Dissapearing textures

Get help with installing and running the Cafu Engine here. This forum is also for general questions and discussion of all aspects regarding the Cafu Engine.
Post Reply
sentharn
Posts:6
Joined:2007-10-05, 01:32
Dissapearing textures

Post by sentharn » 2007-10-05, 02:25

I just downloaded Ca3D and was playing through the techdemo when I noticed that at certain times detail brushes (flanges around some pipes, lights, etc) disappeared when I looked from certain angles. Mainly, in the 'fenced off' space area with the huge pipe running across the room.
Also, when I look at some shaders (the ones with the pipes hanging across a background, in the lowest area) the background sometimes disappears.

Is this a bug with the engine or my system? I'm running an Athlon 3800+ with a gig of ram and an Nvidia 7900 OC w/ 256 megabytes of video ram.
User avatar
Carsten
Site Admin
Posts:2170
Joined:2004-08-19, 13:46
Location:Germany
Contact:

Post by Carsten » 2007-10-05, 11:41

Hi sentharn,

welcome to the Ca3DE forums! :-)

Well, this sounds much like a problem with depth buffer precision.
Is the disappearance of objects a matter of all-or-nothing, or do they appear "pixelated", fragmented, and/or flickering?

Ca3DE by default asks for display- and z-buffer sizes of 32 BPP, but if for some reason it only gets 16 BPP, it also works with the reduced depths.
:arrow: Is your desktop by chance set to 16BPP colors (HiColor) mode only? If so, please try to set it to 32BPP (TrueColor) mode instead.

Please let me know if that helped; feel free to also post a screenshot or two if that helps explaining the problem.
Best regards,
Carsten
sentharn
Posts:6
Joined:2007-10-05, 01:32

Post by sentharn » 2007-10-06, 03:19

My desktop is at 32 bpp.

It depends on the object in question... In a few shots, a grate appears and disappears, but in others the entire texture appears unmasked (like in the hanging pipe) or big pixilated 'holes' appear in the texture.

Here's an example of the detail brushes (flange and lights) appearing and disappearing:

Here
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... etail1.jpg
and not here
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... etail2.jpg

A texture 'hole'
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... 3/fan1.jpg

disappearing grate
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... grate1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... grate2.jpg

another hole (might be part of the level) and no transparency
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... grate3.jpg

Grate transparency:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... grate4.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... grate5.jpg

pipe masking (gamma adjusted with the GIMP so you can see it)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... /pipe1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... /pipe2.jpg

And finally, another 'hole'
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... /pipe3.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/s ... /pipe4.jpg
User avatar
Thrawn
Posts:302
Joined:2004-08-30, 10:38
Location:NRW, Germany
Contact:

Post by Thrawn » 2007-10-06, 11:07

Hi,

are you sure that it is not related with transperency effects on textures? I get the impression that just this is the case, specially when looking at grate4.jpg

Have you updated your graphics drivers recently?
Image
User avatar
Carsten
Site Admin
Posts:2170
Joined:2004-08-19, 13:46
Location:Germany
Contact:

Post by Carsten » 2007-10-06, 11:44

Thanks for all those screenshots!
I'm somewhat surprised though... not quite what I expected, and I've never observed this behaviour before.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that the bug is not with Ca3DE, but likely with your graphics driver...
Did you set unusual options in the NVidia config panel, such as optimize speed over quality etc?
If that (setting the quality settings to "normal" or "good") doesn't help, could you please try to update to the latest driver version, and try again?
Best regards,
Carsten
sentharn
Posts:6
Joined:2007-10-05, 01:32

Post by sentharn » 2007-10-07, 06:02

All right, I'll try updating the drivers later.

I found that changing the render (by renaming the render .dlls) took care of the program...forcing it to use the Nvidia2x took care of the problem, with little lack of detail.
User avatar
Carsten
Site Admin
Posts:2170
Joined:2004-08-19, 13:46
Location:Germany
Contact:

Post by Carsten » 2007-10-07, 19:42

Ok, thanks for the info. Please let us know if an updated driver helps when you get around to install one. The fact that another renderer works is another indication that a driver update will also help with the automatically chosen renderer.
Best regards,
Carsten
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 guests