Decals and TSStatic Collision Meshes

#1 Yeah, the decalType setting for TSStatics is useless.
If collision type is VisibleMesh or CollisionMesh it is used for the decals too irrespective of what you have set for decalType.

#2 if you want to get things working,
in TSStatic.h
after

Vector<S32> mCollisionDetails;
   Vector<S32> mLOSDetails;

add

Vector<S32> mDecalDetails;

then in TSStatic.cpp, function TSStatic::_createShape()
after

mCollisionDetails.clear();
   mLOSDetails.clear();

add

mDecalDetails.clear();

then in TSStatic::prepCollision()
after

mCollisionDetails.clear();
   mLOSDetails.clear();

add

mDecalDetails.clear();

and a little further down, still in prepCollision()
after

if ( mCollisionType == CollisionMesh || mCollisionType == VisibleMesh )
      mShape->findColDetails( mCollisionType == VisibleMesh, &mCollisionDetails, &mLOSDetails );

add

if( mDecalType == CollisionMesh || mDecalType == VisibleMesh && mDecalType != mCollisionType )
      mShape->findColDetails( mDecalType == VisibleMesh, &mDecalDetails, NULL );

then in TSStatic::buildPolylist
change

if ( meshType == None )
         return false;
      else if ( meshType == Bounds )
         polyList->addBox( mObjBox );
      else       
      {
         // Everything else is done from the collision meshes
         // which may be built from either the visual mesh or
         // special collision geometry.
         for ( U32 i = 0; i < mCollisionDetails.size(); i++ )
            mShapeInstance->buildPolyListOpcode( mCollisionDetails[i], polyList, box );
      }

to

if ( meshType == None )
         return false;
      else if ( meshType == Bounds )
         polyList->addBox( mObjBox );
      else if (meshType == mCollisionType)      
      {
         // Everything else is done from the collision meshes
         // which may be built from either the visual mesh or
         // special collision geometry.
         for ( U32 i = 0; i < mCollisionDetails.size(); i++ )
            mShapeInstance->buildPolyListOpcode( mCollisionDetails[i], polyList, box );
      }
      else // mDecalType
      {
         for ( U32 i = 0; i < mDecalDetails.size(); i++ )
            mShapeInstance->buildPolyListOpcode( mDecalDetails[i], polyList, box );
      }

A couple of potential gotchas for using different meshes for decals and collision are that you add some extra memory overhead to each static.

The other issue is that if your collision geometry and visible geometry don't line up well, you might find that projectile decals don't get added, because the explosion upon impact with the collision mesh is not close enough to the visible mesh for the decal to be placed.

#3 I found my self walking thru collision meshes in StaticShapes while in First Person...then when I switched to Third Person, I was stopped by the collision mesh. Vanilla proT3DFinal... Very odd.

#4 Thanks guys.