Game Development Community

Glow effect nearly invisible/drawing order issue?

by Robert Norris · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 01/06/2006 (6:53 am) · 16 replies

home.arcor.de/danieltoepfer/downloads/torque_glowproblem.jpg
hi folks,
i have a problem. when i use the pixelshader glow effect, the effect is only visible at the borders of an object.
it seems, that the engine overdraws it.

have look at the shots. i have 2 meshes, the spacecraft itself and the parts to glow which is 1 mesh(thin red lines). both use different textures and different shaders.


new Material(human_ship_hull)
{
baseTex[0] = "~/data/shapes/droid/base.humanship";
bumpTex[0] = "~/data/shapes/droid/humanship.bump";

pixelSpecular[0] = true;
specular[0] = "0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0";
specularPower[0] = 50.0;
cubemap[0] = reflection_metal;
};

new Material(human_ship_hull_glow)
{
baseTex[0] = "~/data/shapes/droid/ahumanship.glow";

glow[0] = true;
emissive[0] = true;
//pixelSpecular[0] = true;
//specular[0] = "0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0";
//specularPower[0] = 50.0;

};


so. whats the point here, how can i get it working as i faked it in the 3rd shot.

greetings

#1
01/08/2006 (2:00 am)
I'm having a little trouble spotting the difference between one and three. It looks like they're both glowing in the specified areas? Maybe if you set the base material on the ship to white or black, so the glow is more visible, the broken-ness will become more obvious.
#2
01/09/2006 (12:43 am)
home.arcor.de/danieltoepfer/downloads/torque_noglow.jpg
so look at the new image, i set the diffuse texture to glow, and this is what happens...nothing glows, its only visible at the ship border, but not within the ship itself

and thats the point from my previous post, dont look at the arrows in pic3, they are useless here, but compare
the glow in pic1 and pic3 in the area of the jet engine (the 2 rings dont glow in pic1 but in pic3)

best regards
#3
01/09/2006 (1:30 am)
Ah, ok, the arrows were really throwing me off. :)

Yup, definitely a bug - I'll ask after it when I get into the office tomorrow.
#4
01/09/2006 (11:25 am)
This is a known problem and will be fixed with the upcoming batching changes in the engine.
#5
01/09/2006 (11:42 am)
I don't have anything to add, but...

Wow! I really like that space ship. Looks damn nice.
#6
01/09/2006 (12:36 pm)
@Brian
That's great news. Looking forward to the update.

@Josh
Glad you like the ship. We have some more screenshots on our website www.syncrage.de/html/eng/pro_clash_screenshots.htm. The alien ship is coming along nicely too. I will be writing a plan and updating the web site soon.
#7
01/09/2006 (12:49 pm)
Ah very cool. This is my new background. :)
#8
01/10/2006 (7:57 am)
Wow, very interesting space shots -- may I inquire as to what genre this is?
#9
01/11/2006 (12:49 am)
@Mike
I have marked our project page with the categories 'Action Arcade Multiplayer Shooter Space' which pretty much sums it up really. The emphasis is on quick arcade style action. The game is not an "Allegiance" style game like Kuiper. Here is a link to our project page for additional information:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=project&page=view.project&qid=3362
#10
01/11/2006 (4:48 am)
I'm guessing the planet isn't some kind of spherical Atlas terrain that gets more detailed when you fly into it though ;) ?

Saw a demo on gamedev.net the other week like that, it was pretty cool the way you could fly from high detailed planet into space ;)
#11
01/11/2006 (6:58 am)
Robert:
Why, whatever made you think I might be doing a comparison between Kuiper and your project? :)
I have the same glow issue as well; I sent Ramage an email (or 3), one with a sample of the problem.
(Auch, dein Spiel scheint -sehr- schoen.)

Ian:
I saw that procedural planet too -- that thing looks awesome.
#12
01/11/2006 (2:23 pm)
@Mike
Ich habe in deinem Profil gelesen, dass du vier Jahre Deutsch hinter Dir hast. Jetzt habe ich den Beweis gelesen. Nicht schlecht. Ich wohne seit 8 Jahren in Deutschland komme aber aus England ;-)

@Ian
The truth is that it is just one hell of an environment cube.
#13
01/11/2006 (2:26 pm)
Am I the only one that could tell it was part of the sky box?
#14
01/11/2006 (2:31 pm)
I took an educated guess that it was. =)

It looks great, Robert!
#15
01/11/2006 (5:56 pm)
I figured it was part of the skybox by it's size and detail -- the problem with skybox planets is that the clouds don't move...

Robert:
Ich wohne in Amerika, so... mein Deutsch ist ziemlich schlecht -- die Faelle verwirren mich :).
#16
01/16/2006 (3:47 pm)
That was the amazing thing about the procedural planet on Gamedev.net the clouds and everything were dynamic from what I could tell, you could literally fly away from the planet and see a tornado moving across the globe ;)