Long road crashes Torque
by Andy Hawkins · in Artist Corner · 11/20/2005 (4:39 pm) · 6 replies
I made a road, probably about 200 meters, using 1 quad, mapping a 512x512 png to it and then rail extruded it to follow a wavey spline. So I now have a winding road made of quads.
When I load it into Torque (after the usual conversion process) it glitches the screen, the 3d world folds in on itself and then Torque crashes.
If I cut out just 20-30 meters of road and load that by itself it loads and renders fine.
Anyone had a similar problem? It seems if it's a large object that doesn't all fit on the screen at once, or at least one end can always be seen it will crash.
Or maybe it's the size of the bounding box, versus mip mapping requirements, and LOD.
BTW There is no LOD or collision object built in. Just a plain old strip of quads.
When I load it into Torque (after the usual conversion process) it glitches the screen, the 3d world folds in on itself and then Torque crashes.
If I cut out just 20-30 meters of road and load that by itself it loads and renders fine.
Anyone had a similar problem? It seems if it's a large object that doesn't all fit on the screen at once, or at least one end can always be seen it will crash.
Or maybe it's the size of the bounding box, versus mip mapping requirements, and LOD.
BTW There is no LOD or collision object built in. Just a plain old strip of quads.
#2
EDIT: Hmm I wonder if it's the shadow volume....too big to calculate?
This is an example of that road in Torque working ... after this I added more segments to the road and it starts to crash
Here and all the rest of the pics show Torque starting to crash. The red arrow mark where glitches start flashing. Also notice the problem is leaking into the terrain texture. Until the world folds in on itself and Torque crashes out. You can see the bounding box in some of the pics. I didn't think this would be too big. And if this is a restriction how do people make racing tracks?
11/20/2005 (8:44 pm)
Alrighty then... Here's the first pic. This is from Lightwave and shows how I've created it using quads along a spline. This size works as shown in the next pic.EDIT: Hmm I wonder if it's the shadow volume....too big to calculate?
This is an example of that road in Torque working ... after this I added more segments to the road and it starts to crash
Here and all the rest of the pics show Torque starting to crash. The red arrow mark where glitches start flashing. Also notice the problem is leaking into the terrain texture. Until the world folds in on itself and Torque crashes out. You can see the bounding box in some of the pics. I didn't think this would be too big. And if this is a restriction how do people make racing tracks?
#3
11/21/2005 (8:11 pm)
Apologies for bumping this thread, but I thought adding images to the last message via edit would do the same thing. I've just added some screen shots to illustrate the problem, maybe someone know how I can fix it, or provide an alternate solution for adding long roads please. 
#4
11/21/2005 (8:19 pm)
How bout spliting the road up? Make that road except in like 4 pieces? Its just a theory.
#5
You are exporting these from Lightwave to DTS objects right? I would not recommend using DTS objects as roads. They just are not intended for such large objects that need lots of collision.
I have had a lot of sucess creating all sorts of roads using QuArk exporting to the dif format. I think I used the "path duplicator" tool to make curvy roads.
11/21/2005 (8:25 pm)
Hey Andy,You are exporting these from Lightwave to DTS objects right? I would not recommend using DTS objects as roads. They just are not intended for such large objects that need lots of collision.
I have had a lot of sucess creating all sorts of roads using QuArk exporting to the dif format. I think I used the "path duplicator" tool to make curvy roads.
#6
@Ian : Yes I am exporting out of Lightwave - but without collisions as I was just going to line them up with the terrain. But I will try from Quark as you've suggested.
I would like to know how people who have done racing games have created their road system please.
11/21/2005 (8:57 pm)
@Bejong: That is the only way it does work, by splitting them up yes, but then it's really hard to line them up in the editor.@Ian : Yes I am exporting out of Lightwave - but without collisions as I was just going to line them up with the terrain. But I will try from Quark as you've suggested.
I would like to know how people who have done racing games have created their road system please.
Torque Owner Barry Gallagher
..whats the polycount?
...the max draw distance for stock torque is 3100..
and even at that it can crash if your to high in the sky.. so exactly how big is you road? ..you should be able to tell the dimensions using the measure utility assuming your using max.. ..im sure most 3d apps got something similiar.. if not just use splines as makeshift rulers..
i made a building that was 600 torque metres tall.. had some problems...didnt affect me the same way it did u though
it just wouldnt show up less i was real near and it was fully exposed from the ground...
fixed the nearsighted problem by changing the draw distance..
btw.. screens are a big help in diagnosing stuff..