Bug in attributes generation?

[Aaron]

Hi Dave,

Yup, I've got it. This fault is occurring when the modify params dialog is nuking the climate list, while the attributes map still holds references to the nuked climates (temperate, in this case). I only made it nuke the list in this release (I thought I was cleaning up, without considering the full implications), so it should be easy to change back.

Thanks again for your help with this, and for your patience.

Best regards,
Aaron.

[trollfiddler]

Hi Ch3rokee,

Yep that works OK thanks. So it looks like there is something not being passed along somewhere by the other method, which is what I figured.

BTW, that thing with the snow is definitely happening. This time I generated a texture map with a heap of snow on it after changing the heightfield altitudes, and the alpha map list did not have the snow texture in it. If you look at the little texture preview tab in the alpha map window, it still shows a temperate map for the original low level mesh.

This happens with both the menu method and the pencil method of changing the design map.

Thanks,

Dave.

[trollfiddler]

Hey Aaron, we crossposted by the looks of it.

Great to see you've spotted the problem. No worries about the patience, thanks for yours too and the help.

Could the nuking of the list be causing the prob with the textures in the alpha list as well?

Cheers,

Dave.

[Aaron]

Hi Dave,

Could the nuking of the list be causing the prob with the textures in the alpha list as well?

Yes indeed. On top of that, I had a check in the alpha maps code that was supposed to nuke the alpha list and a sub-sampled version of the attributes map (used in generating the alphas, also used for display in the alpha wizard) whenever the attributes map is changed, or at least ask the user if it's OK to do so. Some time ago I changed the internal name of the alpha maps from "TX.Splat" to "Alpha" but I forgot to update that test, so it was never satisfied, and the invalid alpha list and mini-AM were never cleared.

Anyhoo, build 17 is up on the downloads page, and I've fixed the offending bits (those I've found or have been reported, anyway). Let me know how it goes...

Best regards,
Aaron.

[DeathTwister]

Woo Hoo Thanks Aaron,

Yaya, I thougt it was me at first untill I did some tests. Downloading B17 now.

DT

[trollfiddler]

Bejaysus I think we've cracked it!

OK, i went through the routine described above and all went perfectly. Then, just to be sure (to be sure) I reversed the whole process. First dropped the heightfield range back to a low value. All maps regenned correctly. Then set climate back to temperate. All ok again. Finally I imported the result of all that messing about into TSE and it went in perfectly. Good man Aaron, thanks for all the work and staying on top of this.

All I can say is - congratulations, looks like it's a boy or a child.

Dave.

[DeathTwister]

YAY Aaron,

Yup now it is working better. I tested everything last night except for my own HHT map, just the defaults. All worked perfectly as well. Except for a small problem, and I am not sure why but everything takes allot longer to generate with the new build. Where it went by lighting fast before now will take up to in some cases as long as 2-3 minutes to generate. Maybe due to the new graphic interface?, or somehow it is ramming the buffers to much and not clearing the cash right? on the CPU? not sure but it is slower then before build 12 for me.

Having said that I think all the new features are great and I love having more control over the terrain and features.
The Attributes generation does for me take about 4 times longer then the build before B_12 did, maybe even more. This is not a grip but an observation I saw, did anyone else notice this as well? or is it just me? but I have a Gig of ram and a amd 64 with killer speed so I was surprised is all.

DT

[Aaron]

Hi Maylock,

I just clocked build 19 Professional against build 2 Standard, and in both cases the time taken to generate the attributes map of a 1k x 1k map was 77 seconds (with an error margin of one second). On the face of it, I don't agree that the new build is slower than the old in general.

What could be slowing it down for you, however, is if you are using the 'high-res attributes map' option, which is relatively new. This will obviously make things slower, because it's generating a bigger map. Alternatively, if you are making a mosaic attributes map (another new option) it will be slower than making a non-mosaic map. Basically, the newer builds give you many more ways to slow things down (and make better, bigger maps, of course). Please check those two settings on the attributes map wizard pane.

Maybe due to the new graphic interface?, or somehow it is ramming the buffers to much and not clearing the cash right?

I've not changed the base algorithm here, so if I'm ramming buffers (which sounds like fun), or not clearing cach[e], it's just the same as before.

On the other hand, some of the other algorithms will be inefficient if you have a mismatch in resolutions between maps. Remember now that you can set a res for the AM, the TN, the LM, the TX and the alphas, and they can all be different. You can have an attributes map larger than your texture, which is mad, but sometimes you might want this (I did earlier today, in fact.) You can have a high-res attributes map, a low-res normals map, a high-res light map, and an even higher-res texture map (I do this sometimes, and it looks good.) Basically, I've opened up quite a lot so that users can do whatever works for them, with the caveat that some choices will be slower than others.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[DeathTwister]

Hay Aaron,

WOW you sure have opened it up for us, Woot!!!!! You are probobly right about what you were saying about the different maps now having different settings and that may be in part what I have been getting. Good thought and I was just starting to wonder that when I woke up this morning as that does make sence.
I usually allways figure if I find a bug, it is me, not you that does it, hahahaha.... I will play with those setting and put back to 1 and see if that is faster like it was before. But it does act like a bottleneck somehow to me. I am sure your right about the different size maps, well I made them all 4 as a matter of fact, and that has the attributes map generator chugging allot.

I do have one problem and again it may be due to your thought about different sizes is if I have generated all the maps and I go back to re-edit or export to the beginning, to view and see any of the maps I had generated it is taking forever.
So since it is taking hours just to get back to the design map, so I have been closing the program and then going back in to see the design or HHF for exporting. Again that is probobly what you are talking about and I will re-size all the maps back to before, just to see the difference.

ROTFL HAHAHA Still trying to get time to do that import HHF map Tut, whew so busy...........

Sorry Aaron since I am an artist not a programmer I sometimes not sure what is foo-barred and what is not, or is it me or is it not. Learning is allways the way and I make less mistakes all the time

DT

[DeathTwister]

Quick update,

OK I did have maps that were 9182 and they are were not the same size, and some were paged and some weren't. That helped to make it slow down allot. But I also had some strange stuff in root dir on my comp, and have no idea how they got there in my start up and other stuff since I keep my main Dev 3D comp pretty much isolated, but hay chit happens.

Still having anomalies but it is better. Still slow for me since the last main release though. I can go back to that build and it runs faster so you may be right Aaron, but I am trying to figure out if it is me, or maybe a bit of both? Maybe have a better idea by next week as I will keep messing with stuff trying to figure out why it slowed down for me, but it is faster now I changed some of the settings.
It still wants to hang up though when I go from say having generated a Texture map and then go show, and any map I had already generated it will sit there for hours trying to re-calculate the file to bring it up, and it does not seem like a 9182 map should take that long for my comp to bring it back up as it never had trouble before, I dunno...../shacks his head in bemusement. I usually just go out and come back in to go after exporting maps now with the new build. Hahahahaha I get it figured as it is probably me somehow.

DT