March 29 2024 00:52:14
Navigation
· Home
· Articles
· Downloads
· FAQ
· Discussion Forum
· Web Links
· News Categories
· Contact Me
· Photo Gallery
· Search
· Gameservers
Languages
Users Online
· Guests Online: 6

· Members Online: 0

· Total Members: 1,127
· Newest Member: Highl@nder
Teamspeak 3
Last Seen Users
· gus00:07:36
· desintegrator07:15:00
· Intruder 1 day
· Highl@nder 1 day
· Silent Bob 1 day
· Jerry 2 days
· forrest747 4 days
· WEZ 4 days
· Sully 5 days
· doomed 1 week
· Terminator 1 week
· The ACE 1 week
· GONZO 2 weeks
· VictorMyson 3 weeks
· Don Turtuma 4 weeks

View Thread: Lightmaps...
Vietcong.Info » Vietcong General Discussion » Maps & Mapping
Who is here? 1 Guest
Current Rating: (Total: 1 rating)  
 Print Thread
Lightmaps...
Intruder
Hello,

I was going to write you a very long and boring explanation about my problem but to avoid this, I will first start with a "simple" question... Wink

Do you think (Brchi?) that the number of lightmaps (static and dynamic ones) the game engine can handle could be increased in a way or another?

It seems that the number of them will have an impact on the stability of a map and will create many different bugs!



Intruder
Signaturewww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month1011.pngwww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month_6.png
 
Brchi
I don't know about a limit but it's probably not easy to increase such one as it could be spread over the engine and changes could have implications.
What exactly is the problem? Maybe start with another simple question Wink
  x 1
 
http://www.myCong.net
GONZO
Hello,
I had a similar problem. On a more complex terrain, a large ldt file will be created when generating. It may cause problems.
A possible solution is to use the texture (diffuse 4 - lightmap) for texturing the terrain. Just as Apfelbaum did in FOREST WINTER. You can generate this texture in 3ds Max, then convert it to dds or tga. The limitation of the number of lights per object is probably not to be circumvented.
I've had this problem on G_Underground. Finally, in 3ds max, I cutted the map terrain to 28 parts and I exported it separately.
This gave me more light. And of course I could better optimize map using Clipping Distance.
=G=
  x 1
 
Intruder
Brchi wrote:
I don't know about a limit but it's probably not easy to increase such one as it could be spread over the engine and changes could have implications.
What exactly is the problem? Maybe start with another simple question Wink

If I have another "simple" question? Hmmm, I don't think... lol Wink

GONZO wrote:
Hello,
I had a similar problem. On a more complex terrain, a large ldt file will be created when generating. It may cause problems.
A possible solution is to use the texture (diffuse 4 - lightmap) for texturing the terrain. Just as Apfelbaum did in FOREST WINTER. You can generate this texture in 3ds Max, then convert it to dds or tga. The limitation of the number of lights per object is probably not to be circumvented.
I've had this problem on G_Underground. Finally, in 3ds max, I cutted the map terrain to 28 parts and I exported it separately.
This gave me more light. And of course I could better optimize map using Clipping Distance.
=G=

That's an interesting approach GONZO and I will think about it more precisely, however I'm not sure it concerns my problem that I will explain now... Thank you for your help!


I'll try to resume the problem to avoid a boring reading... lol

So, as some of you may already know, after a very long break and a new pc, I'm actualy working on the next update of Intrusion (Intrusion_beta_2). Yes, finally! lol. The map is very nice looking and immersive but I'm facing an annoying bug.

I copied my latest working map folder to complete the update in the editor. And because we are playing on much more powerful pc (for the most) than years before, I decided to push the "graphics" to the maximum to increase the immersion of the gameplay...
To reach my goal, I've added a lot more LMs because they contribute to make the world more real. Everything was working fine in the editor and it never complained about those extra LMs... I'm always checking the map from time to time "in game", in Coop and in solo, to check if everything is working correctly but at a certain moment, the map was making the game to crash to desktop at the very end of the loading bar. Because I was working with LMs, I suspected them, very soon, to be the culprit of the crash. So, I deleted many of them till I found back a "stable map" and it's what happend, the map wasn't crashing the game anymore... I thought I had fixed the problem till I tested the map in multiplayer with my beta testers! We discovered the map had many bugs in fact! The server was crashing with the "nextmap" command, the game was crashing to desktop during the rejoining, the class selection was missing,... and a mate even discovered his game was crashing when he was using a medkit! But the "funny part" was, the map was working normally in the Discovery mode!

So, I made newer versions for more tests and the more I was deleting LMs, the more the map was behaving correctly again. Slowely but surely, all the bugs we had with many LMs (around 570 when all the problems were present) have been fixed, excepted for one bug that is still present now... The map will crash the game at the very end of the loading if we try to rejoin the map (leaving the server to rejoin it). Note that that bug is only present in the Coop mode and not in the Discovery one. But also, a mate succeeded to leave the server, to rejoin it without his game crashed to desktop! Why it worked once for him and not for me? The other "odd" thing is we tried a map version with only 2 LMs in the ldt folder (shadows and terrain ones) but the rejoining bug was still present in the Coop mode!!! More bugs?!?

With all the numerous and boring tets I made with my beta testers (thanks to them to help me, really!), I slowely thought that the game engine wasn't supporting too many LMs... That's why Brchi, I asked you if it was possible to increase that number. The map has no bugs in the Discovery mode (this mode is exactly the same as the Coop mode excepted it has NO bots on map) but it has in the Coop mode because all the "dynamic LMs" used by the bots are increasing the maximum of LMs the game can support. But without the bots (and their extra LMs), the map stays under the limits of what the game engine can deal with... It's only my theory after all the tests we made but I also noticed the bugs weren't "consistent" however.

Because I still don't know why I have that rejoining bug (still too many LMs? Around 350 LMs for the moment), my only solution will be to try to find back a stable map and increase the updates till I'm facing the trouble(s) again (scripts, waypoints, bots...). It will be a huge work and many hours to add to what I've already done and I'm not even sure I will suceed, but hey... Nobody said it was going to be easy! Very Angry "lol"
I hope it will work!


Intruder
Intruder attached the following image:

[555.76 kB]

Edited by Intruder on 07-08-2017 05:26
Signaturewww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month1011.pngwww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month_6.png
  x 1
 
Brchi
You're doing so much work and the engine doesn't appreciate it Sad

I think you should try to isolate the problem.
Create a simple test map with only lots of LMs and bots and see if you can reproduce the bugs/crashes you're facing with your main map.

That's the only idea I have for now. Maybe we can then find a way to increase limits or analyze the crashes at least.
Edited by Brchi on 05-08-2017 14:46
 
http://www.myCong.net
Intruder
Indeed, I will try to find what is causing the problem but I already feel it won't be easy...

Because I have a doubt about the number of LMs the game engine can deal with, I cheked by curiosity, the number of LMs my FA_MineFactory edition had... 359 files! And the latest version of my Intrusion map which is still crashing at the reloading has... 352 files! My FA_MineFactory map edition is not known to have the rejoining bug and because Intrusion has less LMs than my FA_MineFactory map, it should "work" also I guess... Hmmm... Frown

I'm still searching but still don't know what will be the "tactic" I will use to be the most effective to avoid a big waste of time and work...

Thank you for your support! Smile


Intruder
Signaturewww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month1011.pngwww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month_6.png
  x 1
 
Brchi
If you can manage to create a separate map only for testing, where at least some of these bugs occur repeatably, I'll do my best to find the cause of those and how to fix them.

The test map should have as little complexity as possible (and yet cause those bugs), making it easier to analyze.
  x 1
 
http://www.myCong.net
Intruder
I really appreciate your wish to help! APPLAUSE
If we finally succeed to find what is causing that crash, it should not only fix my map but also many others that have the same problem...

I understand your approach to have easier to analyse the map. However, I'am not sure a "simple" test map should help us to find the bug because it seems to be the complexity of it that creates the problem. I'm afraid the bug will only appear once that test map will become as complex as a "normal" one...

So far, I'm going to work on a "test" version of my Intrusion map and rebuild it, from the start, till the bug appears again (almost like a "new" test map). I think it should be easier for me because I can import/export all my stuff from one map to the other one. IF I can find back what is the culprit of the crash, maybe you will also have a direction to search for, with the hope it won't be too complex to fix it, if it's possible!

I'll keep you all informed as soon as I have something new to announce... Wink



Intruder
Signaturewww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month1011.pngwww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month_6.png
 
GONZO
Hello Intruder
It just occurred to me that you could look into the pt_excp.txt file (in VIETCONG/ folder) where errors are written when the game crashes. Perhaps it could help you.
  x 1
 
Intruder
Hello,

Ok, let's use this thread because what I'm going to write quickly is maybe related to it...

I just wanted to inform "mappers and modders" with some news I have just discovered!
Apparently, there are incompatibilities and bugs between the editor and the dev_editor AND the maps and files created with them!!!

Just to name 2 bugs that I found; your rain may become "crazy" once you update it or your map may never be created in your maps folder after a more recent version.

Knowing that, I wouldn't be surprised that that incompatibility may also create a rejoining bug and troubles with the LightMaps!

I need to make a lot more (and annoying) tests to see if I'm right...or not!
Till then, I advise you to NOT mix the files created with the editor and the dev_editor!


Stay tuned...


EDIT 23/01/2018:
The settings of your editor's exe (for both versions) inside Windows (8.1 in my case) also seem to have an impact on the malfunctions of the Editor! I've been obliged to "play" with the compatibilty mode and the "run as administrator" options to make the Editor working correctly again (well, I hope!)... Whatever the settings, the Editor will probably work without apparent problems "on the surface" but it's like if Windows may decide to record the changes or not (depending of those settings) and without warnings > the bugs...


EDIT 22/08/2018:
It seems we have found the reason of all the bugs I explained in this thread!!! YES!
Have a look on that post to know more about it!




Intruder
Edited by Intruder on 23-08-2018 00:05
Signaturewww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month1011.pngwww.vietcong.info/portal/images/ranks/Member_of_the_Month_6.png
  x 3  x 1  x 1
 
Jump to Forum:
Login
Username

Password



Not a member yet?
Click here to register.

Forgotten your password?
Request a new one here.
Render time: 0.33 seconds - 75 Queries 4,881,788 unique visits