Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 03:44:48 am

Title: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 03:44:48 am
I don't know why, but after I downloaded and started using the mv_effects VP...the lasers renderings of fighter guns (the ones I actually noticed) look blocky. There is the normal and correct color, but I can clearly see the black background that the laser bitmap is made of. I first noticed this with the Subach bitmap...theres the bluish rendering  inside the rectangular black background.
Also I noticed that the damage 'smoky flames' that fume out of damaged spots on ships look like blocky smoke billows. On my previous computer everything appeared perfectly fine... never had this problem before.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 13, 2007, 03:52:41 am
First off, I'm not implying anything with this, but... did you remember to enable the jpg/tga textures?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 04:04:51 am
Yes I did. Whatever is wrong..and I forgot to mention it also....shield impacts are opaque with only a slight amount of the coloring that should be there.

Note: on occasion some graphics in other games have had that blocky look around them (this is with the small minor details)...I'm running a Geforce7300 512mb...

EDIT: stock FS2 effects did not develop a problem...only after installing the mv vps
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: jr2 on November 13, 2007, 04:28:48 am
Do you have the 710 patches for the 368 Zeta vp pack?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 04:47:33 am
????? In English please? Unlike half the people here I don't understand most techy talk...which is what that sounded like.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 13, 2007, 09:18:01 am
In your mediavps folder, do you have files that have "mp-710" at the beginning of the file name?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: ShadowGorrath on November 13, 2007, 10:32:49 am
Hey , I'm having the same problem with my FS2SCP . I learnt to deal with it the way it is . It would be nice to fix it though . Would the texture filter have something to do with it ?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Dark Hunter on November 13, 2007, 10:34:44 am
The problem is caused by MediaVP incompatibility with 3.6.9.

There should be three more VP's (the mp-710's) available in the Media VP release thread that, if added to the Media Vp's, should fix the problem.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 11:46:48 am
I'll try that.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: General Battuta on November 13, 2007, 12:38:38 pm
I had this problem. The 710s fixed it.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 01:02:05 pm
Nope didn't work. Here's a screenshot of my problem. I played down game speed so I could get an accurate screeny. Here it is:

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7228/screen0016xm3.th.jpg) (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0016xm3.jpg)

I installed the mp710s....forgot I brought them over from my other computer and just didnt install them. Unless there's something I'm missing here. I drug over the FSO from BtRL and the launcher....but that shouldn't have an effect I should think.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 06:51:56 pm
You can see the 'blocks' I'm referring to because of the brighter background of the nebula. This never turned up before.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 13, 2007, 07:01:32 pm
That's a known problem with Inferno R1. Everyone has it, I think.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 08:09:47 pm
Dude...thats not Inferno. I ported over TBP ships to the FS2 campaign. Case in point, thats never caused me trouble...in fact haven't had any graphics trouble with any mod. I'm getting the black blocks around the gun textures. I installed the mp710s but they dont seem to have an effect. Unless the 710s I have are outdated...the ones I got are a year old...and I'm using 3.6.9. On my other cpu 3.6.7 was as good as I got because of graphics card limitations.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: colecampbell666 on November 13, 2007, 08:28:56 pm
That laser animation always looked blocky, and it's and INFR1 laser.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: jr2 on November 13, 2007, 08:29:33 pm
Make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card... sometimes they (the drivers) break things; the updates usually fix them, at least until they get broken again.  :rolleyes:

EDIT: Just looked at your screeny... didn't see anything wrong.  You wanna take the screeny in MS pbrush (start > run > pbrush) and draw a circle around what you think is wrong?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 08:36:27 pm
I'll try and update to my card. Look at the kayser shots (should be backlit enough) and you will see black blocks.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: jr2 on November 13, 2007, 08:42:25 pm
I see it.

To help others:

(http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/5421/screen0016zoomx2fa2.png)
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 13, 2007, 09:12:24 pm
Thats what I'm talking about. I looked and my mps are as up to date as they can be atm...
Unless theres a mix up with a texture somewhere. I'm having this problem with the subach textures...shield hit fx...

I'm downloading a more uptodate card driver.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Vengence on November 14, 2007, 05:14:01 am
I had something similar happen to a custom weapon effect and I somehow managed to fix it through editing the alpha channels. I can't remember what I did at all but if you can get the textures and edit the alphas in photoshop you might be able to manually fix the problem effect.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Wobble73 on November 14, 2007, 06:44:06 am
I have a similar problem with the Babylon Project, Weapon effects and smoke effects from damaged fighters etc, they all have black blocks around the effect!
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 15, 2007, 07:49:38 pm
I'll finish the downloading of my vid card drivers this weekend (getting WildBlue Satellite Internet..WOOHOO!!!!). I kinda figure now it might be an issue on my end on this cpu. Never had a problem on my previous cpu (its sitting in storage atm). One thing I haven't tried is setting affinity for FSO. I got a dual core so I'm gonna see if its a simple compatibility glitch. I got some games that don't run quite as smooth or otherwise as well when I select only 1 cpu instead of both.

EDIT: Affinity had no effect. I have some other ideas that MIGHT work.

Note: Photoshop is out of the question. I don't have the 100...200 or more to afford the program. I'd prob be lost in understanding how to use it...last time I used it was back in photography class in high school.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 15, 2007, 10:35:32 pm
I think I got it. With some tinkering with the weapons.tbl I narrowed it down to the Bitmap and Glow placement. I used the MV glow but stock FS2 bitmap...it worked, and though the black boxes were no longer there, they still didnt look right. Out of curiosity I put the tbl weapons in question back to their original MV status, and disabled jpg/tga textures (this never had a problem on previous cpu...a driver update might fix this)...now the black boxes are gone with that feature turned off. Soon as I can I'll get my video card updated and hopefully that SHOULD fix my problem.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: jr2 on November 16, 2007, 01:49:30 am
Paint.NET for you.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: EAD_Agamemnon on November 16, 2007, 10:36:04 pm
eh? the jpg/tga being off had its own problems..n what do you mean by Paint.Net ?
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: Jeff Vader on November 17, 2007, 12:27:59 am
Since you said Photoshop is not an option, jr2 politely recommended Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/), which happens to be a decent enough graphics program. Most importantly, it's free.
Title: Re: Blocky laser renderings
Post by: jr2 on November 17, 2007, 01:35:26 am
Yeah, unless you want to go really advanced.. then you can use the GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) (GNU Image Manipulation Program)