[SOLVED] - Things appear OK in WED and bad in the engine

Ok, so I made a level consisting of three corridors and two rooms. The problem is: There is ONE corridor in which the pillars (which are on its both sides. See CORRIDOR01 prefab) are equal in size and everything is ok. But, that is only in WED, when I compile my level, then run it through opening the .wmb file, the pillars on one side appear OK ,but the pillars on the other side are NEARLY UNEXISTENT!! Also, there is a room which looks like a bathroom (you won't wanna know what it really is! ). This room sticks out in the corridor. I can see its texture.


Remember: that is only in the engine. Everything is pretty fine in WED. Maybe it's something related to lighting, alpha or Z-buffer. I don't really know much about these stuff


Here are some pics:-


1) THE BATHROOM PROBLEM:

IN WED, you can see it is fine:





IN THE ENGINE, you can see it is sticking out a little :







2) PILLARS PROBLEM:


IN WED, you can see pillars have equal sizes:






IN THE ENGINE, you can see how the left pillars got SO SMALL:







You can download my level here : http://www.datafilehost.com/d/7a6692e9


SOME INFO:-

I use the following SUN and AMBIENT values:

SUN: R,G,B = 255,255,255
Azimuth: 0 Elevation: 60

AMBIENT: R,G,B = 230,230,230


There aren't any other lights in my level


AND BTW. I USE "CSG SUBTRACT" TO MAKE THE DOOR OPENING OF THE BATHROOM YOU ARE SEEING


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Thank you for reading & any help would be appreciated

You map seems to be turned to some small degree. This could cause the problem. But I have to say, that my compiler crashed on me trying to compile your level. So I had to compile it flat / no lightmaps.

Ok, succeeded to compile and the pillars are exactly on the place they should be.
I played around with some settings in the compiler. Perhaps some of the default values causing this.
And indeed, your level has been rotatet. It is slightly not aligned with the grid. That should cause no problem in itself. But your walls are kind of twisted (a tiny bit), which makes them a bit concave (??) .

I hope that helps

You mean I should use "Align to grid" for all the level or what???

I don't know if this would solve the problem.

But part of the problem is, that your walls all intersecting a small amount.

I don't use wed for levels so I can't give you much more advice.

But, if you build a level you should use the grid snap from start. Especialy for levels with such basic design.

What are you using for building levels? I really don't wanna use WED, many bugs and glitches ..

btw. you may have gone to the wrong corridor. That's why everything maybe seem OK. There is only one corridor (which I used CSG subtract for) that has the proplem. It is opposite to the corridor you start at

I don't have much experience in WED, but it sounds like you are compiling it as a BSP map but not entirely follow the design rules; http://manual.3dgamestudio.net/ <- click 'map compiler', than right of 'Build BSP Map' click 'design rules'.

Again could be I am talking bullshit here, I don't know for sure.

@Reconnoiter
No, I compiled it as a simple map. I know that BSP needs designing rules 'n' stuff. I work with the 'default' settings of compiling.

Thank you for your time

P.S. Can you tell me about any 'good' level editor ,please?

I'm sorry but just delete this map, it's way beyond saving. When you work with blocks and don't want to rely only on models, things like this are unacceptable:



As stated before by other posters your blocks have to follow at least some kind of grid (esp. when you want to use BSP maps), not only for technical reasons but to save you from headaches later on (or even right now) and for a little more professionalism.
Your approach should then look somehow like the following:

Uhm I will try, but it is still something I am looking into too:

* I heard GED is realtime but buggy too, and something about limited in that you cannot add blocks.
* I heard a new WED is in development, but this could take quite awhile for to be released. Let us pray it will see daylight .
* I personally wait for IceX3 by Oliver2s http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=407333#Post407333. His vegatation tool (can be seen in a youtube video on page 6) caught my attention. The only thing is I don't know if progress is really made, could take a long while too before it is finished.
* You can use Sivan's editor, it has alot of features.
* You can make one yourself. I am thinking about doing an extremely simple one purely for simple entity placement so I only have to place blocks in WED and compile in WED. But to be fair, I never looked into it so even though one would make a very simple one, it is probably still alot of hassle to make one.

There are more editors. But WED should not be really buggy I think just outdated, maybe you have something wrong in the compile options? I suggest try toying a bit with the x,y positions of your walls and maybe move them futher away from each other. Also have you followed the WED tutorials? http://opserver.de/doc/wed/

Things that really helped me when working with WED are the following:

* change hotkeys for the various camera and move options to e.g. x,c,v,b etc. This helps improving work speed alot.
* Go to preferences, to 'view options' and disable 'bound box during changes', this will removoy those annoying blue boxes that appear every time you move something, making WED view screens more clear.
* In the same view options, set duplicate offset to 0 and 0. I personally prefer this.
* Go to View, go to GLX properties, that 3D View and/or 2D View and increase view depth to e.g. 10000. This helped me alot for some maps, but again is personal preference.

@Superku
WOW! Did you really did that with ONLY "ALIGN TO GRID"? I really forgot to do it .I was extremely busy with designing a sketch for my level.

Are you sure "CSG Subtract" not causing any problem at all? Just a question

Btw. To align blocks to grid, should I use some value for that tool ?


@Reconnoiter
Actually, it is obvious that WED is not buggy, my brain is! . I will get Sivan's editor to give it a try.


Thank you all for help

No, I simply added 2 Large Cubes, scaled them, Alt+H to hollow the block, a 3rd small one and CSG subtract (which is not that bad) to cut a door and added 2 columns.

That slider is pretty important, and most importantly it should never say "off". I keep it at 16 to 32 all the time, you may want to keep it between 4 and 16, depending on your preferences.

One last tip: Don't use csg substract for more complex structures like caves, domes or any other complex architectural things that need for example round elements.
This things can be done through combination of primitives.
That gives you more control over the shape,

So, I need to build it up again from scratch. Better not, I will try to 'hide' the bad things somehow and be careful next time ....

I will get the stuff working!

Thank you all

better to re-build or snap all your edges together or youll have tiny tiny little holes in your level which will ultimatly create many unwanted portals

As DLively said, and see here:


If you worry about deleting a/ especially that map game design probably isn't a thing for you.
After all, doing this thing/ level right now from the start using the grid should take you less than 30min (or maybe even < 15min or < 10min). Just for reference: In my game I have 40 levels and I have completely deleted way more than that and re-made some of them up to 4-5-6 times, only resulting in much better levels and consequently a better game.

Actually, after thinking a little, you are right I will enjoy making it again. Also, I am gonna change some textures & blocks. What a weird engineer would build such thing!





4-6 times?! You really encouraged me!

Concerning, the time stuff ( < 30 or 15 min. ), that really depends on the situation. Because my enthusiasm (that's my FIRST level ever) made me blind, I made my map in AN HOUR. Yes, you read it right! 60 minutes. The reason for that is the same reason for my problem & starting this thread: I really thought that disabling snap tool and not caring about some stuff would give me more freedom. I was WRONG.

Also, the navigation in WED hindered me a little (hope it will be improved)

Thank you all

I re-made the level appropriately several times and the problem still exists

Obviously, things in WED appear fine, but tend to move a little bit to the right in the compiled wmb



P.S. I am sure it is not about grids aligning. I even re-installed 3DGS and the problem is still there. Should I manipulate values in Map Compiling options?

I would recomend reviewing the default settings of the map compiler - and see if something is off in your compiler.

I will try some ideas. If it didn't work, I may 'Ask the developers'

Thanks

Guys, I solved the problem! It was the corridor prefab.

Lol, another reason not to use prefabs . Aren't these things heavily outdated anyway, from the year ~2000?

Anyway congrats on finding the problem.

yeah dont use prefabs

Yeah, I won't use them