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Newcomers DBPro Corner / DB PRO: I'm a complete mess.

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fuzz one
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Posted: 17th May 2006 12:04
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ok guys, i've been fooling around with DB PRO for a few days now and I have C++ / VB / etc. experience with programming.

first of all, i think DB PRO is great, great enough to invest time and money into and after searching the forums for literally hours, i still have a couple of unanswered questions and if you can help me with any of these questions, i would really appreciate it.

1. I loaded a "car" x file object i created using the pandasoft plugin for 3D Studio Max 8. However, this line :



causes the textures of my x file object to disappear and i'm left with a white/grey shape ? When i remove the line, everything works fine. i can't figure out why this is happening?

2. How come the x file object looks a bit deteriorated? meaning the textures don't look up to par? Is that something on my part or just loss of data during conversion?

3. I've even used some of the .x files from the packaged samples and even though they look fine in the demo exe's and running the projects, once i import them into my project, i again seem to have missing texture, generally white or grey and yes, i do copy all the files related to the x and keep them in the same directory, such as the bmps,jpg,pngs,and so on.

ah, it's 5 in the morning and i know i've got more questions but I guess I'll leave it with those for now. any advice or points in the right path would be greatly appreciated.

fuzz

www.total-classics.com
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smallg
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Posted: 17th May 2006 15:12 Edited at: 17th May 2006 15:13
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look into the colour depth.... i.e. try 'set display mode 1024,768,32'

life's one big game
spec= 2ghz, 1gb ram, 512mb gpu, directx 9.0c, dbpro and classic
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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 17th May 2006 15:45 Edited at: 17th May 2006 15:49
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Are you loading the object before setting the screen depth? Because if so, changing the screen res/depth does funky things to your texture memory. Best to do that as the very first thing you do before loading any media at all (if you can help it).

As for textures, it could be mipmapping that's causing you grief. I've not done much with it in the past, but it's something you may be able to get more help on if you know what to look for.

The fx files can be quirky to say the least. If you go to the DBPro boards and read up on the "Ultimate Shader Thread" then you should get a much better handle on everything. If I remember right, some of the shaders that come with DB no longer work with the later versions of DB. I could be mistaken, though. That thread will tell you how (with a lot of thinking) how to get your own shaders in, and has some shaders detailed in it for you to play with yourself. It's a bit of a black art, and one that TGC knows needs some work soon.

[edit] Doh - you said .x files, not .fx. My bad. If it's still the screen res change thing, then there's nothing else can be done for it. Otherwise, it could be some quirky loading scemes in the demos - check to make sure they're not actually loading the texture in as an image seperately and using "texture object" to apply it. Without knowing which it is, I can't say

Hope that helps.
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fuzz one
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Posted: 17th May 2006 20:53
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thanks for both your replies.

i've tried almost every variation of the line SET DISPLAY MODE, even at 32 depth.

this is the first line in my code before i do anything, then i load my media objects and it's still giving me trouble.



www.total-classics.com
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fuzz one
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Posted: 17th May 2006 23:20
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should i post my overall code and attach the x file?

it's pretty short code that i got from a car tutorial off this site, and i've been trying to modify it.

let me know if that might assist me better.

www.total-classics.com
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BatVink
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Posted: 17th May 2006 23:26
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The first thing to check is your model. 3D games need low-poly models. A car should be a couple of hundred polys, maybe up to a thousand if it's your main and only vehicle in the game.

Secondly, games do not have the same rendering quality as your modelling application. Games, being real-time, dispense with some of the quality in favour of speed. Lighting is there but far more basic, shadows are a black-art and not standard, and mipmapping is used to optimise gameplay.

Perhaps you could post the specs of your model and a screenshot in the modeller and in DB Pro?



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fuzz one
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Posted: 18th May 2006 00:17
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Ok guys, here's the model file i'm using: www.total-classics.com/car-x-file.rar, I've also attached it in this post to keep it for future use for anyone who stumbles on the same kind of problem i'm having

and i've posted my code below.

www.total-classics.com

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D Ogre
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Posted: 18th May 2006 01:02
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As for the textures not loading properly or not at all, I would try exporting the object from one modeller in the format in question (.x or .3ds) and import it into another. See what the results are. I've found that some modellers generate a variation of a popular file format that's not entirely compatible with DB or DBPro. Also experiment with the exporter options. Something checked or unchecked can possibly be the culprit.

I've had this problem with the .3ds format in the past with this. When this is the case for me, I would then load it into a 3D file converter such as Polytrans or Deep Exploration and it sometimes fixes the problem.

Also, if possible, try loading the textures yourself in DBPro and apply the them manually using the texture command.
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spooky
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Posted: 18th May 2006 14:16 Edited at: 18th May 2006 14:19
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Well I used this code;



and got;



So looks ok to me, except all the words are back to front

As mentioned before, there are FAR too many polygons. You have over 150,000 !!!

Boo!

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coolgames
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Posted: 18th May 2006 16:34
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That 150,000 may not be correct, seeing as you have created a matrix which adds to the poly count. Though it still is a huge number.

Play my game "Hang Glider"! http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=70854&b=8
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spooky
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Posted: 18th May 2006 16:40
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I already took that into account.

Matrix poly = 8192
Car = 153,255
Total = 161,447

Boo!
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fuzz one
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Posted: 18th May 2006 20:20
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wow ok thanks guys, brilliant.

the answer is def. the model being too big because i used a lower modeled car and it worked. However, the texture was still reversed, meaning the words looked mirrored but i guess that's a diff. problem all together.

However, spooky did get the car to display properly and i used his code and i still got the following screenshot ah



nonetheless, i feel i should thank tinkergirl, smallg, batvink, d ogre, spooky, and coolgames for the time dedicated in assisting me.

www.total-classics.com
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 18th May 2006 21:59
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Quote: "However, spooky did get the car to display properly and i used his code and i still got the following screenshot."


Yeah so that means that your computer is not as good as his in some way. Most people on here have pretty good computers.

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BatVink
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Posted: 18th May 2006 22:15
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The issue may be graphics card related, particularly with that amount of model detail. Also, you have a lot of textures, the main one being 1024x1024. So as well as the model, all of the textures have to be crammed onto the graphics card.

A couple of your textures are odd sizes. One is 356x356, and another one is 414x415. DirectX prefers square textures in 64,128,256,512 and 1024 resolution etc... It's not mandatory, but it helps with compatibility.

I think what you are seeing is graphics card overload.



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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 18th May 2006 23:33
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Hmm, non-power-of-two textures may be causing (or making worse) the 'lower res' textures you're seeing. I think I heard somewhere that if your texture isn't a power of two, then it scales it down to the nearest power of two and just compresses it down to fit. Not completely certain, mind you, but it sounds feasible.

So your 356*356 and 414*415(?) textures may be getting shrunk down to 256*256 and losing you some resolution.
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fuzz one
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Posted: 19th May 2006 01:18
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thanks a bunch guys, you guys have made me poly-aware

i used a different model and it seems to work out fine. little disappointed i couldn't get the card to work, but if it's a video card issue, guess not much i can do but invest in a new card.

nonetheless, thanks for all the info and pointing me in the right direction.

fuzz

www.total-classics.com
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BatVink
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Posted: 19th May 2006 01:49
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Quote: "guess not much i can do but invest in a new card"


Post your specs before you do anything drastic and expensive! This could be purely down to the size of the model.

I have a GeForce 5200 FX 128MB card. By today's standards, it's not fantastic but it is more than adequate for my DB Pro projects.



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fuzz one
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Posted: 19th May 2006 02:09
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GEForce 5700 Ultra 128MB card, 1GB ram, AMD64-bit 3500+

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spooky
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Posted: 19th May 2006 11:35
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Sounds ok to me.

I'm still on a GeForce Ti4600 128MB card on an Athlon XP 2000+

What version of forceware are you on for graphics card. It is up to 84.21 at the moment.

Boo!
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fuzz one
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Posted: 20th May 2006 00:57
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i have the latest forceware also...

that's a shame, but thanks.

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