[r774] Models dissapear when standing at certain angles

[metroid014]

Ah, I see what the problem is. I animated the bricks to fly forward from behind where I was standing. In actuality the actor does not move however. So it still remains in the sector it originally was in. Which is behind me... Any ideas on how to fix this?

EDIT: The sector the bricks are in is very small for a few reasons (tagged as 0). In the picture I could see it I think I was standing either slightly behind the sector or on it.

[Rex Claussen]

Ah, I see what the problem is. I animated the bricks to fly forward from behind where I was standing. In actuality the actor does not move however. So it still remains in the sector it originally was in. Which is behind me... Any ideas on how to fix this?

I'm assuming that the bricks are "flying forward" as part of an exploding wall effect? How are you achieving this movement - are the brick models supposed to physically move from one set of coordinates to another, or do they disappear from one spot and appear in another? How you handle the disappearing problem will depend on how you are implementing the "flying forward" effect.

You may also want to upload a sample wad with this effect, so that people can see how you're implementing it.

EDIT: The sector the bricks are in is very small for a few reasons (tagged as 0). In the picture I could see it I think I was standing either slightly behind the sector or on it.

Keep in mind that when I was talking about sector referencing I was not talking about sector tags but sector numbers. By default, the first sector you create has a sector number = 0, the next sector you create has a number = 1, and so on. These are different from sector tags, which are never assigned by default. You could create an entire map that may have hundreds of sectors but that has no sector tags. [Forgive me if I'm telling you stuff you already know; your posts are somewhat cryptic and don't give me a sense for how experienced a mapper you are. If you already know all of this please say so and I'll shut up.]

At any rate, you mentioned very small sectors for the bricks, but did not explain the reasons. Moreover, having the sectors tagged as 0 really does nothing (as I explained in the previous paragraph). If you are standing on the sector you would need to be looking straight down to see the model. Having very small sectors may actually contribute to the problem. Try something - put the model into the main room sector (i.e., not in its own sector) and see if the disappearing behavior occurs. If it does not, then try the method I suggested in my previous post.

[metroid014]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4TZQ-4sG_w

That shows what I did with the bricks. It is animated within the model to fly forward, the actor itself doesn't move. So if I flagged it as +SOLID the spot where it started off would still be blocked off however it would be in a different spot.

[Rex Claussen]

Very nice effect!

However, looking at your short demo, I am completely at a loss for why the models are disappearing after being placed on the floor after the explosion. Could you add some footage to your demo to show the disappearing effect?

I'm just grasping at straws now, but try something else. Summon the actor (go to the console and type: summon [ActorName]), then walk around the model to make sure that it is visible from all angles. If there are problems with the rendering, they will become clear through this exercise. If there are no problems, then we'll have to figure something else. If you're creating another demo (see my suggestion in the previous paragraph), perhaps you can include footage of the summon & walk-around exercise too.

[metroid014]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H3272LkDkU

There you go. Sorry that its kinda laggy, my recorder is slow today for some reason....

[Gez]

I'm pretty sure this is the same thing, so I merged the topics.

The reason this happens is because the actor is not in the sector the bricks appear. If you turn your back to the real sector, then the actor disappears. This is annoying I agree, but really Doom's core logic was never written for cases such as this.

A solution could be to throw actual, separate brick objects.

[metroid014]

Re-reading what Rex wrote I joined the sector the model is in with some nearby larger sectors that the player should always see if looking at the brick. And it worked! Thanks

[Enjay]

I am completely at a loss for why the models are disappearing after being placed on the floor after the explosion.

It's because of exactly the problem that you identified (and which Gez has also explained). However, just to cover it again, the underlying actor is not moving at all. It remains in the small sector behind the player. The model is animated. At the start, the bits are all together and are seen when you are looking at the actor and the sector it is in. Therefore it is highly unlikely that you could get yourself in a position where you could see the model but not the sector. However, the model is animated. This means that the parts of the model move relative to each other but the underlying actor is still in the same place that it always was. The bricks on the floor are now effectively the extremities of a large model and are some distance from the underlying actor and its containing sector. As you know, it's easy to end up with parts of a large model quite some distance from the sector where the actor is. That is why the bricks vanish. They are attached to an actor placed in a small sector behind the player even though they themselves are lying on the floor in front of the player.

[Rex Claussen]

The bricks on the floor are now effectively the extremities of a large model and are some distance from the underlying actor and its containing sector.

Now it becomes completely clear.

As an alternative to animating the model, wouldn't it be easier to simply use a thrust_thing with gravity special on the models themselves? That way the actor would move and would be rendered in its entirety during the motion cycle. (This method, of course, would not enable the bricks to appear vertically angled, as they currently do. However, because of the speed at which this is happening, the vertical angling is only evident if you pause the game (or in this case the video) during the animation.)

[Chris]

Another option could be to do the opposite of what you're doing now. Put the bricks' actor in the room, and have the model's initial position be offset into the wall. Then have them animate toward origin (0,0,0) so they land near the actor's position instead of moving away from it.

[Enjay]

Hah! I love it when that happens. Here I am sitting here thinking about the best way to manipulate sectors and Chris comes along and suggests a simple, easy and should-be-obvious solution that completely passed me by.

[metroid014]

Another option could be to do the opposite of what you're doing now. Put the bricks' actor in the room, and have the model's initial position be offset into the wall. Then have them animate toward origin (0,0,0) so they land near the actor's position instead of moving away from it.

Brilliant!

[dark-slayer-201]

But also, this thing can also happen without models aswell.