TGEA Weirdness...
by Mitovo · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 02/06/2011 (7:39 am) · 12 replies
Hello again...
So, I've continued working/experimenting with TGEA and have had a couple weird things happen that I can't seem to find a fix for.
1) The first is foliage randomly not showing up in a very "square" location of my map.
Here's a shot to show what I mean:
Notice how there's a perfectly straight line where the foliage cuts off. Though it's not as easy to see in the shot, a little ways back, the cut-off turns 90 degrees to the right, also in a perfectly straight line. So, maybe it has to do with something in the way the terrain is subdivided interfering?
2) Next issue is transparency being wonky. I tried placing some trees (the default oak1 and oak2 that are set up with a new template/project).
Here's a shot showing this:
Now, when I've experienced this in other games/applications, it had something to do with z-sorting being out of whack. Is there something similar occuring here perhaps?
Any help with these issues would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
So, I've continued working/experimenting with TGEA and have had a couple weird things happen that I can't seem to find a fix for.
1) The first is foliage randomly not showing up in a very "square" location of my map.
Here's a shot to show what I mean:
Notice how there's a perfectly straight line where the foliage cuts off. Though it's not as easy to see in the shot, a little ways back, the cut-off turns 90 degrees to the right, also in a perfectly straight line. So, maybe it has to do with something in the way the terrain is subdivided interfering?
2) Next issue is transparency being wonky. I tried placing some trees (the default oak1 and oak2 that are set up with a new template/project).
Here's a shot showing this:
Now, when I've experienced this in other games/applications, it had something to do with z-sorting being out of whack. Is there something similar occuring here perhaps?
Any help with these issues would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
About the author
#2
cricket#1 said that he never saw this before in TGEA and that you should probably supply the forum visitors with more information about the situation so that they can return an answer.
Cricket#2 was not as nice, she said; "does he think we can read his brain?..where are the real details to help us know what's going on ?"
I can't help you either, you showed me 2 pictures yet gave no details on what you meant by "experimenting", so I agree with both of the crickets.
You may have to wait 21 hours for another reply, hunker down and grab some food for the wait. If you want to pay me $58/hr, I'll reply within minutes.
02/07/2011 (4:25 am)
I asked a few of those crickets that hung around for the long 21 hours you waited.cricket#1 said that he never saw this before in TGEA and that you should probably supply the forum visitors with more information about the situation so that they can return an answer.
Cricket#2 was not as nice, she said; "does he think we can read his brain?..where are the real details to help us know what's going on ?"
I can't help you either, you showed me 2 pictures yet gave no details on what you meant by "experimenting", so I agree with both of the crickets.
You may have to wait 21 hours for another reply, hunker down and grab some food for the wait. If you want to pay me $58/hr, I'll reply within minutes.
#3
Good grief.
If you can't respond without being a jackass, don't bother responding at all. Okay? Thank you.
If you're genuinely interested in being helpful, then by all means.. I would appreciate it. If all you're interested in is being a sarcastic jerk... then please don't waste my time.
Thank you again.
02/07/2011 (5:38 am)
Wow. Was that sarcasm really necessary? I was joking around.Good grief.
If you can't respond without being a jackass, don't bother responding at all. Okay? Thank you.
If you're genuinely interested in being helpful, then by all means.. I would appreciate it. If all you're interested in is being a sarcastic jerk... then please don't waste my time.
Thank you again.
#4
BTW, I actually asked pertinent questions for you to answer..why didn't you answer them ?
02/07/2011 (8:16 am)
not sarcasm at all Mike, I was having fun in the same style as yours. ..'it's a shame you can't take what you give :PBTW, I actually asked pertinent questions for you to answer..why didn't you answer them ?
#5
#2 - try adjusting material settings (transparency) for that tree. If I remember correctly TGEa didn't come with material.cs(s) already setup for a lot of those old TGE shapes, but that particular tree's branch sorting is fixable through some simple edit of it's material.cs.
02/07/2011 (9:30 am)
#1 - no idea about what's going on there, never seen that.#2 - try adjusting material settings (transparency) for that tree. If I remember correctly TGEa didn't come with material.cs(s) already setup for a lot of those old TGE shapes, but that particular tree's branch sorting is fixable through some simple edit of it's material.cs.
#6
If that's the case, then I retract my statement and apologize.
What threw me was the "reading his mind" thing, and a couple other statements. It was also early this morning and I hadn't had my coffee yet. I should know better. Never read forums before coffee.
No worries.
As for what I was doing, regarding the foliage... By "experimenting" I mean I was changing different settings to see what things did... the radius, the number of "instances" and so forth. Nothing out of the ordinary that would "break" it... I wouldn't think anyway.
Unfortunately, I'm not well enough versed with TGEA yet to give anything that would be more "meaningful" to someone from the developer/code point of view.
It's the only time I've seen that happen and haven't been able to recreate it myself again, so who knows. Was maybe just a freak glitch.
There is however another weird thing that happened with the same foliage replicator after that. I realized that it didn't quite reach the far end of that little valley and wanted to get some grass going up the ramp. So I moved the replicator and then all of the grass sorta "clumped" together in one little spot in the middle of the replicator's radius area. I hadn't changed the diameter, the quantity.. nothing at all. I just moved the actual actor over a few meters to get the coverage I wanted.
I ultimately deleted that one and created a new one.
@Michael Hall: I'll look into that with the tree's transparency and see if I can figure it out.
Or... I can use it as an excuse to make my own trees and implement them.
Anyways.. Thanks again.
02/07/2011 (3:07 pm)
@eb, If that's the case, then I retract my statement and apologize.
What threw me was the "reading his mind" thing, and a couple other statements. It was also early this morning and I hadn't had my coffee yet. I should know better. Never read forums before coffee.
No worries.
As for what I was doing, regarding the foliage... By "experimenting" I mean I was changing different settings to see what things did... the radius, the number of "instances" and so forth. Nothing out of the ordinary that would "break" it... I wouldn't think anyway.
Unfortunately, I'm not well enough versed with TGEA yet to give anything that would be more "meaningful" to someone from the developer/code point of view.
It's the only time I've seen that happen and haven't been able to recreate it myself again, so who knows. Was maybe just a freak glitch.
There is however another weird thing that happened with the same foliage replicator after that. I realized that it didn't quite reach the far end of that little valley and wanted to get some grass going up the ramp. So I moved the replicator and then all of the grass sorta "clumped" together in one little spot in the middle of the replicator's radius area. I hadn't changed the diameter, the quantity.. nothing at all. I just moved the actual actor over a few meters to get the coverage I wanted.
I ultimately deleted that one and created a new one.
@Michael Hall: I'll look into that with the tree's transparency and see if I can figure it out.
Or... I can use it as an excuse to make my own trees and implement them.
Anyways.. Thanks again.
#7
As for your tree, transparency and/or doublesided are needed.
02/07/2011 (4:00 pm)
the replicator thing ive seen before, usually when the replication volume is high, and somehow it gets a but hung up on the terrain poly edges, i dont know of any cure other than to delete and relay the replicator.As for your tree, transparency and/or doublesided are needed.
#8
TGEA had a bunch of Z sorting issues with transparencies. If you look at a tree in front of water, the branches disappear.
My buddy Stefan and I worked on TGEA until we were blue in the face and it still would have taken years to make it usable without having a team at our disposal.
02/07/2011 (5:42 pm)
ah, k, I was thinking you changed some code.TGEA had a bunch of Z sorting issues with transparencies. If you look at a tree in front of water, the branches disappear.
My buddy Stefan and I worked on TGEA until we were blue in the face and it still would have taken years to make it usable without having a team at our disposal.
#9
On the plus side it helped to hone some debugging skills!
Thankfully Torque 3D is much nicer and I feel I can focus on the gameplay again
02/08/2011 (12:25 am)
Yeah in all honesty I'd ditch TGEA when we were using it I spent more time trying to track down bugs or work around issues I couldn't solve than actually working on the game... it wasn't a pleasant experience.On the plus side it helped to hone some debugging skills!
Thankfully Torque 3D is much nicer and I feel I can focus on the gameplay again
#10
I've been considering that as an option.
Thing is, I've seen what TGEA is capable of, graphically and performance-wise, and it seems to me that buying a new license to a new engine when I have one already that can do the job beautifully would be rather frivolous. Perhaps if there's an upgrade path from TGEA to Torque3D, I would consider it. But considering T3D is only $100 (for now), I guess it would be a good deal no matter what.
I have the demo for T3D on my system currently and there are definitely benefits to it. The water system is much better, for example. I'm still not crazy about how they handle terrain textures(the whole diffuse map/detail map thing), but the textures can at least look a lot better.
Beyond the surface details (editor, better shader support, etc) is T3D really that great a step above TGEA to make it worth a purchase?
I'm not totally "closed" to the idea. I just am not sure it's a "necessary" purchase at this point.
Thanks...
02/08/2011 (3:44 pm)
@Andy,I've been considering that as an option.
Thing is, I've seen what TGEA is capable of, graphically and performance-wise, and it seems to me that buying a new license to a new engine when I have one already that can do the job beautifully would be rather frivolous. Perhaps if there's an upgrade path from TGEA to Torque3D, I would consider it. But considering T3D is only $100 (for now), I guess it would be a good deal no matter what.
I have the demo for T3D on my system currently and there are definitely benefits to it. The water system is much better, for example. I'm still not crazy about how they handle terrain textures(the whole diffuse map/detail map thing), but the textures can at least look a lot better.
Beyond the surface details (editor, better shader support, etc) is T3D really that great a step above TGEA to make it worth a purchase?
I'm not totally "closed" to the idea. I just am not sure it's a "necessary" purchase at this point.
Thanks...
#11
T3D: 6.5 out of 10
..scale that concept however you feel fit.
02/08/2011 (4:25 pm)
TGEA: 1 out of 10T3D: 6.5 out of 10
..scale that concept however you feel fit.
Torque Owner Mitovo