weird "glare" effect on an object at differnt angles....

[kenney001]

I have this problem, and it is one of the last things i need to work out before i release headlong PB2.

It seems when i face east, the shader is glowing, but when i face west, it is as it should be.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/vote1sanches/wtf2-1.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/vote1sanches/wth1.jpg

The specifics:
It is a .scenery
I have tried applying .shader_environments and .shader Models to it, including shaders i am using that work on other scenery objects.
I have tried removing cubemaps/bumpmaps/detail maps/base maps in the shader, and it would still do that, even with a completely blank shader......

I guess the question is....WTH? Has anyone had this before. I have had this happen with other .scenery objects in the level, but they went away when i added them to the bsp instead of as scenery.....

[SMASH]

It could have a cubemap attached to it...

[kenney001]

I said....I have tried it with a completely blank shader, and the big blocky lights on the side of the building is using the exact same shader as the one applied to the beam now. and they arent affected....

[Jay2645]

It may be the game rendering the light on that piece of scenery incorrectly, but I can't be sure. Could it be your alphas, or by blank you mean no bitmaps at all?

Headlong looks :awesome:, by the way.

EDIT: Didn't you make that a .vehicle so it would tilt like that when you ran on it? Just curious, you kept saying scenery, and now I'm confused.

[kenney001]

no its a piece of scenery that has a scripted animation on it. And yes by blank i mean File/New/.shader_model and applied that to the beam. with no bitmaps or anything...

[Hunter]

You tryed re running lightmaps?

[Patrickssj6]

Change some sky properties, like the sun and rerun the light maps.

Trial & Error I guess.

[kenney001]

didnt work. I added "clear afternoon.sky", re-ran lightmaps, and it still does it, just with a differrent tint.

[Jay2645]

It's definitely something with your lightmaps. Try rotating the scenery 180 degrees so the problem side faces the other way and see what happens.

[kenney001]

eeeh that would screw things up.....its linked to trigger volumes/scipts/animations...

[Jay2645]

Ah, right.
Hmm... Not really sure what to do then. Maybe try baked lightmaps, and see if that helps.

[kenney001]

I cant remember but i think it was Jahran that i PMed about the UVW mapping, but I never heard back. I dont know how to do that whole process, although I have been wanting to,..

anyone got a tut on it? I know how to render to texture, but not necessarily bake in mental ray. This part i can learn on my own, the thing i need is how to get the UVW coordinates for it.......

[Masterz1337]

Check your rasterizers. Also, use the rest of p0lars HUD, my h2 coag hud sucks.

[Apoc4lypse]

hmm do u have any light fixtures or anything in particular on that side of the object that is lighting it up, its most likely a lighting problem, I had the same problem in a map using lightings teleporters, I placed a teleporter in a room beneath another one then i placed a type of shield scenery in the room above in a certain spot, and the light from lightnings teleporter shields was making green light maps occur on the scenery on one side, so i had to move it to another spot...


maybe try finding where the light is thats causing this on ur scenery and move it then just remake the scenery in the same spot (so it works wit the trigger volumes and such)

if its not that then I'm not sure what it could be...

[kenney001]

^^ill try removing all of my non-lightmap lights (i have no dynamic lights) and see if that does the trick. I have quite a few of the light scenery's.

[Apoc4lypse]

^^ill try removing all of my non-lightmap lights (i have no dynamic lights) and see if that does the trick. I have quite a few of the light scenery's.

that could be it focus on the ones near the beam that are on that side of it, remove a few of them or move them... the thing is u might need to remake the scenery for the lighting to be made on it again.. idk ive always had wierd lighting happen to scenery when i place it if there are too many lights near it, then usually i move the lights or w/e, and the lights still on the scenery until i remake it... idk not quite sure how it works

[kenney001]

nope
I removed most of the lights, and there are none near it. Still does it......

[Choking Victim]

personally, i think its the objects size. I made the same exact device machine and script in case we did a zteam conversion of headlong and i had to set the bounding radius really high. halo's lighting engine isn't exactly the greatest, try taking a hog in bloodgulch and park it in between a bright and dark area of a map, you'll notice that the lighting on the whole hog changes to bright if your in a majority bright space. imagine that on a large scale and thats probably whats wrong. maybe try moving it around a little until it goes away.

[kenney001]

Ok I deleted it, relightmaped, and put it bacvk in. same problem.

[Jay2645]

I agree with Choking Victim on this one.

[kenney001]

ok i moved it to the other side of the leve, by the warthog spawns where its dark, and reran radiosity. same thing.

[Skyline]

Do you have any flags checked off at the top of the scenery tag?

Bounding radius doesn't affect that. If you set it too high it will just cause all kinds of errors; people not respawning.

[Choking Victim]

skyline, i was merely implying that the object was so massive i had to set the render bounding radius real high, sorry for the bad wording i was in the middle of something. As for your problem kenney, idk what else would cause that. Maybe try searching gearbox, theres usually a thread there for just about every problem.

[p0lar_bear]

Rotate it anyway, just for testing. Once you've seen if it does it or not, put it back. :)

Also, try swapping out shaders. And does it do this in Sapien, as well as in-game?

The only thing I can think of that would possibly cause that would be the perpendicular/parallel tint properties on the bottom of the shader tag, but you said you already tried it with all of those unset.

[kenney001]

I have tried this with many other shaders, and other objects are using the same shader as the one i am using.

I rotated the model and moved it, and i reran radiosity. It still does it, but i noticed it is still when facing the same end of the beam, not a certain direction in the level.

[Jay2645]

Something must be messed up somewhere in the scenery tag then, look at the model, try to find any smoothing errors, I've heard they can cause problems like that.

[p0lar_bear]

Yes, I can say now that it's most likely a problem with the model itself.

Try clearing all the smoothing groups on it, and then recompile it. It's an I-beam with no curved surfaces, so smoothing groups aren't necessary.

If that's not the problem, check the geometry itself; look for anything that would give an error if it were collision geometry.

[kenney001]

YAY and DAM at the same time: Whiplash Demon over at gearbox said to remove the fog. it worked, but now the level looks....eeeh....not as good as it was........

i need a happy median.

EDIT: SOLVED!!! I turned on true atmospheric fog in the shader, and kept the level fog. its gone now.