I'm working on some custom .nifs to use to build display cases in my upcoming update for DCInteriors. I've run into a minor glitch that I can't seem to figure out.

I've used the frame from the bathroom mirror and, the Vault glass window as my base. I've combined them, transformed and scaled them to fit my purpose but, when you stand at certain angles the objects placed inside my new cases partially disappears. It's odd, at oblique angles the enclosed objects vanish or, flash.

I'm uploading some screens to see if anyone has any thoughts on how to possibly fix this

Thanks in advance.

cev

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae157/chucksteel/Fallout/Mesh%20Errors/TruckThere-1.jpg

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae157/chucksteel/Fallout/Mesh%20Errors/TruckGone.jpg

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae157/chucksteel/Fallout/Mesh%20Errors/Dartsthere.jpg

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae157/chucksteel/Fallout/Mesh%20Errors/DartsGone.jpg

Wow... I've never seen this before! Kinda amazing what you can find in DC! ;p

I wonder if this has to do with lighting actually.. You clearly have the transparency right, collision looks good with the bullet holes in the glass, and the case doesn't look too-small to cause a havok issue (especially the darts). I recommend three tests to try and see what's going on:

1. In the GECK turn Havok Off, then lift the darts and truck off the surface of the case by 6 inches or a foot (whatever the interior-size of the case will support), and see if it still happens. In this case your object is not in contact with anything, removing havok as a potential issue. (it will be like those objects that you find in the wasteland which appear to float, but fall as soon as you touch them).

2. Add a light directly above the case where the darts and truk are, and see if having a light very close matters with all lights on. Now turn-off your pip-boy light and see if you get the same with just room-lighting. Finally remove all the lights from the room and see if you get the same behavior with just your pip-boy light.

3. Turn-on God mode (tgm) and turn-off Collision (tcl), and move yourself inside the case. If your careful you should be able to get your "eyes" or point of view past the pane of the glass, and see if the truck still vanishes. I suspect it won't vanish, but this will confirm that a lighting or transparency setting are the culprit.

Lastly I would examine the pane of glass in Vault 101, where the guy chastises you as your trying to escape. I would load that vault piece and yours into two copies of NifSkope, and compare flag-by-flag to see if you can spot any differences.

Luck!

Miax

Miaximus,

Thanks for your thoughts, I'll test the lighting after work tonight. I've only done a minimal amount of lighting in the cell so this could very well be the culprit. I hadn't even thought about the lights causing this issue, I was concentrating on getting everything working in blender and, nifscope. :brokencomputer:

I'll let you know how things turn out,

Thanks again,

cev

It might be a sorting issue. Try unstitching the meshes in NifScope, or stippifying if they aren't already.

I think you may need different flags on the NiAlphaProperty of your glass. Try 4333.

yeah- z fighting caused by alpha sorting issues in the z buffer.
both tubal and HugePinball have good advice.

also make sure you have the sf_zbuffer_test shader enabled.

Ghogiel,

Should the sf_zbuffer_test flag be enabled only for transparent objects? Or is there wider use?

Miax

well in theory- yeah, only on meshes with alpha transparency.

but, bethesda also uses it on many other things that do not have alpha. but it's not unknown for them to do unnecessary things similar to that.

I actually had an issue reported on my cybermen armor the other day... basically the knees would disappear. i have no idea wtf. my theory is that the meat caps, which have alpha, and are actually even disabled from rendering, somehow are glitching. I never seen it, but basically my attempted solution was to copy the shader setup verbatim to what bethesda did on the meat caps and the armor mesh, incluing the aparently useless shader flag set up. hopefully fixing it for that one user. but i haven't reproduced the glitch, or actually seen a screen shot or anything, and haven't had a report back from the user about whether or not that did anything. so perhaps because there is a transparent mesh involved at all, ie the meat caps, you may want the zbuffer test shader on basically everything in the nif, ie the rest of the armor, even it that trishape doesn't have alpha on it itself. if you see what i mean.

< actually i just thought of another possible solution for me to try if that fails... here is something for you to note down, not many people know about when dealing with alpha, it is one of my ninja techniques for solving a particular type of alpha sorting issue

Nif block order actually is the order in which the drawcalls of the mesh objects are made on screen. this means that for example in a nf, you had 2 semi transparent mesh objects. say 2 cylinders, one has a slightly smaller radius, and is inside the other, the nitrishape/strip that is inner most will want to be the first, or have a lower block number of the 2 for it to render correctly. the theory is, that the first shape in the list is drawn first, but when alpha sorting is taken into account, you need the ones that will be further away in the z-buffer to be drawn first then the ones closer to the camera can be drawn on top of that..

to reorder blocks in nifskope select the block, and use the ctrl+arrow keys to move it up or down in the block list.

an example where i did this is in my lava lamps i made a couple weeks ago.

I just wanted to say thanks for all of the replies, I had to work overtime today so, I'm not going to be able to get back to trying to fix this tonight. You've all given me a lot to think about and, to look at. Once I get back on it (Hopefully tomorrow,) I'll let you know if I can get this sorted out.

Thanks again

cev

I've tried all of your suggestion with no luck! The issue seems to be coming from the proximity of a havok nif to my clear glass mesh. If I can keep items far enough away from the window glass they show fine, I really don't know what to think at this point.

I'm guessing it's a bug I'm going to have to live with until I can figure something out.

Thanks for all of your suggestions and, as always any other thoughts or ideas are most welcome.


cev

that was one of the things I noticed in your nifs that i didn't like. you used a niconvexverticeshape on a static. imo you should use a Mopp there. I edited it to use a box shape though. But if you don't have luck with the nif I setup, then try a mopp collision.

Thanks for the tips on transparency. It makes sense that load-order would matter inside a NIF, I just never thought of how each model gets loaded. The cyllinder example is a good one!

I'll make notes of this for the next update to the GIMP/Blender tutorial, it's overdue for an update anyway.

Cheers,

Miax