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31

Technical forum / Re: Hidden Geometry and Performance

« on: December 24, 2007, 12:08:01 PM »

The FPS values that I mentioned are using my current development machine. I can't count on everyone having the same specs that I have. But anyway, I mentioned the values just to emphasize the performance hit and I just wanted to know if losing 30 FPS is normal for a slightly more complicated geometry.

Theories aside though, my scene starts stuttering when the FPS goes below 60 or 50 and not 30. At 30 FPS my scene is half dead...

32

Technical forum / Re: Hidden Geometry and Performance

« on: December 23, 2007, 02:39:39 PM »

I was afraid this would be the answer... but thanks

33

Technical forum / Hidden Geometry and Performance

« on: December 23, 2007, 12:23:22 PM »

In order to improve the way the 3D actor's shadow falls on objects I tried a more complex hidden geometry for one of my scenes and although it really looks better now, I'm experiencing a serious drop in performance. My FPS for that scene dropped from 100 to 70. Is this normal? I read that a more detailed hidden geometry affects its loading time and pathfinding time (if 3D pathfinding is used) but I didn't read anything about performance. On the other hand I read that the hidden geometry is actually rendered so I believe it can have some impact on FPS.

Any info and advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

34

Technical forum / Re: Lighting Problem

« on: December 13, 2007, 10:48:52 AM »

I'm bumping this thread because I haven't been able to work it out by myself and I still need help, and also because I wanted to add a new but related question.

Do decoration regions work for 3D actors? It didn't work for me and I'm not sure if it's supposed to or not. In case it's not supposed to, is there another way of masking the 3D actor with a semi-transparent color overlay? I tried the AmbientLightColor of the scene but it affected the actor only slightly (mostly his face and hands but not his clothes, which are darker in comparison).

35

Fixed / Re: Animation Events Problem

« on: December 09, 2007, 04:37:53 PM »

Ok, great! Thanks for fixing it.

36

Fixed / Animation Events Problem

« on: December 09, 2007, 03:51:53 PM »

I have a problem with my 3D actor's animation events. My event handlers are being called twice: once at the correct frame and the other after the animation ends. Is this a known issue/bug or am I doing something wrong?

My animation is defined like this in my actor's act3d file:

Code: [Select]

ANIMATION
{
    NAME="DoSomething"

    EVENT
    {
        FRAME = 50
        NAME = "DoSomething"
    }
}

And in the actor's script I have a:

Code: [Select]

on "DoSomething"
{
    Game.Msg("DoSomething");
}

The game outputs the "DoSomething" to the screen at the correct frame during the animation and then it outputs it again after the animation ends. Any ideas?

37

Technical forum / Lighting Problem

« on: December 09, 2007, 02:49:17 PM »

I want to be able to illuminate my actor with a very strong light. I placed a strong spotlight in Max, but no matter what I do, the light from that spotlight looks somewhat weak when seen in WME. Has anyone encountered such problem? How can I show the light from a spotlight in its full original intensity? Or more in general, how do I illuminate the actor with a very strong light?

And while we're talking about lighting, what are activity and falloff? I read about them in another thread and I wanted to know what they mean and how to control them in Max/WME?

38

Technical forum / Re: Problem with walking animation

« on: November 28, 2007, 11:24:46 AM »

Well, I don't know how else to ask this... This thread is not about choosing the prettiest walking animation. If it were, it would have been a matter of taste, of course. This thread, however, is about overcoming a real problem which has nothing to do with personal tastes. If the actor always starts his walking by gliding, then it's a problem and by no means a matter taste. Gliding instead of walking is a problem no matter who looks at it.

All I wanted is a good advice from the people around here that are using 3D actors and that can easily take a look at the first frame of their actor's walking animation. There are quite a few people around here that can provide such an answer...

39

Technical forum / Re: Particles and regions

« on: November 28, 2007, 11:16:45 AM »

Ok, sounds good. Thank you very much.

40

Technical forum / Re: Pathfinding

« on: November 28, 2007, 11:15:32 AM »

Good advice, I'll try that. Thanks.

41

Game design / Re: Character studio - all animations in one file

« on: November 27, 2007, 12:11:49 PM »

I tried it and it worked great. Thank you very much, FogGobbler!

42

Technical forum / Re: Pathfinding

« on: November 26, 2007, 05:19:07 PM »

So if walking to the nearest "walkable" point in the scene isn't very logical in the case of a specific scene, should I override the GoTo for this specific scene and manage what happens when the mouse is clicked in the non-walkable area myself?

43

Technical forum / Re: Particles and regions

« on: November 26, 2007, 05:08:05 PM »

Ok, thanks. Sounds like a good idea. I'll try it. But if the actor can walk on the area in question, wouldn't the semi-transparent image affect him as well?

44

Technical forum / Re: Problem with walking animation

« on: November 26, 2007, 05:02:12 PM »

It depends on you, really. What you think will look better in your case.

Well, it's not a matter of taste here, I think. The context of my question was preventing the "gliding" effect whenever the actor starts walking. So I wanted to know if this effect will disappear or otherwise significantly lessen if the first frame would be one leg fully outstretched in a full step motion.

As for the transition time, I think the default value is pretty much ok. I just played with it to see if I can solve my "gliding" problem with it. As it turned out, my actor stopped "gliding" and started walking immediately when I used a value as low as 50ms but as I mentioned before, it looked bad with such a low value.

Bottom line, if you tell me you think starting the walking animation with a full-step frame would solve the problem, I'll have to talk to the animators and ask to modify the animation itself.

45

Technical forum / Re: Pathfinding

« on: November 26, 2007, 04:45:15 PM »

Sorry, wrong thread. Moving...