Re: 3D design problems w/ buildings (weird discoloration/ brightness)

Well, the building construction seems to be progressing, however slowly. 
Anyway, there's still something in this 3D design that causes problems 
or some sort of limitations. Perhaps they could be handled in this same 
thread if there are answers and solutions.

First, the addition of text (objects) to certain surfaces, most 
frequently the track barrier or pit wall. (see example image, 
http://stcreativedesigns.fhero.net/img/torcs-sfl00.png) This primarily 
deals with placing a track logo at the start/finish line, and for oval 
tracks, all the wall markings (like "turn 4", track name and possible 
wall ads).

Now, before any suggestion of simply putting them in some wall texture 
and editing the track.xml where needed, it doesn't always work. For the 
start/finish line, the tracks here have two 0.5-meter segments at the 
start/finish line, so the track logo just won't fit there. And those 
segments (first and last) can't be lengthened because that would cause 
problems with the pit stalls (being cut short or pushed too far ahead on 
either side of the line), and obviously with the robots' already erratic 
pitting. So an external object for that track logo, placed right at the 
start/finish line, touching the pit wall, seems to be the only 
conceivable option. But as that example image shows, the text is totally 
blurred.

I tried editing the wall itself in the .ac file, hoping to get a decent 
rectangle there, cutting it away and adding the logo to that new object, 
but it failed completely. There were so many lines from the triangles on 
that wall that the logo texture didn't appear like it should have 
(nothing to do with "texture repeat", which was 1 like usually). An 
attempt at moving the vertices of that object, to create a "clean" 
rectangle for the logo texture made no difference.

On oval tracks, the banking is the obstacle. As I've experienced 
numerous times before, short track segments (like something needed for a 
"turn 4" wall texture) where banking is changing always cause stupid 
bumps in the track surface and the nearby wall, to the detriment of 
racing. It doesn't matter if you use "banking start/end" or "z end". Any 
"profil steps length" manipulations I tried always failed too. So the 
lesson learned was not to have such short track segments in turns with 
the changing banking. And as those "turn 4" types of markings stand 
exactly where the banking is changing (rising or falling), putting them 
in the wall texture and generating the track will result in those 
annoying bumps. So they should be some kind of external objects, like 
earlier with the start/finish line.

Now the question is, can the graphical issues be solved? Clearly, that 
kind of blurred black mess can't be left in the final version. In that 
object, I used a simple one-sided rectangle with the track logo (on a 
transparent background) as its selected texture. The normal was pointing 
in the right direction. An alternative, the same logo texture with a 
background color, close to the wall's color, looked equally awful. I 
don't know what else is relevant.

I suppose the start/finish line logo could be scrapped and placed 
somewhere else on the track, but those oval track markings (commonplace 
on real-life ovals too) can hardly be moved around. I hope there's some 
solution left.

-------------------
The second graphical obstacle deals with curving structures outside the 
track, which may only be added after track generation (very difficult to 
predict their position beforehand). Those include walls and fences of 
different kind (mainly as an additional barrier between the track and 
buildings/grandstands, imaginary roads and paths etc.) and the 
grandstands themselves. The curving grandstand would mean a part of it 
connecting two rectangular grandstands, like in a turn. That can be 
avoided on fictional road courses but would be absolutely essential to 
most oval tracks, instead of gaps between grandstands in turns or on the 
curving front stretch.

I wonder if it's possible to create a curving structure that would 
function without graphical problems/ugliness and would neatly join two 
rectangular structures. I tried creating one such grandstand (see 
example image, http://stcreativedesigns.fhero.net/img/torcs-grst00.png) 
with lots of short (straight) parts connected at an angle, and the end 
result is pretty terrible. There is obviously overlap of objects and 
surfaces, so possibly another graphical mess awaiting. "Revolve" seems 
to be useless too: that usually generates gigantic objects that always 
have to be resized, not to mention the inevitable flickering of 6473 
surfaces.

If this is way too complicated for my limited skills, I'll have to 
settle for something simpler. The 3D learning curve is much more like a 
steep slope, and I feel dizzy already here at the bottom. Good advice is 
again appreciated.

Sincerely,
stockroom staff
ST Creative Designs
http://stcreativedesigns.fhero.net/


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