Transparent fire!?

[NarGalloth]

Hi again.

First of all, look at the attached picture, there you will easily see were my problem is.

In the map, those flames are destructibles, and during the cinematic I create them with the "Create destructible" action. In the editor they are normal, and look good. In-game they are transparent, as you can see in the picture, the things behind the fire can be seen. My question is: Why?

Someone can help me?

Regards

 

[Dr Super Good]

1. Make sure all ingame settings are at maximum quality.
2. Update your graphic drivers.
3. Improve the visual quality your drivers are set to output (in the driver).
4. Buy more modern graphic hardware.
5. Try different graphic vender (ati instead of nvida etc).

Any of the above may or may not make it work correctly ingame.

I advise just using less flames. Alpha is notoriously prone to visual anomalies in computer graphics, thus it is not rare such problems occur if it is used heavilly.

 

[NarGalloth]

Hi, thanks for your answer, and for trying to help me.

I upgraded all my graphic software, improved the visual settings, etc... and the problem was still there.
However, I had an idea, I have tried it, and it worked. Instead of creating the flames as destructibles, I created them as units. They are no longer transparent.
The map is just a cinematic (the prologue of my campaign), so I don't think I should worry about leaks (there are A LOT of flames, nearly 150). I know that I shouldn't use so many, but I need that many, it's part of a triggered spell.

Alright, if somebody has the same problem I had, turn the destructibles into units, and that should solve the problem.

Regards

 

[Bribe]

I'd recommend using special effects instead of units. It will reduce the map file size (1 less custom unit), speed up initialization time (custom object editor data slows things down), and they consume less RAM than units.

 

[NarGalloth]

Yes, I first tried to use special effects but... they dissappeared after a few seconds! And I need to keep the flames burning until the cinematic ends. It can be done with special effects?

Regards

 

[Bribe]

Did you destroy the effect afterward or something? If the effect still doesn't stay I recommend trying different flames, it sounds like this model has some weird bugs.

 

[NarGalloth]

Thaks for answering.
Well, it's the predeterminated flame model that comes with the World Editor. It's bugged?

Anyway, if I can do what I want, even with units, I'm satisfied. It's not exactly the best way to do it, but it works. I tested the map a few times, and the initialization time isn't too large, the file size is 2.44 MB (acceptable, I think), and I didn't noticed any lag.

Regards

 

[Pharaoh_]

It might have been the Occlusion height of the destructables, that's why the appeared invisible in-game (they were presumably blocking the vision of the player).

 

[Dr Super Good]

Whats happening is the game seems to be rendering the flames above the terrain (as the terrain is blending perfectly) but below all other objects. This was common in old videogames such as Spyro the Dragon where you could see your main character parspectivly correct through all environmental objects as he was the last object rendered.

Could we get a test map reproducing this problem? Just to rule out it being caused by your graphic hardware.

 

[NarGalloth]

Here is an example map.
I didn't want to show yet the original map, so I created in 5 minutes another map with the same problem. It's very simple, when you start the game you will see a bunch of shrubs and some buildings. Then, flames will be randomly created (as destructibles) in front of them. I copied the destructible from the original map, it's exactly the same.

In the editor I can see the flames covering the buildings and the shrubs. However, in-game, the problem is there again.

I hope this helps to find where is the problem.

Regards

 

[Bannar]

I've checked the test map by myself and on my computer everything works fine - further more it's not imported fire model but standart blizzad one so probably there is no issue with it, but with your graphic.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Spinnaker, what graphic card do you use?
NarGalloth, what graphic card do you use?

I also have the problem with the transparency not working correctly on my Nvidia 275GTX. This is for both OpenGL and DirectX.

Thus eithor Spinnaker did not spot the problem or it is a bug with modern or certain graphic chipsets.

 

[Bannar]

I've forgotten that I had changed action - create doodad immidiately into create special effect.

First picture refers to:

• Detonador sin nombre 001
  • Events
    • Time - Every 2.00 seconds of game time
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Set p = (Random point in RegiĂłn 000 <gen>)
    • Destructible - Create a Llama mediana at p facing (Random angle) with scale 2.00 and variation 1
    • Custom script: call RemoveLocation(udg_p)

Second picture refers to:

• Detonador sin nombre 001
  • Events
    • Time - Every 2.00 seconds of game time
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Set p = (Random point in RegiĂłn 000 <gen>)
    • Special Effect - Create a special effect at p using Doodads\Cinematic\TownBurningFireEmitter\TownBurningFireEmitter.mdl
    • Custom script: call RemoveLocation(udg_p)

 

[Dr Super Good]

That would explain a lot...

Anyway, it seems destructables (not doodads as you can not create those...) do not run alpha blends with units and doodads.