Help needed with ground on map

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Aspirax





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Help needed with ground on map

Post by Aspirax »

Hey Everyone,

Been around the block, first time posting.
I've been all over the HEK tut, and kirk's as well.

Very good stuff. I feel very comfortable with what I'm doing and understand it.

To ease myself into thise, I've created several small maps. However, I have the exact same problem everytime and am now am getting really discouraged.

To summarize what I've done:
a: made tif in PSP
b: made map in 3ds
c: compiled tif to bitmap (as in kirks tut)
d: used tool to 'export' the map to a .scenario.
e: loaded .scen into guerilla
f: created sky tags
g: created ground shader
h: created start eq
i: loaded .scen into Sapien.

Here's where the trouble starts. I see my sky texture just fine.
I set radiosity_quality (either 0 or 1)
and then radiosity_start

My ground *never* shows up.
This happens on all my maps. Even ones where I steal the bitmap from, say, Timberland.

I need some ideas.
I've included two links. One link is for the tag directory and the other is the data directory of my latest map. (No, it's nothing to drool over, I'm still learning the tools)

If someone would snag these and tell me the heck I'm doing I would be really greatful. Only cavaet: My HEK is in F:\HaloCE

So, unless you want to mess around with getting that reset in 3ds max, you might want to make a mapped drive back to yourself or something.

Thanks for any help!

LINKS:
http://www.pendulus.org/halo/crossfiretags.zip
http://www.pendulus.org/halo/crossfiredata.zip
kirks4




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Post by kirks4 »

After running radiosity_start, are you running radiosity_save?
Aspirax





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Post by Aspirax »

When I run radiosity_start I don't even get any numbers.
It goes straight to 0.00000 0.000000 0.000000

radiosity_save doesn't do much for me at that point :(
I can't help but think it's my .tif/.bitmap or the shader.
I followed the instructions to a T. The only discrepency might be with my .tif. I noticed i didn't paint the alpha map as perfectly as you :)

I didn't think this was it though.
kirks4




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Post by kirks4 »

How many peaks/mountains do you have in the scene. If there are very few then radiosity wouldn't take long to calculate...If you ran radiosity_start and you got the zero's, and then you ran radiosity_save, I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't show up other than it is a flat plane and your camera is at 0 0 0 corr.
You went in and edited the bitmap and shader tags, right?
Aspirax





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Post by Aspirax »

Thanks for your response, I do appreciate it.
How many peaks/mountains do you have in the scene
None at all. It's a total flat plane. (for testing)
I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't show up other than it is a flat plane and your camera is at 0 0 0 corr.
Well, it's definitely flat. :)

I look all around with my camera after the rad is run (and saved), and never see anything but blue.

I'll try to load the map into the game. the last time I tried I just got a generic blue ground (there was nothing really there)

I realize now it was because I was using the timberland groun but I never moved the bitmap. (which is what actually goes into the cache file)

Maybe it doesn't see or like my bitmap?
(I understand you have your own things to do, but if you get a chance I have that .bitmap loaded in the previously posted zip files)

Thanks again. Even though I don't have a concrete answer, I feel more hopeful than I did when I posted last night in my frusteration.
rec0





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Post by rec0 »

well i used to have the same problem, on smaller maps my counter would go directly to zero, however, the program is still doing stuff... you must wait and til you get to the point where if you click ~, thehalo console comes back up, once this is back up you must type radioisty_save and hit enter, this will then make the all the shaders show etc. and there you go your problem should be fixed... on small maps there's no way of knowing when radiosity has finished cos the numbers are always naught.. you just have to keep trying to click ~.. if the consoel appears, its done.,


Hope this helps you out
Aspirax





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Post by Aspirax »

Well, I finally found it. It was my camera coordinates. I'm just thinking too hard on this. My camera coordinates start underneath the ground.

guh! Thanks for you patience. I'm not really that stupid. :)
kirks4




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Post by kirks4 »

Aspirax wrote:
guh! Thanks for you patience. I'm not really that stupid. :)
mm hmmm..riiitght ;)

Now go out there and make some maps that aren't flat...gotta get some hills in there man!
Aspirax





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Post by Aspirax »

I don't beleive in flat maps :) This was just a sample. It's tough to make hills when I'm not sure it's going to work. Now that it is... I can start my real stuff.

Thanks,
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