
sun/sky shadows are on. I've tried using a dts plane with and without collision with no luck. I've used a dif object and it actually does block some of the light, but not all of it. Tonight I'll try making a "box" dif that encompasses the cave terrains with a portal and see if that helps any.
I do have some of the same lighting issues with pointlights with Advnaced Lighting also, just not as bad.
#6
06/15/2010 (8:44 pm)
Logged: TQA-400 
Torque 3D Owner Marc Dreamora Schaerer
Gayasoft
Common optimizations on terrain collision actually only handle terrain collision from the right side, which in case of T3D terrains would mean from above as you can not fall through the terrain from the earth core direction wise :)
The ground cover issue kind of reflects that, as it look like it assumes "fall from top so we can check from the bottom which is the ground" and use the ground cover on the ground only.
As for the issue with "only have it on one terrain not the other: In T3D you handle that by using clones of the material with one having ground cover and the other not.