Unstable models

[JohnPro]

I've been making a lot of new models but for some reason some of the models flicker on and off kinda ,

 

The Lods work great i can see them from miles but the problem is as you move around sometimes the models will disappear for a few seconds. I made a race track and while you drive around it, it disappears and it looks like the car is flying The Mountain i make also disappears sometimes and so does this other thing.

 

Info-

*New IDE, IPL and IMG

*Models made using 3ds max and Uv Mapped no other lighting, etc done.

*Adjusted brightness and lighting on cols

*Created Lods for these models except 1 so i dont think its a lod problem although i would like to know how to make lods disappear when your near them

*Draw Distance on these models are 299

*Models are very big (only because of the +5 Limit on San Andreas)

 

Any help appreciated greatly

[SmokingCookie]

Does it disappear at specific points? (e.g. X feet from the start position, in a turn)

[Jorge F.]

How many poly's do they contain?

 

[edit]

It could be that on your actual model with the draw distance of 299 the textures aren't visable, so that when you come near your model, the LOD disappears for a second as he ought to do. Normally you then would see the normal model, but because your textures doesn't work you dont see a damn thing .

 

Just a theory

Edited August 7, 2007 by Jorge F.

[JohnPro]

 

Does it disappear at specific points? (e.g. X feet from the start position, in a turn)

I think so but its pretty random at times.

 

 

How many poly's do they contain?

Under 30,000 plys, one of them has around 15,000 but still disappears and yeah 15,000 is still a lot

[Jorge F.]

Does it disappear at specific points? (e.g. X feet from the start position, in a turn)

I think so but its pretty random at times.

 

 

How many poly's do they contain?

Under 30,000 plys, one of them has around 15,000 but still disappears and yeah 15,000 is still a lot

15.000 is way to much. A dff file can handel more then 300.000 poly's but the col file not. Its recommend that you reduce the amount of poly's for your col file around the 3000 poly's. If youre col file is under the 3000 and your dff file contains 15.000 it runs smoothly .

[SmokingCookie]

How many poly's do they contain?

 

[edit]

It could be that on your actual model with the draw distance of 299 the textures aren't visable, so that when you come near your model, the LOD disappears for a second as he ought to do. Normally you then would see the normal model, but because your textures doesn't work you dont see a damn thing .

 

Just a theory

No that's not the point: if you have LOD objects, and you come whithin range of the normal model (mostly 299 units, don't know whether it's in meters/feet/other units), it will automatically switch to normal models, no matter how big the Draw Distance (short: DD) is. You can place an LOD model without a normal model and the LOD doesn't disappear

[JohnPro]

ok so his theory is out of the question but the faces might be a solution.

 

How would i go about reducing the col poly's?

Edited August 7, 2007 by JohnPro

[Jorge F.]

 

Thank you, how would i go about reducing the col poly's?

Just load your dff file, then all the unnesecary (how do you spell that ) poly's you can delete. Like if one wall contains 12 poly's which you added for the textures, you can make that 4 poly's by replacing it for a plane.

But the best way is (as I do most of the time) to split your models.

 

@SmookingCookie,

I don't know how the LODS react in San Andreas, but in Vice City they did disappear if I set the draw distance to 3000

Edited August 7, 2007 by Jorge F.

[SmokingCookie]

necessary??

 

I have experience with San Andreas LODs

Edited August 7, 2007 by SmokingCookie

[JohnPro]

lol im getting messed up, we are all online and skipping posts.

 

Can i delete polys using Col Editor? 3ds max would take a while as i have many models lol.

[SmokingCookie]

Poly=Polygon

[Jorge F.]

 

lol im getting messed up, we are all online and skipping posts.

 

Can i delete polys using Col Editor, 3ds max would take a while as i have many models lol.

 

Whats a Poly??? I use 3ds max to count them but is it the same as faces?

For example, if you have a plane, the edges of that plane are called poly's. A plane contains four of them. A box contains 8 .

 

And I would recommend you to use 3ds max for the poly deleting .

[SmokingCookie]

Do you mean "hoekpunten"? (Think of Mathematics)

 

PS: Mathematics=SCHOOL HORROR!!

[Jorge F.]

Do you mean "hoekpunten"? (Think of Mathematics)

 

PS: Mathematics=SCHOOL HORROR!!

Yes thats exactly what I mean .

Hoekpunten = edge

[SmokingCookie]

No it's 1"hoekpunt" and more "hoekpunten" (so it's edgeS)

[Jorge F.]

No it's 1"hoekpunt" and more "hoekpunten" (so it's edgeS)

Like we give a sh*t

[SmokingCookie]

Well, if some1 is learning Dutch, it's pretty important to let that person see the difference between 1 or more but let's go back to the point

[JohnPro]

The point is i dont wanna change my cols and do all that work for nothing

 

ill wait to see what the others have to say

[Jorge F.]

The point is i dont wanna change my cols and do all that work for nothing

 

ill wait to see what the others have to say

Just split your models, then you dont have to change your col file but you will have more then 5 models. But I thought there was a boundary hack for San Andreas that allows you to add more then 5 models .

[SmokingCookie]

Oops I didn't think of that, but it's good

[JohnPro]

lol i already have 21 new models and the maximum i can add is around 25 so by splitting them i wont have space.

Anyway if your 100% sure this is the solution i guess i have no choice then. I could however try it on only one of the models and see how i go from that model

 

thanks

[Gforce]

not sure if you guys know this but flicker can be caused when the main model and the lod model have different ipl coord's , and that includes the rotation coord's .

 

here is an example of what i mean .......

 

 

12240, illcom_c4_r7, 0, -98.319, 117.361, -3.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 112241, lodcom_c4_r7, 0, -98.319, 117.361, -3.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, -1

 

 

as a general rule, identical coord's for both main model and lod model ipl entries.

 

 

 

[JohnPro]

Yep the cords are different i know that for a fact as i only used med I'll try that for sure today. thanks

 

btw my lods are treelod instead of lodtree, is this ok?

[JohnPro]

It didnt work. The models still flicker and is that exact length to make you crash and once you crash it appears

[xmen]

haaah...!! i know the cause

your model is crossed the SA boundary

hmmm...for example

your half model is in sa boundary and half out of boundary

 

if you put your entire model out of boundary then it wont appear

i had the same problem, but after some xperiments i solved it

so i hope thats the solution of the problem

 

 

[JohnPro]

Yeah Xmen thats what i thought but they are not over the boundry, Im thinking maybe I have too many high poly models in a certain area, lets say 5 buildings with 15000+ faces, could this be the cause? And the game has difficulty displaying them

[xmen]

nope i think faces not the problem , in my island i had a model that had 22000 faces and it had LOD too

then 44000 faces in 50x50 area, and i havnt any problem

can you show me the cords of your model??

[JohnPro]

ok good cause i wasnt looking forward to exporting, importing then deleting faces etc. lol

 

Uhmm im sure its not over boundary as my mountain which is near the beach also flickers at some times.