smoke and fire are pixelated

[Kaldire]

Hello!

Dont know if this has been addressed or if its normal but all fire and smoke look just like green or red pixels, Im not sure if this is how it is supposed to look or not, but in the first scene near the docks the smoke comming out of the house is pure pixel no smoke

Lemme know!

[Yonkey]

Green and red pixels?   Could you take a screenshot of it and show us?  It sounds like it might be a video card issue.

[Petter Holmberg]

The smoke and fire are what is called particles in technical terms, i.e. they are not 3D components of the backgrounds but 2D images that are repeatedly "emitted" from a position and slowly rise into the air until they are removed after a certain amount of time. I have also noted that the rendering of particles is a bit different to the 3D components in Torque, at least in certain resolutions. I can't see why they would be so pixelated in your case, Kaldire, but it would help if you told us what resolution you run the game in and also what video card you have, as well as the screenshot. I agree with Neil that this is most probably a video card issue.

[Storm]

I know it's an old topic, but I re-played the demo again a couple of weeks ago and noticed the same issue Kaldire was talking about.
It only happens with 16bit depth, and not very noticeable on the castle torches, but you can see it clearly in this picture (I played with the camera angle a bit here, but it looks pretty much the same on the original screen).

My video adapter is RADEON X1550 64bit (or so it says).

(Posted on: 30-11-2007, 16:23:26)

Still no answer?
Look, I know this issue doesn't seem like much here, but what if this happens elsewhere in the game (I guess this isn't the last time we'll see smoke) with more serious effect?
I don't think my display adapter is that irregular... Maybe it's worth looking into.

(Posted on: 16-12-2007, 17:36:16)

P.S.
Darn, I hate it when it appendes to the previous post instead of double-posting!
It's ok when it's only a couple of minutes/hours since you last posted, but here it's been almost a month! And it should also give you some warning that it's about to append, like it does when you're trying to post on an old thread, or when there are new posts added before yours

[Yonkey]

Could you attach your console.log file?

[Storm]

Not right now, I'm at work
I'll see about that when I get home

(Posted on: 31-12-2007, 08:36:35)

Ok, here it is.
Interesting file! does it record everything I do in the game?

[Yonkey]

Interesting file! does it record everything I do in the game?

Yup!  Well, everything you click on, anyway.

Ok, comparing your file to mine you have a couple more OpenGL Extensions disabled:

OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  EXT_paletted_texture
  NV_vertex_array_range
  3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1

whereas mine just has:

OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1

I'm using an NVidia card, so that explains why the NV_vertex_array_range is disabled on yours.  My guess is it's the disabled EXT_paletted_texture that's causing the bug.  Try going to your Display driver properties and see if there's any OpenGL extension called Paletted Texture or something along those lines.

[Storm]

Ok, comparing your file to mine you have a couple more OpenGL Extensions disabled:

OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  EXT_paletted_texture
  NV_vertex_array_range
  3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1

whereas mine just has:

OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1

I'm using an NVidia card, so that explains why the NV_vertex_array_range is disabled on yours.  My guess is it's the disabled EXT_paletted_texture that's causing the bug.

So, I take it this bug doesn't occur on your computer?

Try going to your Display driver properties and see if there's any OpenGL extension called Paletted Texture or something along those lines.

There aren't any OpenGL extensions on my display driver properties. As a matter of fact, I can hardly find any OpenGL settings at all
The only OpenGL setting I could find are "triple buffering" and "Force 24-bit Z-buffer depth" on the Catalyst Control Center, and enabling them didn't make any difference

Are you sure EXT_paletted_texture is supposed to be enabled on ATI cards as well?

[Yonkey]

Nope, I don't experience the bug on my end.

I'm not 100% certain that's the problem, but it's definitely a specific video card issue since most people don't experience the problem.

The lighthouse beam itself is a .png texture with alpha transparency.  Maybe your video card doesn't support texture transparency for some reason?

[Storm]

I'm not 100% certain that's the problem, but it's definitely a specific video card issue since most people don't experience the problem.

Maybe most people don't play in 16bit color depth
This bug isn't very obvious either, you probably won't notice it (especially on the torches) unless you know what to look for. Maybe some people just ignore it.
I get the same bug when I play the demo on my computer at work, which has an on-board video card:
  Card name: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
  Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
  Display Memory: 128.0 MB

But the console.log file says:

OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  EXT_paletted_texture
  NV_vertex_array_range
  WGL_EXT_swap_control

So I can't really rule out the disabled EXT_paletted_texture extension as the cause of this bug. However, I also tried playing with the OpenGL settings here and that didn't help either

The lighthouse beam itself is a .png texture with alpha transparency.  Maybe your video card doesn't support texture transparency for some reason?

The lighthouse beam shows up fine, as you can see in the attached pic. It was taken on my computer at work at 640X480 resolution.
I don't think it has to do with my video card not supporting something, since the smoke looks fine when I switch to 32bit color depth - can the video card support something at 32bit but not at 16bit?

[Yonkey]

Oops, sorry.  I was looking at the wrong texture.  I just checked the smoke texture and it uses a .png with alpha transparency as well, so I guess that's not the problem.

If it's appearing only during smoke & fire, then it has something to do with Torque particles.  Does the rain show up pixelated as well for you?

That's interesting about the colour depth... I play the game at 32-bit, but according to your console.log you attached, it says you're playing it at 32-bit.


EDIT: Ok, I just tested the game now, running in 16-bit colour and I'm experiencing the same bug with fire & smoke.  So, it seems like it's not the video card.  You must play the game in 32-bit colour.

[Storm]

Well, at least now I know there's nothing wrong with my new video card

Maybe you should set the game's default to 32bit (I think it started out at 16bit when I installed it last time). Is there any reason people would need to play at 16bit?

That's interesting about the colour depth... I play the game at 32-bit, but according to your console.log you attached, it says you're playing it at 32-bit.

Hmmm, I don't know why it says that. Could it be because I switched modes during the game?

[Yonkey]

I think the game defaults to whatever your display is set to.  Of course, if your display is set to 16-bit, the game isn't going to be able to switch to 32-bit (I tried ).  So really, there's no point in even having that box there.  In fact... *deletes dropdown from latest build*

There isn't really any reason people would need to play at 16-bit.  I mean, in theory less colours would mean less processing for your graphic card to do, but it didn't seem to have any performance boost on my machine.

I'm not sure why it said x32 in your console.log file.

[Yonkey]

Just to give an update here -- we recently discovered that the particles are 24-bit, so anyone playing the game with their display set to 16-bit colour will see them as pixelated.  Anyone playing the game in 32-bit colour will not.