Serious problem with "dissappearing doodads"

[NarGalloth]

Hi again.
Now I have another problem that is making me sick...

Especially during cinematics, some doodads simply dissappear. Dissappear more often those with big scale. I usually use cameras of long distances, with vasts views from above... But I become sick when I see that the doodads begin to dissappear each time I move the camera! It's so UUUUUGLY!!!

In the Editor they appear normally, without nothing strange. In-game, with short cameras, they appear normally too. But those big doodads in long distances... ARGH! This problem is ruining the visual aspect of my maps!

Someone knows something about this? Thanks for reading.

Regards

 

[SA Dashie]

change the settings on the doodad in [Art - Visibility Radius] to a higher number(real) and it should be more visible when further away from your view. But be ware the more doodads you can see at once the more lag there will be. Anyway it should work but I havn't tested it out myself

 

[defskull]

Like in MMORPG's camera system, they too, will disappear a long-distance view from the sight, you have to actuall get close to it to see it

Is this what you meant ?

 

[SA Dashie]

Got there first ;D. Lets see if I'm right ;D.

 

[defskull]

I'm more into question, you're more into answer, pwned.

 

[Dr Super Good]

NarGalloth, that is caused by view distance.

You can eithor force the doodad to render (as described above I hope) or you can modify the camer view distance so that it includes the graphics in question.

Be warned that as WC3 is an RTS game it is not designed to support viewing the entire map at one time. Thus it is very important to have some view range otherwise it may cause performance problems (especially on older hardware).

Ofcourse you may not be used to this as nearly no modern games have it. However it was especially common back on the N64 where sometimes you could not even see the end of a room.

 

[NarGalloth]

It seems that I didn't explain me correctly... Sorry.
I said long distance cameras... not doodads at a great distance. Most of them are relatively close to the camera! But they begin to dissappear when I move the camera!
For example: if I move the camera (view from avobe) to the north, the doodads of the inferior part of the screen begin to dissappear when they approach the inferior border.

It's the most strange thing I've ever seen in a map.
Note: This has already happen in some other maps.

I hope that this time the problem is clear...

Regards

 

[Kino]

Death Chef already gave you the answer.

 

[NarGalloth]

@Kino:"Got there first ;D. Lets see if I'm right ;D.", I don't see anything more in his post. What is he refering to?

Regards

 

[Kino]

change the settings on the doodad in [Art - Visibility Radius] to a higher number(real) and it should be more visible when further away from your view. But be ware the more doodads you can see at once the more lag there will be. Anyway it should work but I havn't tested it out myself

The second post answers everything.

 

[NarGalloth]

It doesn't work, the doodads still dissappear.
Note: This happens too with a building (scale 10). This building, from the distance appears correctly, but when I approach the camera, sometimes dissappears.

Regards

 

[Kino]

In that case its because the camera doesnt display the doodad since its outside the camera view area.

 

[NarGalloth]

I can't outside the view area... On long distance there's no problem! The problem is when I approach the camera to the doodad/unit!
The camera view area has also a limit for close distances?

Regards

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Maybe make it smaller.

 

[Kino]

I can't outside the view area... On long distance there's no problem! The problem is when I approach the camera to the doodad/unit!
The camera view area has also a limit for close distances?

Regards

I wasnt offering a solution, just explaining why it happens.

Theres really nothing you can do AFAIK

 

[Dr Super Good]

This is caused by a render limit WC3 has.

Just place 1000 tauren chieftains onto a map and set the camera view quite far away. You will notice 2 things can happen.
1. Some of the graphics will not render at all (the shadows for the units but no models)
2. A wierd graphic anomoly occurs which is very ugly.

Example shot is below (this is old so may not match exactly how the current version acts).

All the units were tauren chieftains. Notice how only a few of them are actually being rendered, the rest only the shadows are.

 

[NarGalloth]

Well, maybe the problem it's with my computer, and not with the map itself...
Here, I attached a test map. It's a simply plane terrain with some big trees. When the game begins, the camera moves above the trees.

In my case, the trees begin to dissappear when they reach the inferior part of the screen. Please, check it...

In this way, I think that things will be clear.

Regards

 

[SA Dashie]

I don't see whats your problem. Make your game camera zoom in the game and that will make the trees look even bigger but this'll make there less room for tiles but will reduce lag and will make your camera beable to look like it zooms out more and make it not breach the camera limits of Wc3. The reason why Wc3 has this problem is because it's an old strategy game and isn't meant to have special/far away cameras.Just remember that Wc3 has alot of limits and the camra limit is one of them.

Just remember the Doodads only disappear because the camera has breached the limit!

 

[Kino]

The Simple answer which I have given (Again)
Is that the Camera in Wc3 does not show doodads outisde the camera.

The prblem occurs because the game checks where the doodad base is.
Hence if the doodads base is outside the camera's view the doodad will dissapear regardless of where its model extends to.

 

[NarGalloth]

The Simple answer which I have given (Again)
Is that the Camera in Wc3 does not show doodads outisde the camera.

The prblem occurs because the game checks where the doodad base is.
Hence if the doodads base is outside the camera's view the doodad will dissapear regardless of where its model extends to.

I didn't know that... Is there any way to way change the position of the doodad base?
Or it can't be solved without changing the camera?

Regards

 

[Kino]

Its an inbuilt limitation AFAIK.

The most you can do is to place future doodads in refernce to this.

 

[Adiktuz]

the only solution was to make them smaller as its a problem of the engine itself...

 

[NarGalloth]

Ok. What a shame...
Anyway, I'll keep that in mind in future maps and cinematics.
Those that are already done, well... They are a little wrong, but it seems that I can't do anything... But the next will be better!

Thanks for your help!

Regards