Debris oddities in trunk

[Cody]

I'm seeing some odd gfx effects with debris/explosions (trunk r5376)... the 'squares' in this thumbnail:



I am reliably informed that it occurs in strict mode too.

[JensAyton]

Should be fixed in r5384.

[Cody]

I've seen that 'square' debris gfx oddity again this evening, guv'nor - just the once, on only one piece of debris, and too quick to get a pic (r5436 nightly).

[Cody]

I'd not run trunk for a few days - installed r5445 this morning, blew one of Cheyd's nav buoys, and saw those 'squares' again. Trying to reproduce and grab a pic.

[Thargoid]

Something like this? I get it on trunk 5455 (although it's watermarked 5454 as it was just an svn update of a snapshot release build as 5454 wouldn't link) when launching from the planet via Planetfall (new alpha-version of that, but that I don't think should matter - I think I saw this a couple of days ago in a nightly build too).

Anyway the effect goes away once you fly away from the planet, but is quite repeatable.

[Cody]

Damn my frazzled brain - that's tickled a memory of something similar I saw just once, a while back, but it wouldn't have been launching from the planet.
It may have been when I blew a ship at point-blank range, and my squares (above) appear like that close-up.

[Thargoid]

Just tested it in 5457 clean build and same occurs. Flying down to the planet (before PF kicks in) you can see the squares gradually appearing as you get deeper into the atmosphere. Will try it tomorrow without OXPs and see if it's repeatable there.

It's quite abstractly pretty...

[Cody]

I can't reproduce that (no Planetfall installed), but I took a long swoop into the atmosphere 'til my ship blew and got some odd (or maybe not) gfx effects:

[Diziet Sma]

Something like this? I get it on trunk 5455 (although it's watermarked 5454 as it was just an svn update of a snapshot release build as 5454 wouldn't link) when launching from the planet via Planetfall (new alpha-version of that, but that I don't think should matter - I think I saw this a couple of days ago in a nightly build too).

Anyway the effect goes away once you fly away from the planet, but is quite repeatable.

That looks a hell of a lot (but a little more exaggerated) like the way the Mobility Radeon X2300 GPU in my laptop renders stars and nebulae.. So far as I can tell, it's because my GPU isn't fully compliant with the OpenGL standard for shaders.. I wonder if something similar might be going on here?

[Thargoid]

Same effect occurs with a Jameson in a clean rev 5457 release-snapshot build with no OXPs installed.

This is under Win7 64-bit using a Radeon 6250 graphics driver (fully up to date) so it's a similar set-up, although in my case it's specifically (at least for this test) when the graphics are being overlaid by the atmosphere effect. If I fly towards the planet, when the atmosphere lightening is being displayed then the effect gets more pronounced, and if I turn around and leave then it fades away as the atmosphere effect does.

Also double-checked - it doesn't happen with 1.76.1 on the same system. It's specifically a 1.77 trunk issue.

I'm also wondering if the original effect that EV reported is something similar, except induced by the throwSparks or entity explosion rather than the atmosphere, so being a little more localised on the screen and so harder to reproduce?

[Eric Walch]

It is not happening in trunk r5452 with

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[rendering.opengl.version]: OpenGL renderer version: 2.1.0 ("2.1 NVIDIA-1.6.36"). Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation". Renderer: "NVIDIA GeForce 9400 OpenGL Engine".

[JensAyton]

Keep up, people, we’re on r5460 now.

[Cody]

Heh... I will keep-up... with tonight's nightly tomorrow!

[Ironfist]

Just downloaded and built 5461 I can confirm that the artefacts seem to have disappeared. This is on XP32 with an ATI HD5750 running driver 12.8. However I cannot actually dock with the planet I get an instant relaunch just after the normally landing sequence.

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12:45:54.750 [ship.setup.docks]: No docks set up for <StationEntity 0x13a196e8>{"Military Base" "Military Base" position: (0, 0, 0) scanClass: CLASS_NOT_SET status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}, making virtual dock
12:45:54.781 [eric's test handlers]: Player will dock at: Tionisla Prime - Military Base
12:45:54.906 [eric's test handlers]: Player approaches surface of planet with radius: 46460
12:45:54.937 [eric's test handlers]: Player will launch from station: Tionisla Prime - Military Base
12:45:54.937 [kracken_player.js]:  Exiting Station
12:45:57.468 [eric's test handlers]: Player launched from station: Dodecahedron Station

I have included the bit from the log file, as you can see it is only 0.031 of a second from approaching message to launch message.
I have checked back with trunk 5458 and 5448 and get the same relaunch effect.

Ironfist

[cim]

I have checked back with trunk 5458 and 5448 and get the same relaunch effect.

...which is at least an improvement on 5446, which would just crash.

Due to changes in the way docking is handled for stations without an explicitly-defined dock entity between 1.76 and current trunk, the planetfall station is now considered to be larger than before, and collides with the planet shortly after the docking sequence starts. The player is then re-launched immediately as is standard for being on an exploding station.