Problem: snow dosent render

[Bikerdude]

Created a bunch of snow patches etc, the issue is the snow is only rendered when part of the patch is with in the players view. As in the player looks away and the snow isnt renders etc -

 

The only thing I have done is edit the particle as tmd_snow_flurries dosent fall far enough, the Z amount was set to 64 I've changed it to 512, everything else as tdm default.

 

{
 count	 96
 material	textures/particles/dustcloud
 time	 10.000
 cycles	 0.000
 timeOffset	0.000
 bunching	1.000
 distribution   rect 50.000 50.000 512.000
 direction	cone 45.000
 orientation   view
 speed	 "-20.000"
 size	 "0.500"
 aspect	 "1.000"
 rotation	"33.000" to "47.000"
 randomDistribution  1
 boundsExpansion  0.000
 fadeIn	 0.200
 fadeOut	0.200
 fadeIndex	0.000
 color	 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
 fadeColor	0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
 offset	 0.000 0.000 0.000
 gravity	world 5.000
}
{
 count	 24
 material	textures/particles/dustcloud
 time	 10.000
 cycles	 0.000
 timeOffset	0.000
 bunching	1.000
 distribution   rect 50.000 50.000 512.000
 direction	cone 60.000
 orientation   view
 speed	 "-40.000" to "-30.000"
 size	 "1.000"
 aspect	 "1.000"
 rotation	"41.000" to "66.000"
 randomDistribution  1
 boundsExpansion  0.000
 fadeIn	 0.200
 fadeOut	0.200
 fadeIndex	0.000
 color	 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
 fadeColor	0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
 offset	 0.000 0.000 0.000
 gravity	world 5.000
}
}

 

Any idea's..?

[rebb]

Try playing with the Bounds Expansion value.

 

From http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/editor_particle.php :

 

Bounds expansion lets you add some constant amount to the size of the bounding box surrounding the particle system. This is only needed if you encounter a weird situation where your particles are disapearing when you face a certain direction. What is actually happening is the particle system is getting clipped with the view frustum because the bounds is too small. This theoretically shouldn't ever happen, but in reality it sometimes does.

[Bikerdude]

Ah cool, well as there aren't any figures I'm gonna have to take a wild stab at what the size of the bounding box should be...

 

[update] have tried 50 and 512 and neither fixed the issue, anyone point me to an examlple as googling for this is like a needle in a haystack.

[Obsttorte]

I'm not sure how to understand your problem. You said that the snow is only rendered when it is in players view. Isn't that as it supposed to be? Why do you want something to be rendered that can not be seen?

[Bikerdude]

Rain all ways renders regardless and so should snow.

 

The problem is if the player is walking down a street looking straight ahead and the snow patch isnt in view snow particles are not rendered which is rubbish and unrealistic. The only time snow is rendered is when the player looks up..

 

Im going to see if I can spot something in the rain particle effect that will fix the snow..

 

[update] created a small map where the snow patch is only a few feet above the player and it renders, even when the player dosent have line of sight to the snw patch. This might suggest the bounding box figure I tried above needs to be far larger perhaps..

[Bikerdude]

Ok I have found a fix of sorts...

 

The only way I could get the snow to render no matter where the player looked was to have the patch near ground level, but obviously this isn't practical. After looking in the particle editor I found the "offset" window option under the distribution tab. I offset this by enough to make sure the snow was rendered near the top of the map, in my case that's 384.

 

Snow now renders for all locations in the map regardless of where the player is looking. The only time it has the same is as before is if the player is able to get up close enough to touch the top of the map (which in most if not all cases is never going to happen)

 

The upshot of of this is we need a better way of render snow and rain, as using the stock TDM methods both are effected by where the player is looking and the only way around it atm is my counter-intuitive bodge that requires editing of the particle def.

 

And lastly it breaks the work around for rain that was found that stopped it falling through into rooms etc.

[Bikerdude]

Ok, the above fix didnt really fix it. When the player gets high enough and looses line of sight to the snow patch the same issue happens as before.

 

And contrary to what I said a few posts above, I can confirm the same "line of sight" issue happens with rain as well. I will log a bug tracker, as this really needs fixing.

[Serpentine]

Umm, try using brushes as rather than patches for the emitters, I think patches are ignored in a few situations which brushes would not be. Just a wild shot in the dark.

[Bikerdude]

Umm, try using brushes as rather than patches for the emitters, I think patches are ignored in a few situations which brushes would not be. Just a wild shot in the dark.

A cool idea, will try that now..

 

[update]

 

Serps your genius, that fixed it..!

 

I/we can have snow and rain that works as in RL.

[grayman]

Oh, crap. Now I have to run around one of my WIPs and change umpteen snow patches to brushes.

 

All in the name of progress, though.

 

Brilliant solution.

 

I assume one brush face is the weather texture and the other 5 are no_draw. Right?

[Serpentine]

As far as I understand, it will make no difference to the performance/visuals if all of the faces have the material. Might want to cross check that. I also think one of the material keywords for particles uses the texture scale to adjust density, the other one is fixed. I like single material brushes too

 

I've only used this stuff once - just going on what I remember of the code (which is a bit foggy).

[Bikerdude]

Yes and no, I applied rain to all the faces of a brush when working on Thief's Den and it absolutely killed perf..

 

Back to my map, its proving annoying getting it to work with the brush set to the same level as highest roof in the map. At street level if the player looks down, no snow. But if the player climbs up a bit higher and looks down it renders fine. So I'm just tweaking the particle to find the best setting.

 

[update]

 

I take it back, the bloody damn line of site issue is back... bah! Yes the snow is render more, but now its linear. From looking down with now snow to looking up to lots of snow...

[Serpentine]

Yes and no, I applied rain to all the faces of a brush when working on Thief's Den and it absolutely killed perf..

 

Back to my map, its proving annoying getting it to work with the brush set to the heighest roof. At street level if the player looks down, no snow. But if the player climbs up a bit high and looks down it renders fine. So Im just tweaking and playing to find the best work around.

 

Ah ok, well then - thanks for investigating the faces.

 

The snow should be there if you're looking down, if you're using a brush. With the exception that if the brush is behind a portal which is closed by you looking down. I guess you have a horizontal portal over some street sections?

[Bikerdude]

Ah, that might be the issue then, I broke up the Snow brush/s so that they are either side of a VP etc. I will join a few of them up and see how it goes..

[Bikerdude]

Evening

 

Right, I need someone from the TDM team to have a look at this please, I have tried everything above and still the snow refuses to render correctly.

 

and filed a bugtracker 3278

[grayman]

Biker, look at the filed issue. I had a couple questions.

[Bikerdude]

Biker, look at the filed issue. I had a couple questions.

Replied and attached a basic map.