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

Hi

You can subdivide the segments, example:
- You have a pit staring right at the start with length 15m
- You have a start line with 0.5 m length in track direction
- Your initial side banner is 4 meters

Solution:
- surface "texture 1", wall with banner, length e.g. 4m, texture 
type=continuous, texture link with previous=yes, texture start on 
boundary=yes
- surface "texture 2," wall, length e.g. 15m, , texture type=continuous, 
texture link with previous=yes, texture start on boundary=yes

- Segment 1, length 0.5m, surface="texture 1"
- Segment 2, length 3.5m, surface="texture 1"
- Segment 3, length 11m, surface="texture 2"

Alternative (just differences to the above):
- Two equally sized textures (so you can take the same image and just 
paint on one the letters)
- Both textures are of same length, e.g. 15m
- "texture 2" has texture start on boundary=no (so the texture 
coordinates are not reset to 0 on the texture change)

Regarding the bumps, sudden changes: Did you try to increase the 
resolution of such critical segments, I usually adapt the "profil 
steps"/"profile steps length" property?

Regarding the grandstand, I would create this by revolving too 
(important: from a line), did you use ac3d? IIRC you can set various 
options and the center point, eventually you need to edit the object 
afterwards. Remember to use just single sided smooth shaded surfaces.

To distribute objects around a center you can use the "Replicator" in 
ac3d IIRC.

If you have trouble with a certain model part feel free to post it, then 
people can help you to fix the issues.

Kind regards

Bernhard

On 03/11/2015 09:36 AM, stockroom wrote:
>
> 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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