[SOLVED] [RVGL-MIG] Problem using mirrors together with waterboxes

[kiwi]

Hello RVGL-team,

I found out, that as soon water/fog boxes will be placed in a level, no mirror surfaces can be used, because graphic glitches appears.

How I tested it:

1) Created a portal by using the makeitgood "Erm, nothing to see here"-mode, where the mirrored surface should appear.
2) Created a rim-file by using the mkmirror tool.

Without water/fog-boxes in the level, the mirroring is working fine:



As soon a water/fog-box will be placed, there are graphic glitches.

The graphic glitch doesn't look the same all the time. Also, sometimes the glitch doesn't appear at all. At Singleplayer-races, the glitch appears much more often, then on Timetrials.

It makes no difference, where the water/fog-boxes are located. Also a very small water-box far away from the portal is causing glitches. (So there are definitly no overlaps).

Here are some screenshots how the glitches looks like:











It would be really nice, if this issue can be solved. So trackmakers would be able to use both (mirrored surfaces and water/fog-boxes) in one level.

Ciao, Kiwi

[Huki]

I didn't manage to reproduce this bug - I placed both a waterbox and a fogbox (both quite large) over the reflective surface at Garden start. Tried starting a few single races (the modified Garden and some other levels).

Fogbox changes the fog color to black as long as the camera is inside it. But the glitches shown in your screenshots are a mystery. Can you confirm whether this is a problem only with your track? What happens if you place a waterbox / fogbox in Garden like I did?

[SebR]

I didn't manage to reproduce this bug - I placed both a waterbox and a fogbox (both quite large) over the reflective surface at Garden start. Tried starting a few single races (the modified Garden and some other levels).

Fogbox changes the fog color to black as long as the camera is inside it. But the glitches shown in your screenshots are a mystery. Can you confirm whether this is a problem only with your track? What happens if you place a waterbox / fogbox in Garden like I did?

Huki try to merge every cubes in only 1 and retry your garden test ... as kiwi's track got only 1 cube with around 30000 poly i think

[Huki]

I didn't manage to reproduce this bug - I placed both a waterbox and a fogbox (both quite large) over the reflective surface at Garden start. Tried starting a few single races (the modified Garden and some other levels).

Fogbox changes the fog color to black as long as the camera is inside it. But the glitches shown in your screenshots are a mystery. Can you confirm whether this is a problem only with your track? What happens if you place a waterbox / fogbox in Garden like I did?

Huki try to merge every cubes in only 1 and retry your garden test ... as kiwi's track got only 1 cube with around 30000 poly i think

Still no luck... :/

[kiwi]

At the time when I was testing the mirrors and experienced the issues, my level had below 10000 polies, in one cube. I did not tested it again since this. I will give it another try today in the evening. Maybe it is solved already. I will come back with more infos.

[kiwi]

Hello Huki,

so I gave it another try, and did a few more tests with the current version of my track.

1) I've created a portal by using the makeitgood "Erm, nothing to see here"-mode, where the mirrored surface should appear.
2) I've created a rim-file by using the mkmirror tool. (http://www.perror.de/rv/#tools)
3) I made the floor faces where the mirror should be translucent, by setting the Mirror-flag, and set Alpha Transparency Channel to Grey 70.



Results: Good and a bad news.
Good news: The Graphic glitches are gone completly. I don't know why. Ether, it was solved by some of the latest RVGL updates, or something changed inside my track, which was affecting the glitches as shown in the thread earlier.
Bad news: The mirroring is not working anymore. It acts like the rim-file isn't there at all. Instead, the floor is just translucent, with the skybox and the rest of the level meshes shining through. No mirror effects at all.

So I did some more investigations:

4) I removed all the water boxes (3 pieces) in my track, and saved the fob-file.

Results: Good news. The mirrors are working, like they should! No graphic glitches. But also no water boxes. See this screenshot:



5) So I tried to add a very small water box, far away from the surface where the mirror should me. See here:



Results: Bad news: The mirror effect is gone again. Again, the faces on the floor are just translucent, without any mirror effect visible. Screenshot:



6) I tried the same with stock levels. I was not able, to break the mirroring, by adding water boxes. Maybe, because the stock tracks rim-files wasn't created with the mkmirror tool?

Conclusion:

On some ore all custom tracks, which create mirroring effects by using the mkmirror tool, there are issues as soon at least one water box is present.

[Marv]

Try cutting up the .w with WorldCut and use the values 4000 and 12000.

[kiwi]

I have tried it again after cutting my .w-file with WorldCut, but the problem is still there.

It seems I am not the only one with this issues, also Xarc and Instant had similar issues at their custom tracks. Both decided to get rid of their water boxes, so they were able to use mirroring surfaces.

However, I did it the other way round: I decided to release Spa-Volt 1 with water boxes, but without mirroring effects.

[kiwi]

Any news regarding this issue?

I wanted to add mirrors at my new custom track Spa-Volt 2, but I have exactly the same problem again.

[607]

I hope this issue can be understood.

[Huki]

Any news regarding this issue?

I wanted to add mirrors at my new custom track Spa-Volt 2, but I have exactly the same problem again.

I need you to send me your track in its current state where you experience this problem.
The same for the sliders collision.

Then I'll check both of them.

[kiwi]

Yesterday I worked together with Huki, to have a look at the issue. Here our findings.

• The initial problem (mirrors together with waterboxes) doesn't seems to be an issue anymore. Ether, the problem was solved at one of the latest RVGL versions already, OR the problem just doesn't occur at the track we did the tests (My current WIP-track Spa-Volt 2).
• The mirrored objects were completly black at first. We solved this, by adding the following line to the tracks ini-file:
  

  MIRRORS            0 0.85 0 256        ;Type - mix - intensity start - distance

• You have to be very carefull where placing the mirror plane. At first I had it to high, so some of the meshes weren't mirrored at all.
• You have to make sure, the mirror plane is big enough, so it reaches all the objects you want to have mirrored.

-> At the moment, the problem is solved for me.

I would encourage other trackmakers, to test it as well. At least Instant and Xarc who had similar issues (mirrors AND waterboxes).

If others as well don't have issues anymore, I will close the thread.

Thx again Huki, for your help with this.

Here a screenshot from the tests, where you can see the working mirroring:

[Huki]

To summarize from my discussions with Kiwi on Discord, there was definitely an issue when Mirrors and WaterBoxes are used together in a track, but the bug only affects the legacy renderer. This was why my previous attempts in reproducing the bug (in Garden) failed. The good news is that this weird glitch should be fixed for good in the upcoming release.