Image seams and artifacts (Image intensive)

[metalliandy]

Hey Aaron,
I have found a problem....after rendering my map there seems to be seams where the tiles are placed together and random dark spots scattered around the map.

Here are some screenies:-












Also i noticed the when i imported the map into TGEA there were rips in the terrain mesh when it was viewed from a medium distance that closed up when i moved in for a closer look.

And ideas why these might be happening?

Thanks for looking

[Aaron]

Hi Metalliandy,

For the tile seams, we have three ways to fix it (first is recommended, but I'll explain all):

• Go to 'Extensions->Sapphire->Renderer settings', then enable the flag at 'Terrain->Texture->Stitch tile borders'. This is off by default because it makes the initial load slower, but it should fix the problem.
• You can use the 'Operations->Active map->Duplicate tile borders' option (when viewing the texture in L3DT).
• The third alternative is the 'Extensions->atGrowTilesByOne->Grow tile size by one' option (again, when viewing texture).

The first option is recommended because it's just a runtime tweak in the renderer to make sure that texture tiles share common edge values, and doesn't actually change your map data. The latter two options irreversibly re-pack your texture tiles so that the edge values are shared. The 'duplicate tile borders' option maintains the tile size (but does a linear interpolation), whereas the 'grow tile size by one' expands the tile size by one pixel (without the need for interp.) You might use the latter two options in such cases where your external (3rd party) renderer does not have a tile-stitching tweak such as those present in Sapphire and L3DTVi2.

As for rips in the terrain mesh in Atlas, I'd recommend you report that on the GarageGames forums (with screenshots, etc.) It's either an Atlas generation or an Atlas rendering bug.

Finally, I'm not sure about the black spots in the texture. What map size, texture res, light map res, etc were you using? Are they there in the light map? (you may need to zoom-in all the way in L3DT; the main view is mipmapped.) Has anyone else seen this?

Best regards,
Aaron.

[metalliandy]

Hey Aaron,

Thanks for the tips


Here are the map details:-

Code: Select all


Terrain size:   1024 × 1024
Texture size:   8192 × 8192

Contents of map project

    * Maps
          o Design map
          o Heightfield
          o Water map
          o Attributes map
          o Terrain normals
          o Light map
          o Texture map
    * Settings and flags
          o Operations
          o Design map settings
          o Heightfield settings
          o Attributes map settings
          o Light map settings
          o Texture map settings

Maps
Design map
Map size:   16 × 16
Horiz. scale:   6.40m
Map file:   testmap_DM.dmf
File type:   L3DT Design Map File


Heightfield
Map size:   1024 × 1024
Horiz. scale:   0.10m
Map file:   HF\testmap_HF.mmf
File type:   2 × 2 mosaic of 5122 pixel Heightfield File v2 + gzips (.hfz)


Water map
Map size:   1024 × 1024
Horiz. scale:   0.10m
Map file:   WM\testmap_WM.mmf
File type:   2 × 2 mosaic of 5122 pixel L3DT Water Map Files (.wmf)


Attributes map
Map size:   8192 × 8192
Horiz. scale:   0.01m
Map file:   AM\testmap_AM.mmf
File type:   16 × 16 mosaic of 5122 pixel L3DT Attributes Map File + GZIPs (.amf.gz)


Terrain normals
Map size:   8192 × 8192
Horiz. scale:   0.01m
Map file:   TN\testmap_TN.mmf
File type:   16 × 16 mosaic of 5122 pixel PNG images (.png)


Light map
Map size:   8192 × 8192
Horiz. scale:   0.01m
Map file:   LM\testmap_LM.mmf
File type:   16 × 16 mosaic of 5122 pixel JPEG images (.jpg)


Texture map
Map size:   8192 × 8192
Horiz. scale:   0.01m
Map file:   TX\testmap_TX.mmf
File type:   16 × 16 mosaic of 5122 pixel JPEG images (.jpg)


Settings and flags

    *
      Operations
          o GenDM
          o GenHF
          o FloodSea
          o FloodLakes
          o WaterTable
          o FloodAll
          o GenAM
          o GenTN
          o GenLM
          o GenTX
    *
      Design map settings
          o Algorithm = "PeakDM"
          o nx = 16
          o ny = 16
          o SeaLand = 74
          o FlatSteep = 51
          o FeatureScale = 88
          o FracRough = 75
          o PeakRough = 75
          o Cliffs = 66
          o Erosion = 8
          o Lakes = 44
          o Climate = "Temperate"
    *
      Heightfield settings
          o Algorithm = "InflateDM64"
          o HorizScale = 0.100000
          o MosaicFlag = true
          o MosaicSize = 512
    *
      Attributes map settings
          o Climate = "Temperate"
    *
      Light map settings
          o Sun(r,g,b) = { 255, 238, 206 }
          o Amb(r,g,b) = { 230, 245, 255 }
          o Azim = 0.000000
          o Elev = 45.000000
          o Brightness = 1.000000
          o SunAmbRatio = 0.750000
          o UseWM = true
          o ShadowFlag = true
          o BumpMapping = false
          o MosaicFlag = true
          o MosaicSize = 512
          o LM_in_HF = 8
          o AbsRGB(x,y,z) = { 10.000000, 20.000000, 50.000000 }
          o DoFresnel = true
          o DefaultTx = 1.000000
    *
      Texture map settings
          o UseLM = true
          o UseTX = true
          o UseStrata = true
          o TX_in_HF = 8
          o MosaicFlag = true
          o MosaicSize = 512
          o MaxRadAA = 32


i looked at the textures and found the following black spots









They only seem to be on the rock faces ...but there may be more, i only had a short period of time to look unfortunately :S


Any ideas m8?

thanks for looking

[Aaron]

Hi Metalliandy,

Thanks for the info. I suspect this is a shadow-mapping bug. Can you tell me if the black pixels are also present in the light map?

Best regards,
Aaron.

[metalliandy]

Hey Aaron,

Thanks for the quick reply

I have just checked the LM and the black spots are not present on any of them.

Here is an example.


The red circle's highlight where the black spots are on the TX map.

It is my understanding that the LM are the basis of the shadows on the TX maps....Is this correct?

If so then im guessing that this is not the problem :S


Thanks for looking

[Aaron]

Hi Metalliandy,

The problem seems to be in the texture anti-aliasing. My recommendation would be to decrease the anti-aliasing radius to 16 or 8. I'll post here with another reply when I've uploaded a fix.

Best regards,
Aaron.

[metalliandy]

Hey Aaron,

Thanks for having a look.

I shall watch this space