DAE Imports Invisible + Light seams in completely welded room

#1 Two things to make sure of when exporting from max, and that can cause this problem. Ensure there are NO spaces in the object name and ensure your detail dummy objects are numbered correctly.

So, this will NOT work 'My Model 256' but this will; 'My_Model_256'. Also, If you have My_Model_256... then you need a detail dummy object that corresponds... detail256.

Hope that makes sense.

Ron

#2 It can also be a UVW problem. Try: Collapsing the stack, add UVW Unwrap and collapse the stack again before export.

#3 Once I had a problem with names like MyModel-256 or even MyModel_256, Torque interpreted this both as detail stage -256, this means invisibible.

#4 I tried all three of your suggestions. Further details of my model. It is a basic building with interior. I haven't even unwrapped it or applied any material to it except the basic one that was applied in 3ds Max. I have the building's name in the program as 'building' I export it with the same name. When I bring it in T3D, I still get nothing. I also tried naming it building_0 creating a corresponding dummy and still nothing. No spaces in name, and I also tried the collapsing, uvw unwrap, collapse, still nothing. Model still imports fine back into 3ds Max.

#5 UPDATE: I fixed it and it was a truly, truly stupid mistake. I had not applied an actual material to the shape so it imported invisible rather than having just no color which I find strange, but this is the first time I've tried importing something from 3DS Max into the game so it is a lesson learned, thanks everyone for the tips, I'm sure I'll use them soon enough!

#6 Ok, now that its all in I have a fresh problem that brings me back to the days of Constructor. Light makes it through every edge in the room. Its extremely frustrating because each and every corner int he room is only one vertex, so they're all welded together fine but for some reason light still makes it through. Here's a screenshot. Its a simple just square room with one door.

[IMG]http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx179/klahage1/interiorerror_zps9ed11f0a...

How do I make this go away?

#7 Deleted . Wrong place.. sorry

#8 I've done additional testing, still absolutely not getting anywhere with this. It's really frustrating because pretty much any modern game relies on a great amount of interiors and I just can't get the sun not to leak into the interior no matter what. I exported interior as separate model as exterior and put in place, still nothing. Every face on the exterior faces the sun, yet for some reason, sunlight makes it through into the interior. The only thing that removed the sun leak was having ridiculously thick walls, which is out of the question as far as design is concerned. Is there anyway to stop this? I've followed tutorials for making interiors and done every step, I just can't get this to work and its discouraging because I've had this problem with torque all the way back to the days of TGE and constructor.

Tutorial I am Using

#9 If you have $5 to spare you can get the urban art pack and look at those buildings. I'd like to note that the interior mesh is separated from the exterior mesh on these buildings and that during testing I found no sunlight leaks. I didn't test for leaks when using other lights placed within the structures though.

These buildings were cropped and cleaned up from the monolithic Chinatown map mesh that comes with the FPS Tutorial.

#10 @Richard. I did as you suggested and bought that pack. The seams still exist for some reason, not as strong, but definitely still there. I don't think its my graphics card because I've had this problem on several computers but just in case, I'm running a HD Radeon 7850 with 1gb memory.

#11 I took a building I made, following exactly how the kit does their interiors/exteriors and surrounded it with a huge box. Still sun somehow gets in and creates the seams like the picture I posted a few above. The only way the seams don't get in is if I put the building under the terrain so that not a single face on the whole thing receives sunlight. I'm not a programmer and have no idea how to fix this if it doesn't come down to my art. But no one else is experiencing this issue and its a dealbreaker for me. Its so frustrating that this problem has followed me through every version of the engine and no one seems to experience it also. Theres got to be something I'm missing

#12 What about the FPS Tutorial demo? Do you see the same issue in there? I mean, if you pull the kit down and just open it and run around in it stock do you see the same thing?

I've run into this with a few models I've exported from Max - just simple boxes extruded into halls and rooms, then flipped normals and made a box around the whole thing. In that case I had issues with light leaking from room to room when using point lights for interior lighting. I even went over every wall and unified normals, every corner and verified the welds, everything.

#13 With the FPS tutorial and the kit, its unnoticeable enough to use, and with some sun settings like in the tutorial I can't see it at all. The problem is I'm doing exactly like you said and making simple boxes extruded into halls and rooms within another box and the sun, as well as point lights leak in. Even if its one room, light still enters either from sun or other light source. Verified that each vertex is welded where they would overlap ect.

#14 Then we both must be doing the same something. Steve Acaster mentioned that his interiors and exteriors were separated in one of his earlier projects and from his screenshots it seemed like there was no sunlight bleed-in.

The only time I recall not having an issue with this in my own models was when I used a separate mesh for the roof of my building. And using zones and portals to partition the interior space so that the point lights inside didn't bleed (as much).

#15 I saw that post of his, I exporting interior and exterior separately, the seams only stopped occurring when I made the walls somewhat ridiculously thick though. I guess I'll have to try doing what you said and hope to make it barely noticeable. Strange that several people have had this problem though in most posts about it, it is never resolved. I would think that it would be a priority if it is in fact a bug in the engine.

#16 Self-shadowing on meshes is usually bad - it's a sticky thing to do fast enough to render in real-time. I'm thinking it would take a major effort to track this down in the lighting system - that or it's something really simple and is just easy to overlook....

#17 Well I've tried tinkering with it a bit more. Unless I want the sun to be exactly the same on every mission (my game idea requires day night cycles) I can't get this to work. I've ensured everything is welded and no matter what, the more complex my building, the worse it gets. If I can't get this resolved soon, I'm going to sadly have to switch engines, as much time as I've put into T3D, this should simply not be happening every time I build something.

#18 Subdivide the walls once so its more than one vert on the border, yes i know it increases the count, but its the only fix i ever found a long time back. cant honestly remember what the cause was though... been years since i was doing that stuff

#19 Andy, I tried this, but it had no effect.

#20 3ds max: Did you try to extrude the faces, where light is coming through, in the editable poly (or mesh) rollout? If you're using single sided textures you can extrude the faces by 0, and then flip the normal of the new created faces (automatically selected after you extrude). Does this make sense?