Error Rendering Interior of Tie Fighter/Interceptor

jherschmann · Post #1by **jherschmann** » 27.05.2004, 12:59

Since Version 1.3.2 pre 2 I don't get the interior (pilot and cabin details) of the Star Wars Tie Fighters/Interceptors rendered any more. It worked fine in Version 1.3.1 but now it is simply transparent. This happens under all my grpahics card/OS combinations (Nvidia & ATI, Win XP, Win 2000). Is this a known issue and will it be fixed in the proper 1.3.2 release?

jherschmann · Post #2by **jherschmann** » 27.05.2004, 13:04

This still happens with the latest prerelease 1.3.2. pre 8

Post #3by **t00fri** » 27.05.2004, 14:18

jherschmann wrote:This still happens with the latest prerelease 1.3.2. pre 8

Cool...

I guess the pilot fell asleep :roll:

Bye Fridger

Guest · Post #4by **Guest** » 27.05.2004, 17:07

Hmm, never thought of that...

Psykotik · Post #5by **Psykotik** » 27.05.2004, 17:21

Try to uninstall the "luke" addon, he's a bloodlust man shooting everything or everyone coming too close to him. Damn jedi.

Has anyone a smarter answer ? :roll:

Post #6by **t00fri** » 27.05.2004, 22:53

Don't worry, the 'pilot' just returned after 'a good rest'...

Bye Fridger

fsgregs · Post #7by **fsgregs** » 28.05.2004, 01:15

Hi. I agree that this is a problem. Folks went to lots of trouble to render a pilot inside the tie fighter, and my high school kids do think it is "Cool", as fridger joked. To lose the fighter to a glitch in 1.3.2 seems uncool.

Somebody .... please figure it out and fix it .... Whatever happened here to the mesh is probably a bug and not desired. It could happen to other meshes.

Please

Frank

Post #8by **selden** » 28.05.2004, 11:14

This seems to be the kind of bug that Chris would have to track down (assuming it isn't some kind of defect in the model that Celestia previously drew anyhow).

Please provide the URL of the Addon. You can't expect people to go hunting among all the possible downloads to try to find it.

fsgregs · Post #9by **fsgregs** » 28.05.2004, 20:14

Sorry for that. Here is the original link to the model mesh download page for the Tie fighter with pilot.

http://www.jrbassett.com/html/3DSInx5.html

I have incorporated that model into a complete Star Wars solar system which takes up 55 MB, so I don't have an ssc file that is of much use, but if you download and load the 3ds mesh into any Celestia orbit and display it, you should discover the problem. The pilot and the console displays inside the ship display fine in 1.3.1 but are gone in 1.3.2. The rest of the model seems uneffected.

Strange!! :?:

Frank

jestr · Post #10by **jestr** » 28.05.2004, 22:47

Frank is the pilot still there if you fly through the glass-I think it may be the same problem with opacity that affected the Black hole model also,Jestr

fsgregs · Post #11by **fsgregs** » 29.05.2004, 01:05

Jestr:

Wow! You're right. When you look at the front glass viewport from the outside, you see right through it. There is no pilot in the craft. If I slowly fly through the glass and into the tie fighter, the pilot suddenly appears, then disappears when you fly out again.

I don't know what this means, but you were correct in predicting it.

How can it be fixed?

Frank

jestr · Post #12by **jestr** » 29.05.2004, 01:17

I've fixed it but I dont really understand how.Basically I've given the 'glass' a thickness,but when I tried this with the existing meshes it was still wrong in Celestia.Then I tried deleting the originals and replacing them with solid objects-8 sided cylinder,6 sided cylinder and hemisphere and gave them semi-transparent texture and it works,Jestr

jherschmann · Post #13by **jherschmann** » 29.05.2004, 13:51

Guys,

I then assume that there is indeed some kind of source code change after 1.3.1 that affects certain models in Celestia. I have not yet had tried to fix the problem the way jestr has and I am not sure if that is the way to go anyway. Since you were able to recreate the problem and it seems to be related to some kind of transparency setting in the models (or rather the way that Celestia deals with it) I hope there is a way for Chris to find out what the root cause of this is (what code changes he made that afffect this feature) and how to fix it. Better than trying to mess around with individual models and figure out a way how to have them displayed correctly.

BTW, I have not found the time yet to make more thorough comparisons but I have the feeeling that rendering in 1.3.1 so far works better than in the latest prereleases. If I get closer than a certain point to a model parts of the model seem to get clipped. I can't remember to have seen this behaviour before. But again, I need to make some more tests before I can say for sure...
Joachim

jestr · Post #14by **jestr** » 29.05.2004, 15:01

Joachim,if parts of the model are getting clipped as you get close to them,I think this is a bounding box problem (especially noticeable in irregular shaped models-with long protruding parts) try adding an invisible object (or objects) around the model to make the bounding box a more regular symmetrical shape.Hope this helps,Jestr

jherschmann · Post #15by **jherschmann** » 29.05.2004, 15:37

Jestr,

thanks for the hint. I'll have a look into that some time later...

Joachim

P.S.: Where is that latest site of yours gone (http://members.lycos.co.uk/jestr/extras/extras.html)?

jestr · Post #16by **jestr** » 29.05.2004, 15:55

This site has been closed down for using too much of their resources (it was only a free site),hope to have another one up and running soon though,Jestr

jherschmann · Post #17by **jherschmann** » 11.06.2004, 08:31

Okay, I made some more tests with different models and versions of Celestia. Some examples can be seen below.

Deepspace 9 in Celestia 1.3.1:

Deepspace 9 in Celestia 1.3.2pre8:

Immense Space Station in Celestia 1.3.1:

Immense Space Station in Celestia 1.3.2pre8:

Voyager docked at Immense Space Station in Celestia 1.3.1:

Voyager docked at Immense Space Station in Celestia 1.3.2.pre8:

Looking closely at the 1.3.2.pre8 images various rendering errors like parts of the models that should be invisible but are visible can be observed.

I've seen minor rendering errors in earlier versions of Celestia, too, but they weren't too bad. But as can be seen from the examples here the prerelease versions after 1.3.1 all show more serious deteriorations in rendering.

Regarding the original post about the Tie Fighter, I was able to verify that the pilot indeed becomes visible once you get inside the Fighter... Some kind of invisibility shield...

Not sure this helps but I wanted to let everyone know anyway. Again, this happens on various combinations of graphics cards and OSs so I assume it is a fundamental glitch in the way that Celestia now renders objects.

Joachim

fsgregs · Post #18by **fsgregs** » 11.06.2004, 20:32

Based on the above, this seems a reasonably serious bug. Rendering of models is an important function of Celestia.

Chris, any thoughts on what may have changed in 1.3.2pre8?

Frank

jestr · Post #19by **jestr** » 16.06.2004, 17:07

Hi Joachim the lycos site is history unfortunately,you can get my new version from my FTP server here though
ftp://81.108.220.185
look for 'tiefite.rar' in 'spacecraft' section,
Get it faster here
http://www.ibiblio.org/celestia/creators/jestr/SW-TieFighter.zip
Jestr

Post #20by **chris** » 17.06.2004, 23:31

fsgregs wrote:Based on the above, this seems a reasonably serious bug. Rendering of models is an important function of Celestia.

Chris, any thoughts on what may have changed in 1.3.2pre8?

Frank

I don't think that this bug is new in 1.3.2pre8--this limitation has always been present in Celestia. I will address it eventually, however.

--Chris