Thanks jcl. I send you another email with more details in it because unfortunately, this is not solving it yet: The texture _is not_ too big. My system is not an old one either. That's what's so weird about the whole thing.

It isn't too big for your card, but it might be too big for some cards:

Quote:

---

It's issued when a texture exceeds 2048 pixels or a cubemap exceeds 256x256, indicating that you'll get problems with that texture on some older systems.

---

The thing is, Excessus, it doesn't get rendered! I mean, a warning message being issued because older systems might have problems with it is okay but this one why ever causes the texture not to render at all!

@jcl: I sent you another Mail.

Thanks, I've got it and will look further into the problem. It could be related to the material effect that you're using.

I had recently tested your level on several systems here, but can not confirm any engine bug.

Of course it won't run on most system due to the oversized cubemap. But this is no different with 6.31. On the systems where it runs, the water looks the same as in 6.31. When I fix the problem by scaling your cubemap to a proper size, it runs everywhere.

Now that's strange. As I said, it ran perfectly on my system with 6.31.4, even after having bought my new graphics card (gf4 ti4200, 64MB -> gf6800 gt, 256 MB). I'm still confused due to the fact that the cubemap is not as big as 4096x4096 which is not only the texture size limit for my new card, but also for the older gf4, if that is of any help to you. Weird thing...

Ok, can you do two tests for me?

First, scale down the cubemap to half its size and try whether this solves the problem. It is known that 512x512 cubemaps won't work on most systems, including some that otherwise support 4096 textures.

Second, can you try your level on your PC with 6.31 and 6.40 and post two screenshots to compare? I'd like to see how the shader is supposed to look.

Of course. Here you go:



First test:

This is what it _should_ look like:


This is what it _does_ look like:




Second test:

3072x512 pixels, TGA with RLE-compression, no alpha: Not showing up
1536x256 pixels, TGA with RLE-compression, no alpha: Not showing up
768x128 pixels, TGA with RLE-compression, no alpha: Not showing up
384x64 pixels, TGA with RLE-compression, no alpha: Not showing up

But all of them are rendered properly when doing the level-load workaround I posted before (loading another level, then reloading the original one)!

Notice: Neither in the materials, nor in the effects-sections of my scripts did I change anything since the time when I was still using 6.31.4. Unfortunately, I couldn't test it with 6.31.4 as I have only one computer up and running and don't feel like reinstalling 3dgs completely. If it is really, really necessary, I will do, but since you can see what the shader effect is supposed to look like with the workaround (did the screenshot that way), I'll stick with 6.4 for the moment.

Ok, I looked into your shader code and probably found the bug. Its unrelated to 6.4 and also unrelated to the bitmap size.

function eff_initWater()
{
//enable: Use mipmap stages
//help: This enables mipmapping on pixelshaded water surfaces.
//help: Note: Mipmaps may slow down the rendering process on
//help: older graphics cards.
define mips;

bmap_to_cubemap(mtl.skin1);
ifdef mips;
bmap_to_mipmap(mtl.Skin1);
endif;
.....

Replace this by:

function eff_initWater()
{
bmap_to_cubemap(bmap_to_mipmap(mtl.Skin1));
.....


You have to create mipmaps _before_ converting your texture. A converted texture has a different format. Mipmap creation just overwrites it and renders it unuseable.

Most 3D cards just ignore the mipmap instruction here, but your GeForce card obviously attempts to create mipmaps and thus destroys the environment effect.

The same, of course, applies to normal, bump, tangent, or other special bitmaps.

I would never have thought of that! Thanks jcl, its working now!

Strange though that the uncorrected code worked with 6.31.4, but never mind it works and that's all it is supposed to do