OldUnreal (Engine)

This is more of a feature than a bug, so i'll post it here. I've noticed especially with the decals from Ravens mod and particularly the asmd combo (dark spot).

If you are to shoot a asmd combo and leave a dark spot on the ground, everything should show up as desired. The problem is when you shoot an asmd combo and look at it from far away. The texture starts this "weird" flickering from a distance and it becomes a sight for sore eyes. Just try flying away from the decal into the sky and view it from a top perspective.

I was wondering if this could be fixed with some engine changes?

oh, I would also like to confirm that I've tried this with both D3D8 and OpenGL and have gotten the same "flickering" with each driver. This probably means that it is an engine problem and not a Graphics Driver issue.

I overheard Raven say that he took the "tree" decals from the UT2004 engine. Maybe some enhanced "sheet" code could be implemented into uneral to fix 2d sheets in unreal. For example: waterfalls, blood, weapon shots.....

I think it's something related to Z buffer.

yeah it must be the z-buffer, although i can't see the problem in this, its pretty much a visible problem in any game i know, even ut3.

and i assume it would be solved if you do a "always force z buffer" in your nvidia/ati control panel (which i do not recommend)

well, this makes Ravens mod pretty much useless if not fixed IMO. Noone wants too look at a map with added shade effects that are bugging out.... This is a real damn shame.

Z-buffer is a POS in Tribes 1, Dynamix (the now defunct company that made both the original tribes and the sequel, tribes 2) recommended running in 16-bit colour mode to prevent this from happening, also they recommended using 3dfx glide instead of OpenGL because the OpenGL driver was not that developed, and the game was REALLY meant to be played in Glide.

Wow was Unreal at first meant to be played in Glide?

- Fenix

yes, unreal was initially developed for the glide api.


as for the z-buffer issue, afaik it only occurs if a surface is far away in front of you, its limited when its on an angle lets say ground, which makes it alot less worse anyway.

but then i'm hardly ever bothered with it

Yeah, i was picturing more like over a hill looking at a forest type scenario.. but I guess that is hard to picture in the Unreal Engine anyways...

It may help to hide (not draw) decals if they are far away from the camera.

It may help to hide (not draw) decals if they are far away from the camera.

Last i checked, decals drew fine at long distances when i played UT with decalstay on unlimited decals+duration..

wow, if that is true.. then get the code!

Get it yourself, okay? Check this URL it's somewhere in the BU Fileworks, atleast I think it's there..

[url]http://download.beyondunreal.com/[/url]

Learn about manners Jackrabbit, stop demanding people.

- Fenix

no need. I already found a fix to the problem. Zbuffer is a feature in OpenGL and both D3D (I believe). It is set to false by default. Try setting it to true and see if you get the problem still... This seems to have fixed it for me.

Learn about manners Jackrabbit, stop demanding people. Learn about manners Jackrabbit, stop demanding people.

Burn in hell. really.

Now now, behave children.

no need. I already found a fix to the problem. Zbuffer is a feature in OpenGL and both D3D (I believe). It is set to false by default. Try setting it to true and see if you get the problem still... This seems to have fixed it for me.

Learn about manners Jackrabbit, stop demanding people. Learn about manners Jackrabbit, stop demanding people.

Burn in hell. really.

Go ahead, mock me.


EDIT: If you harass me with another private message again, I wont care if someone bans you off the forums. Stop it.

when i was testing decals with uscript i remember decals drew better if they were farther away from the wall, perhaps decals can move farther away from the wall if they're rendered at longer distances?

Decals in games always floated a bit off the surface, remember Duke3D Casey?

- Fenix

Yeah i know, it only simulates being on the wall, because you're almost never looking at a wall that close.

when i was testing decals with uscript i remember decals drew better if they were farther away from the wall, perhaps decals can move farther away from the wall if they're rendered at longer distances?

I'm not so sure if that'd be a nice idea, what if you're extremely far off from the wall? The decal would be literally flying in mid air right?

- Fenix

i'm talking about small movements, 1 or 2 unreal units, virtually indistinguishable at very long distances

Oh... in that case; Yeah that would make sense, but still a feature like that would remind me of Duke3D again.

- Fenix