Weird stuff 1.5.1

#1 What does it look like in 1.5.2? There were a lot of lighting fixes in it.

#2 Are those two brushes?? The checker looking effect looks like there are 2 brush overlapping each other.

The weird shading is giving me problems too, maybe try increasing the light maps, that might work. light_geometry_scale (not real sure if this increases light maps size?)
Can someone link me to info about light_geometry_scale and other light and shading settings.

#3 Well, it is 1.5.1, that pict, but it was happening in 1.5.0 as well. It is 2 brushes aligned exactly but overlapping. I haven't even attempted the merger with afk, mk and the other mods I'm running based on the forums posts of how many issues people are having with 1.5.2 and constructor at the moment. BTW, either with the MK or without i get the same thing, so it's not that. And i did change some of the lighting, but with the MK, it's pretty much *bloom* lighting outside in the sun.

#4 I have seen that some people are having problems with Constructor 1.0.1, but what are the issues with TGE 1.5.2?

The dif file format changed between Constructor 1.0 and Constructor 1.0.1. TGE 1.5.2 handles both formats, so you can still use Constructor 1.0 difs with 1.5.2 to take advantage of the fixes in 1.5.2.

#5 Ok i'll check it out, thanks Andy

#6

Quote:I have seen that some people are having problems with Constructor 1.0.1, but what are the issues with TGE 1.5.2?

Andy - I posted a message in the bugs forum on a severe lighting problem in 1.5.2. It completely missed shadowing some faces (but got the faces around it). I will be happy to send the simple map that can duplicate the issue 100% of the time.

#7 It looks like the shadow on the left is correct (left most arrow), if anything the shadow looks like it's missing on the right.

You need to avoid overlapping coplanar brush surfaces - Constructor doesn't clip them against each other (you can see the z-fighting on the overlapping area), the same overlapping area is causing one plane to shadow the other. Overlap should work fine between walls and floors or anywhere where two brushes meet at an angle, but avoid it on brushes that are side-by-side.

#8 Nah, based on the light angle the shading is wrong and co-planar brushes overlapping absolutely shouldn't cause that kind of texture problems. Many of the difs i build have that sort of overlap and they are fine, but when you place them like that in the engine it does that. It's the same in 1.5.2 and constructor 1.0.1 btw. This happens on multiple different textures as well. The only way to avoid it is to not overlap anything co-planar which is very tedious work.

#9 In 99 percent of the time, nothing should ever be allowed to overlap. Yes, its a pain, but its a best practice and in the end will only help to improve your level, and reduce unwanted visual problems.

#10 Jason - Coplanar brushes will definitely cause that problem when they overlap. It's just the way the hardware works -- it's due to limited resolution in the zbuffer, depending on how the polygon is rasterized, you can get slightly different z values, causing 'z-fighting', giving it a shimmering effect.

#11 Typically one would think there is a sorting setup, where one is the favored render when 2 or more brushes overlap or that there would be brush occlusion. I can see a z-buffer issue with any overlapping brush, but i can also see the lighting leaks or gaps without brush overlap as well as much harder alignments on angles (which these walls happen to be on angles without angular faces). I personally think that overlapping brushes is good practice, whether they be coplanar or not. Obviously neither of the above are implemented in the engine and prolly never have been. None the less it now requires extremely careful calculations not only when creating the brush, but also when designing the level. Not that I'm too lazy to do that, just that it's not been an issue for me before. It adds an extra amount of tediousness to level building and limits the repeatability of stock brushes across multiple levels.

#12 Jason, you can have it overlap, just change the Z location value by 0.01 (or even less). The people playing the game will not notice a tinny seam...

#13 LOL I did and now it runs the vertical, so weird. I'm kinda odd about seams, for those walls the seams would feel appropriate, but for other areas, like these paths i have, not so much.