Missing faces, shifted geometry
by John Doppler Schiff · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 06/25/2006 (4:10 am) · 4 replies
Hi folks,
I originally posted this in the Cartography Shop/3DWS forum, but I realized tonight that my problem exists in Quark and other DIF exporters as well.
The trouble is that on complex structures -- complex, in this case, means anything more sophisticated than a cube -- I wind up with missing faces and skewed geometry. In particular, this problem strikes when I'm trying to simulate curved surfaces with several brushes, like an archway, but I've had it occur on simple, relatively flat, angular surfaces too.
The "curved" surfaces are series of rectangular brushes, each skewed slightly to create a sense of curvature. Map2Dif_plus gives no errors or warnings about concave or missing brushes. The last one turned out 318 brushes, 2076 surfaces, and one huge throbbing headache for me.
Take the following as examples:
The frustrating thing is that the above images are just copies of an identical structure that rendered with no problems (shown below). The sole difference is that they're rotated 90 degrees and shifted to one side.
Has anyone run into this, and (please God) found a solution? It's putting a massive dent in my timetable.
Many thanks,
-- JohnDopp
I originally posted this in the Cartography Shop/3DWS forum, but I realized tonight that my problem exists in Quark and other DIF exporters as well.
The trouble is that on complex structures -- complex, in this case, means anything more sophisticated than a cube -- I wind up with missing faces and skewed geometry. In particular, this problem strikes when I'm trying to simulate curved surfaces with several brushes, like an archway, but I've had it occur on simple, relatively flat, angular surfaces too.
The "curved" surfaces are series of rectangular brushes, each skewed slightly to create a sense of curvature. Map2Dif_plus gives no errors or warnings about concave or missing brushes. The last one turned out 318 brushes, 2076 surfaces, and one huge throbbing headache for me.
Take the following as examples:
The frustrating thing is that the above images are just copies of an identical structure that rendered with no problems (shown below). The sole difference is that they're rotated 90 degrees and shifted to one side.
Has anyone run into this, and (please God) found a solution? It's putting a massive dent in my timetable.
Many thanks,
-- JohnDopp
#2
Tagging them as detail brushes helps in some cases, but not reliably.
I'm praying that Constructor will be the cure to my spastic geometry, but unfortunately, I can't delay my production deadlines for that long.
06/25/2006 (7:33 pm)
Yep! The whole brush was selected -- multiple brushes, actually. In the above example, I copied the brushes and pasted them three times, rotating 90 degrees each time. The ones that were 180 degrees opposite the original came out fine. The others were skewed.Tagging them as detail brushes helps in some cases, but not reliably.
I'm praying that Constructor will be the cure to my spastic geometry, but unfortunately, I can't delay my production deadlines for that long.
#3
Yup I've run into this same problem. Its a real issue! I have a few other posts on the forum regarding this problem with regards to a cambered track. I am having reasonable success using 2 wedges to create a box (sorta faking a tri) but if since your post you have figured out a resolve, would you mind posting how you fix this little issue.
Thanx
11/09/2006 (1:35 am)
Hi John,Yup I've run into this same problem. Its a real issue! I have a few other posts on the forum regarding this problem with regards to a cambered track. I am having reasonable success using 2 wedges to create a box (sorta faking a tri) but if since your post you have figured out a resolve, would you mind posting how you fix this little issue.
Thanx
#4
There's reference to this is in a 'setting up Quark or Torque' guide somewhere. Sorry I can't be more specific.
11/09/2006 (1:36 pm)
There is a setting somewhere in Quark to use floating point or intergers for geometry coordinates. This should be set to floating point otherwise coords are shifted to the closest integer. This causes geometry to get distorted when rotating.There's reference to this is in a 'setting up Quark or Torque' guide somewhere. Sorry I can't be more specific.
Torque Owner ChrisG