Max structure size

[ullen]

Problem:
I'm in the process of creating a high-rise structure. The building is about 40m wide, 45m deep and 80m high with 18 interior floors. When I have it placed and I view it in-game there's no issues when viewing it from the outside, but when I walk inside (any floor) and walk close the edges of the building, the entire model disappears when looking in the cardinal direction that the respective sides have (N/S/E/W). It only disappears when I'm within something like 2-5 meters (in-game). The height of the structure has no effect on this "occlusion".

I have tried.
Deleting all LODs except the resLOD
Splitting the structure into 4 sections and use them in proxies instead.
Changing resLOD resolution.
So I have looked everywhere for a solution to this and I have tried many different things like, CanBeOccluded = 0 etc.

As a test I created a simple 50*50*1 box (incl. geoLOD+roadLOD), which seems to have the same problem.

I'm hoping that you guys can help me!

Best regards.

[Thromp]

hmm you shuld not be having problems in the vertical , how many sections has the model and do you have alpha channels for windows etc, maybe they are making sectin count very big if not done correct ?

here is historic talk , not much explanation but should prove posssibility is there to make your building

http://www.armastack.info/index.php/discussions/19

[CBFASI]

I had the same problem with a ship I bulit, and ended up cutting the model down into smaller sections, it was not a problem.
I also had to do the same with older buildings, some cut into sections as small as 20m. This is less of a problem for buildings as its just a matter of accurate placement, and if done via the mission editor, then it can be made as a single placement using script to join the bits.

[ullen]

Thank you for your answers!

@Thromp: Yea, I discovered the vertical height wasn't a problem after toying around with the dimensions of the building. What caught my attention, though, was that it seems to be a percentile of the length (perhaps above a certain length) that seems to determine when it will occlude the structure. F.ex. i tried splitting the structure into 4 sections and then attach them as proxies, but this only seemed to worsen the occlusion limit. When I discovered the problem I removed everything and reduced all sections gradually as i toyed around with it. Thanks for digging up that thread btw.

@CBFASI: Well I was looking around in CA folder to see if I could spot how BI did it and took a look at the LHD. In the folder there is a "SnaperHelper", which I assume is a memory point snap P3D? If you could give me an example of how to use a script to insert this structure as a "complete" structure in V3, I would be most thankful! I assume if I create 4 sections, i will have a "weird" map icon.

[CBFASI]

Actually your map icon may look less weird than you think, back in OFP days I had a building that was in 8 parts, and because of this you could actually see its odd shape on the map, do not forget bis building icons are rectangles, so sometimes its actually better to break buildings into parts.

For V3 placement I just place them, knowing the dimensions and just using acurate placements.

[ullen]

Sorry to bump the thread, but I wanted to share how I place my buildings. Instead of using manual placement I just created a new model containing only memory snap-points. The I load it into V3, place it and snap the parts of my building together. I just finished off with the SetAbsosuleHeight and it's done.

[ullen]

Another bump, but I remember that I had this thread going from a while back. Meanwhile I have found 2 solutions to the 20*20 (roughly) structure limit. Either using snap-points or creating a "lodneeded" class on every LOD. So far I have only tried lodneeded 2, which seems to allow a single structure to render past the limit in-game. Hope this info helps.

[Abs]

Another bump, but I remember that I had this thread going from a while back. Meanwhile I have found 2 solutions to the 20*20 (roughly) structure limit. Either using snap-points or creating a "lodneeded" class on every LOD. So far I have only tried lodneeded 2, which seems to allow a single structure to render past the limit in-game. Hope this info helps.

Can you explain step by step what actions you took to do this? Thanks.

Abs

[[APS]Gnat]

... render past the limit in-game....

Rendered? Sure, you can see large objects in game, but all the physics get messed up.

[ullen]

Can you explain step by step what actions you took to do this?

To do memory snap-points, you create 4 un-connected vertices in the memory LOD. Place them in each corner (or where you want your building to snap). Create a named selection for each one to match the following example: top-left = .sp_dda_A_0, top-right = .sp_dda_A_1, bottom-left = .sp_dda_V_0, bottom-right = .sp_dda_V_1. The building will snap where "A_0" meets "V_0" and the where "A_1" meets "V_1". The "dda" part, in this example, can be renamed to what you want. I hope it's not too confusing.

Rendered? Sure, you can see large objects in game, but all the physics get messed up.

Not too sure what you mean gnat, I haven't had any issues yet. Can you give a little detail?