Water surface disappearing
by Steve Lamperti · in Torque Game Engine · 10/21/2003 (4:22 pm) · 14 replies
I'm seeing a strange problem in my fps.starter project, that I was hoping someone else had seen, and might be able to help me with. When I load the Stronghold mission, the water surface appears briefly, and then disappears. All I see is the fog that should be under the water.
I tried playing with this, and have found one additional strange thing. If I switch into free floating camera mode, and move the camera into one of the hills, so I am looking out over the water from 'inside' the hill, the surface looks fine. (Blue, and moving slightly.) If I press the forward button until I am out of the hill, the water surface disappears. I'm working with a slightly modified engine, but none of the changes I have made are in the area of the water blocks, and I am mystified.
If anyone has any suggestions as to what I could try to correct this, or even just any ideas as to why it may be happening, I would appreciate hearing them.
I tried playing with this, and have found one additional strange thing. If I switch into free floating camera mode, and move the camera into one of the hills, so I am looking out over the water from 'inside' the hill, the surface looks fine. (Blue, and moving slightly.) If I press the forward button until I am out of the hill, the water surface disappears. I'm working with a slightly modified engine, but none of the changes I have made are in the area of the water blocks, and I am mystified.
If anyone has any suggestions as to what I could try to correct this, or even just any ideas as to why it may be happening, I would appreciate hearing them.
#2
10/22/2003 (9:20 am)
I've seen this sort of thing too in torque head. Not sure what was causing it.
#3
10/22/2003 (11:42 am)
I have also seen it, but for me it happened randomly when I was using a flying vehicle and flying rather far out of mission bounds. It would disappear, and sometimes appear when I moved to a new place. It was gone both above and below the water surface. Inside the starting area and nearby, it works just fine for me.
#4
10/22/2003 (3:49 pm)
I do know what causes it, a patch that Ed Maurina committed... the fix was good, since it fixed the problem where the physics for the waterblock would be in the whole level.... but that brought this problem... In theory it's solved by deleting the old waterblocks and creating them again (since the bounds need to be updated) but not sure if it really fixes it in every case.
#5
10/22/2003 (4:04 pm)
I haven't played around with waterblocks at all yet, so I am not exactly sure what is entailed in deleting the WaterBlocks, and creating them again. The mission I am looking at that shows the problem is the stronghold mission shipped with the engine. The water looks a little complex, so I am not sure how to recreate the settings if I delete and readd. Is this simpler then it seems like it might be? 
#6
10/22/2003 (4:32 pm)
I have noticed this problem recently when I leave the missionArea and rotate the view...that is, the water will appear/disappear at certain angles when only when I'm outside the missionArea.
#7
10/23/2003 (7:55 am)
Mmm.... wonder if the mission area has anything to do with it.... I do know it's a problem with the fog though... normally turning fog off makes the water appear.
#8
01/13/2004 (6:20 am)
Have you got the latest head? Melv added a patch to fix disappearing waterblocks some time ago. 
#9
01/13/2004 (6:35 am)
I get the problem much like "Digital Dave".
#10
01/13/2004 (8:29 am)
The fix Dylan mentioned fixed the problem I was having completely. 
#12
01/13/2004 (11:20 am)
Thanks for the fix, Melv. 
#13
-Ed
01/13/2004 (11:31 am)
Oh sure Exodus...blame me. ;) Really though that was my goof. Thanks for the fix Melv.-Ed
#14
06/30/2004 (6:40 am)
I had the same thing.. I think it has something to do with the waterblocks not terminating properly.. As in, if they are not properly enclosed by shores and land. If you can see a block with a hard edge floating in the air, it seems to cause that. At any rate, it solved it on my levels. 
Torque 3D Owner Xavier "eXoDuS" Amado
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