Floor collision in doorways needs to be jumped over to enter
by David McDonald · in Torque 3D Professional · 10/07/2009 (8:18 pm) · 24 replies
Hi folks,
I have a number of DTS house models with doorways and I am finding that my floor collision volumes need my player (the default gideon) to jump so he can enter.
If I remove the floor collision volume or lower it then I can enter the doorway easily, however then it is too low and his feet sink below the texture.
It's 0.2 units high however making it thicker/thinner didn't seem to help.
It is laying on flat terrain.
The confusing part is I have a 1 unit high object that my character easily walks over.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I also get the same issue if I use 'visible mesh' as opposed to collision meshes.
I have a number of DTS house models with doorways and I am finding that my floor collision volumes need my player (the default gideon) to jump so he can enter.
If I remove the floor collision volume or lower it then I can enter the doorway easily, however then it is too low and his feet sink below the texture.
It's 0.2 units high however making it thicker/thinner didn't seem to help.
It is laying on flat terrain.
The confusing part is I have a 1 unit high object that my character easily walks over.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I also get the same issue if I use 'visible mesh' as opposed to collision meshes.
About the author
After many years in the professional business end of the IT industry I am working with a small group of friends to enter the indie game development market.
#2
10/07/2009 (9:07 pm)
Are you guys sure the bounds collision of a skinned mesh isn't striking just above the door due to the step up bounce? Stick a step outside your doorway to be on the same height as the entrance and retest.
#3
I didn't actually realise the was a step up bounce. The step fixed the issue.
10/07/2009 (9:48 pm)
Ahh yer blood's worth bottlin' SteveI didn't actually realise the was a step up bounce. The step fixed the issue.
#4
10/07/2009 (9:57 pm)
Well, I don't know what a "step up bounce is". Could you please explain that to me, Steve?
#5
With an external step in the building model, player "bounces" before entrance, is on the same level as the entrance when attempting to go through it, does not hit head/bounding box on wall above.
In real time it looks like the player just slides up to the correct height, but in reality they have to do a little "jump" to get over a short obstacle and require head clearance for this. Hence an extra step outside the doorway to get them at the right height so they arne't "jumping" into the top of the doorway - or make the doorway higher.
10/07/2009 (11:02 pm)
Player bangs into a step - "bounces" up a little to get over step, but bounces higher than the step in order to step over it - hits head (top of bounding box) on frame above entrance.With an external step in the building model, player "bounces" before entrance, is on the same level as the entrance when attempting to go through it, does not hit head/bounding box on wall above.
In real time it looks like the player just slides up to the correct height, but in reality they have to do a little "jump" to get over a short obstacle and require head clearance for this. Hence an extra step outside the doorway to get them at the right height so they arne't "jumping" into the top of the doorway - or make the doorway higher.
#6
Sometimes can't see the forest for the trees (or the solution amongst the pastel coloured collisions in this case0
10/08/2009 (1:26 am)
I hate the head through doorways look, an external collision volume 'step' solved the issue nicely.Sometimes can't see the forest for the trees (or the solution amongst the pastel coloured collisions in this case0
#7
10/08/2009 (10:04 am)
Doh! This explains also why I was having trouble with basement stairs inside a DTS. Thanks a lot. 
#8
We have not tackled this issue yet, but we were thinking to turn collision's off on our building and use an invisible DTS collision mesh for our walls and floors.
10/08/2009 (3:31 pm)
We have a problem of using the visual mesh and Gideon can not walk thru the doors. We figured it was because our doors were to narrow or Gideon's collision mesh was to big.We have not tackled this issue yet, but we were thinking to turn collision's off on our building and use an invisible DTS collision mesh for our walls and floors.
#9
David tell that adding an external collision volume solves the problem.
I'm quite new to T3D and have following question about collision volumes.
Are we talking about those Collsion boxes that could be added in the old DTS format. As I remember they were child's of a Collision-1.
How do I add collision boxes to my model in a modeling tool (mine is Modo)
and get it exported to Collada so the correct DTS is generated including the collision boxes?
I remember that in Blender there was an hierarchy like Shape which had Details and Collsion nodes as childs. Render meshes was childs of Details and collision meshed childs of Collision.
10/08/2009 (5:28 pm)
I also have problems passing doors.David tell that adding an external collision volume solves the problem.
I'm quite new to T3D and have following question about collision volumes.
Are we talking about those Collsion boxes that could be added in the old DTS format. As I remember they were child's of a Collision-1.
How do I add collision boxes to my model in a modeling tool (mine is Modo)
and get it exported to Collada so the correct DTS is generated including the collision boxes?
I remember that in Blender there was an hierarchy like Shape which had Details and Collsion nodes as childs. Render meshes was childs of Details and collision meshed childs of Collision.
#10
And yes, talking about the collision-1 stuff.
I went with the 'visible mesh' option on some models but opted to manually add in the collisions for as many as I can as they are way more efficient than the auto-collision meshes that are generated.
Adding just a small mesh that extended past the top of the door horizontally definitely works.
Just make sure you don't extend too far as it looks funky when gideon is hovering a few inches above ground in the street ;-)
10/08/2009 (6:03 pm)
I can't speak to the other tools as I use 3DS Max and the tutorials are pretty clear on how to structure the nodes but I would think the concepts are much the same. And yes, talking about the collision-1 stuff.
I went with the 'visible mesh' option on some models but opted to manually add in the collisions for as many as I can as they are way more efficient than the auto-collision meshes that are generated.
Adding just a small mesh that extended past the top of the door horizontally definitely works.
Just make sure you don't extend too far as it looks funky when gideon is hovering a few inches above ground in the street ;-)
#11
I also can't speak for Modo, but as you did mention Blender, here's how to successfully export to COLLADA with that.
It a bit awkward ...
You could give the Max->Collada tut a go and see how that comes out (outs in the docs).
10/08/2009 (6:35 pm)
You can just use polysoup/visible mesh collision and just tack on an extra doorstep infront of your entrance in your modeling program.I also can't speak for Modo, but as you did mention Blender, here's how to successfully export to COLLADA with that.
It a bit awkward ...
You could give the Max->Collada tut a go and see how that comes out (outs in the docs).
#12
@David -- in what ways are they more efficient? Do you mean they just work better, or are other things involved as well?
10/09/2009 (12:12 am)
Quote: opted to manually add in the collisions for as many as I can as they are way more efficient than the auto-collision meshes that are generated.
@David -- in what ways are they more efficient? Do you mean they just work better, or are other things involved as well?
#13
Making your own you can be much more agressive/frugal with the polys you use.
As an example one of my barns has seperate posts along the wall which is quite a few polys (in the high LOD version of it).
For the collision though I just use a simple box for the whole wall.
So instead of a couple of hundred poly's to collision each wall and pole set I only use a few for the box to get the same effect.
Even though Collisions are not 'seen' they still have to be drawn by the system.
10/09/2009 (1:51 am)
AFIK, the auto (visible mesh) option in the editor creates a collision mesh that matches the real mesh and therefore has as many polys.Making your own you can be much more agressive/frugal with the polys you use.
As an example one of my barns has seperate posts along the wall which is quite a few polys (in the high LOD version of it).
For the collision though I just use a simple box for the whole wall.
So instead of a couple of hundred poly's to collision each wall and pole set I only use a few for the box to get the same effect.
Even though Collisions are not 'seen' they still have to be drawn by the system.
#14
Yes I get the idea. Thanks for your explanation
@Steve Y
Yes thats the way to do it in blender. I assume you did get that
exported to dae successfully. Then my job is to see how same hierarchy
is done in Modo. If I am successful I can tell how to do it in a post in case there are some other Modo users out there. Thanks for your good info.
10/09/2009 (3:50 am)
@DavidYes I get the idea. Thanks for your explanation
@Steve Y
Yes thats the way to do it in blender. I assume you did get that
exported to dae successfully. Then my job is to see how same hierarchy
is done in Modo. If I am successful I can tell how to do it in a post in case there are some other Modo users out there. Thanks for your good info.
#15
10/09/2009 (10:01 am)
Thanks, David. This been a very educational post for me.
#16
I promised to tell how to do the collsions in Modo
instead of Blender.
Make same structure as in Blender (shown by Steve Y above)
In Blender 'Empty' objects are used as nodes. In Modo 'Locator'
should be used.
10/09/2009 (4:12 pm)
Hi againI promised to tell how to do the collsions in Modo
instead of Blender.
Make same structure as in Blender (shown by Steve Y above)
In Blender 'Empty' objects are used as nodes. In Modo 'Locator'
should be used.
#18
Yes. It exports and seems to work with collsion set to Collision Mesh in T3D. Still got a problem though. The Colission mesh is rendered, so
something is wrong. I will continue and try to work it out.
Any further progress will be noted here
Thanks for your interest
10/09/2009 (4:58 pm)
@Steve Y Yes. It exports and seems to work with collsion set to Collision Mesh in T3D. Still got a problem though. The Colission mesh is rendered, so
something is wrong. I will continue and try to work it out.
Any further progress will be noted here
Thanks for your interest
#19
If you set the cached.DTS model to collision type = "collision mesh" in T3D, do you actually get any collision in-game?
10/09/2009 (5:05 pm)
If the Collision mesh is rendered, then it's not coming through as a Collision mesh, but as a standard mesh - I found this happened with Blender export if I got the nodes/hierarchy wrong. I also didn't get any working collision in-game when the above occurred.If you set the cached.DTS model to collision type = "collision mesh" in T3D, do you actually get any collision in-game?
#20
Yes you are right. I was to hasty saying that the import worked.
I thought my first test worked as I did set the collision type = Collision Mesh and got collisions. BUT! That was just an illusion as the Collision Box was interpreted as a normal mesh and had its Collision Type set to default. At least I guess that was the case when I thought it worked.
So. Back to square one.
I will make following test. Testing with making the thing i Blender so I'm sure it works ok. When it does I will import the blender exported dae file to Modo and see how Modo interpret whats in there. Hopefully this will give some ideas.
Well... Things are as usual .. Two steps forward and one back. But
at least thats better than One step forward and two steps back.
Sorry for initial giving the false impression of a working export.
I was happy and on my excitement wrote a note on it here.
But I really want this to work so bare with me.
Surely it must be possible to do this. I will continue with my tests.
@David
Sorry ... it seems that I actually stole this thread.
Was not my meaning to.
10/09/2009 (5:20 pm)
@Steve YYes you are right. I was to hasty saying that the import worked.
I thought my first test worked as I did set the collision type = Collision Mesh and got collisions. BUT! That was just an illusion as the Collision Box was interpreted as a normal mesh and had its Collision Type set to default. At least I guess that was the case when I thought it worked.
So. Back to square one.
I will make following test. Testing with making the thing i Blender so I'm sure it works ok. When it does I will import the blender exported dae file to Modo and see how Modo interpret whats in there. Hopefully this will give some ideas.
Well... Things are as usual .. Two steps forward and one back. But
at least thats better than One step forward and two steps back.
Sorry for initial giving the false impression of a working export.
I was happy and on my excitement wrote a note on it here.
But I really want this to work so bare with me.
Surely it must be possible to do this. I will continue with my tests.
@David
Sorry ... it seems that I actually stole this thread.
Was not my meaning to.
Torque 3D Owner Steve
YP productions