Disappearing Scenery

[Siliconmaster]

I have a new question: when creating/placing scenery, does anyone know how to prevent it from disappearing at certain viewing angles? I've seen this issue before in maps, but this is the first time I have encountered it. I tried increasing the bounding radius, but it didn't help things. Suggestions?

[Rob Oplawar]

Bounding radius is measured in world units. 1 World unit = 100 3DS max units, I believe. Make sure the bounding radius is set to just over the distance from the frame location to the farthest vertex- if you just set it to some really high number you'll have lower performance and might get glitches, so I wouldn't rule it out as a possible cause for this particular problem. That's all I can think of, really- I can't think of any other reason your scenery would disappear only at certain angles, unless you have a ton onscreen or have portal errors.

[Siliconmaster]

Hmm. I just went back and shifted those settings to match what you said- no change. In addition...

Edit: The thought occurred to me, as I was typing that post, that the frame object was a ways outside the scenery object. I moved it right into the middle, recompiled, and sure enough no disappearing problem. Thanks for your help!

[Rob Oplawar]

np.

*is looking at your sig*
That's an interesting word to associate with science fiction dealing with advanced technology...
*is intrigued*

[Dwood]

np.

*is looking at your sig*
That's an interesting word to associate with science fiction dealing with advanced technology...
*is intrigued*

Interesting machinima idea. How is it coming anyways? (Just wondering) /offtopic

[Siliconmaster]

Haha. Well, it is my topic, and I say, offtopic ftw.

Antediluvia was (one of) the name(s) of the group I was part of which was working on a machinima called Dust to Dust. It began a few years ago as a Halo machinima conceptualized by [EJ]Bean. I, coming off a massively failed year-long attempt at mapmaking, needed something to work on and joined up. I wrote the script combining Bean's ideas with mine, and we planeed to start filming back in 2006. The problem was that our goals kept changing. We started completely ingame. We gathered a small group of people, created some sets in CE, some of which are still pretty impressive, and did a hell of a lot of prep work. We released a short, mostly experimental trailer that wasn't exactly award-winning, but was entertaining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaBEIDdqc3I

Then we decided elements of animation would be helpful for things the game engine obviously couldn't handle, following the examples of The Codex, The Heretic, and Halo Unyeilding. Whiplash Daemon joined us as an animator for those sections. That was all good and dandy, but Whiplash convinced us we could pull the entire thing off in animation. My signature is a dated, albeit frigging beautiful, relic from the near-year of animation prep, experimentations, and overall hard work. Six months of that year involved a pretty-looking, very short teaser, all animation. The animations were plagued by issues, the rendering failed, vray caused us problems, and only Whiplash had any idea what he was doing, and D2D seemed to be second priority to him. Six months for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23lGfVXFiW0

http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6651&highlight=dust+to+dust

That was the thread where the entire animation concept imploded upon itself. As Tweek so happily pointed out in his -rep, I "just made a big fat fool out of yourself : /" I'd have to agree with him. At that point Whiplash left the team, I attempted to take on animation for another few months in vain, and Dust to Dust faded away. I went off to college, but kept a folder of all the D2D prep material, CE and animation, on my hard drive.

Here's where the irony strikes:

I'm living in a suite with 5 other guys, all of whom have computers, and we have multiple copies of CE. I have all the Dust to Dust project files out of pure stubbornness, and a brand new, very fast computer. I pulled out all the CE tools to remake Roadtrip, which I'm happy to say impressed a lot of people, incluing my suitemates, who had just finished marathoning about 80% of Red vs Blue the night before. They expressed interest in filming something.

So, for the past few days I've dusted off Dust to Dust (no pun intended) and begun repairing and updating all of our CE sets. So far our relatively massive city set, North Galeton, is primed and nearly ready for filming, as is our space station set, which has spent years in a state of half-completion. I've finally started compiling all the pieces that were lying around unused, and the skills I absorbed through my failed mapmaking attempt as well as the years of seemingly-useless experimentation are paying off. The topics I've been posting asking questions have been from my renewed attempts to relearn all these skills. Going back to Custom Edition is a hundred times easier, and I don't even mind the older graphics as much due to the long time gap between the animation attempts and now. So it's funny you guys ask this now, because Dust to Dust might just be sleeping, rather than dead.

That being said, I'm not promising anything. There will not be any new trailers without actual episodes to release, and I won't be parading around promising total epicness. With any luck, that's what might just happen, but we'll see how interested my suitemates really are. :P

To answer the Antediluvia question, as I remember we thought if was a cool metaphor for the series, which involves an alien invasion. Although the word antediluvian normally refers to something really old, the literal meaning is "from before the flood", or symbolically, the alien invasion. Now the usage seems a bit odd, but at the time it sort of made sense. Lol.

[/ridiculously long explanation]

[Dwood]

That was a great explanation and you might as well upload it to your site. (My current project has many issues, the main one being that I am the only one motivated for it yet I'm still learning :( )

I would think about it this way: If you can get it to work in Halo CE as a Machinima that is good for everyone in the community as well as yourselves.

So... about the method of animating: I don't get it. Are you going to record in Halo CE or continue with the animating in 3ds Max/3d program of choice?

3d has more possibilities yet Halo is easier...

I would love to help take part in this if it were online :D

[Siliconmaster]

As of now, we are very tentatively filming in CE, with a FEW CG shots, where needed. Once again, I want to make it clear that I have no idea if this new work will go anywhere- I hope so. :D

We may go online for filming, but until I know if the new system works, I want to do small-scale LAN filming here.

Learning is the only way to get better at something. My many failures, amusing and frustrating alike, have given me insight into good filming methods and of course the normal CE techniques. It also helps that I'm majoring in film here at college. Keep at your project, even if the only result is greater knowledge on the whole- I can say from experience, it's worth it.

This offtopicness continues here: http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12320

Locked.