Odd bug... some surfaces are acting like 'nomarks' is on.

(WolfWings) #1

Specifically, I have a shader that’s applied to a large portion of the map, namely the generic ‘stone bricks’ texture from the E7 texture-set by HFX that I’m using for the main walls for the castle-style walls I’m building around a medium-sized courtyard. I haven’t yet finished laying out the courtyard, as it will have other stuff in it… but I’m running into a wierd problem.

The ‘towers’ I’ve built are soaking up shots without leaving marks behind. Railgun, machinegun, rocket launcher, nothing leaves a mark on the ‘tower’ areas. But, the ‘walls’ leading between the towers can be marked just fine.

Is there something I’m doing wrong? The ladders and lamps are .ASE models, with manually-made and very neat and simple weaponclip brushwork, with single point lights in the ‘bowl’ of the lamp placed manually.

The shader that’s applied over most of the map…


textures/e7/e7bricks01
{
 q3map_shadeAngle 75
 q3map_nonPlanar
 {
  map $lightmap
 }
 q3map_styleMarker
 {
  map textures/wwsf/e7bricks01.jpg
  blendFunc filter
 }
}

The map, compiled for VQ3:
http://wolfwings.us/wwsf.zip

(ratty redemption) #2

I sometimes get this with my terrain blending, iirc it`s caused by the blendfunc filter, either that or some depth sorting problem… but I could be wrong.

sorry thats not much help but if you do a search in here then you might find ydnars explanation… Id look myself but Im tired up with other dev stuff atm.

(WolfWings) #3

If it’s caused by ‘blendfunc filter’ then ALL shaders, anywhere, would cause it, since lightmaps use ‘blendfunc filter’ already. :slight_smile:

As for sorting… that doesn’t compute either. Some places on the map, that shader works correctly. Others, it doesn’t. And there doesn’t see to be any pattern except that the surfaces it doesn’t work on are being affected by the shadeAngle, while the surfaces that marks appear on aren’t being affected by the shadeAngle. shadeAngle is working correctly, but where the phong-shading is occuring, marks are never showing up, so I’m wondering if that has something to do with it?

(ratty redemption) #4

good points, and my terrain blend shaders all use shadeangle, so that could be the problem… hopefully ydnar can explain this ‘bug’ and if there is a way around it.

(Shallow) #5

IIRC it’s caused by q3map_nonplanar, which causes q3map2 to generate surfaces that give Q3 trouble figuring out how to apply impact decals.

Anyway, take that out unless you really need it, and I’m not sure that you do. Probably not a good idea to put a shader like that on all your walls anyway, just the bits that need the phong.

(WolfWings) #6

That’d be the culprit. Thanks muchly.

(ratty redemption) #7

@Shallow, cool and do you know if we need q3map_forcemeta if we`re compiling with -meta?

tbh, Ive not noticed any benefit of using either q3map_forcemeta or q3map_nonplanar, but Ive always kept them in my shaders intended for trisouped brush work… can I safely remove them both?

(WolfWings) #8

Unless you’re applying a q3map_forceMeta shader to an .ASE model or similair 3D model, it does nothing if you’re compiling with -meta, Ratty. Even I can answer that one. :slight_smile:

And you get the same effect if you set spawnflags of 4 on a misc_model regardless. (2 enables automatic clipping, 6 enabled both)

(ratty redemption) #9

cool, and thanx :slight_smile:

(ydnar) #10

Quake 3’s mark code doesn’t work with nonplanar surfaces.

Omitting q3map_nonplanar just to get marks is a Bad Idea. The vertex count will blow out considerably, and framerate/BSP size will suffer.

y

(ratty redemption) #11

ah, so we should keep q3map_nonplanar in then? what about q3map_forcemeta, can you confirm what WolfWings said still applies or do we need both?

(WolfWings) #12

Actually, in this case I think it was an overkill use of q3map_nonPlanar, as I didn’t notice any noticable change to the BSP size. I was applying the keyword to a shader that was being applied as the ‘main wall texture’ for the entire level, so having spontanous areas of ‘no marks’ was giving a distinct impression of a bug in the map, as well as causing a glitch with the mod I was making the map for. It’s very simple geometry to begin with, thankfully, which is why I’m not worried about the vertrex count.

And unfortunately, unless iD will release One Last Bugfix (I’ve reported at least two non-Q3map-related bugs in their renderer, specifically certain temporary-entity effects built into the renderer ignore some of the sent coordinates so they’re effectively unusable) to fix all these piled-up bugs in their Q3A renderer, I’ll need to deal with the FPS-hit from making sure I get marks on my map’s walls, since due to legal issues the mod is stuck on Q3A. Generations’ additive dynamic-lighting effect on weapon impacts doesn’t seem to work if marks don’t work. If it was just the ground (which still has q3map_nonPlanar) I’d be able to live with it, but not 90% of the walls. :slight_smile: