anyone having reoccuring instance problems

This problem just doesn't want to go away. New scene same problem .

This time it's instanced arched screwing things up. At some point things go wrong and instances simply stop working, usualy after 2-5 instances of the same object. Things stop showing up in the ogre viewport at all, or some weird corruption occurs, like non existent box shapes replace the instances.

Seems to me that instances are really unreliable here to the point that I'm starting to feel that I can't be productive

Anyone else having problems?.

Just uninstalled 3dsmax, deleted everything, reinstalled max and ofusion on its own. Still the same problem.

Here's a scene 17k download, with the original offending arch object and a few instances, and a regular sphere primitive with a instance.

None of the instances show up at all here.

http://s93153354.onlinehome.us/Arches01.zip

This version is supplied for beta testing purposes only, do not distribute this documentation.
So I've only swiched briefly to an ogre view just before export, to check lights and materials

Although your scene worked fine for me, I have notice similar problems myself, however I've been unable to find a way re reliably reproduce them for a bug report...

I see 4 arches, 2 spheres on a plane and a directional light in your scene is this right?

yeah that is right, hmmm... all I have left to do is reinstalling windows which seems a bit drastic when this is the only problem I have, and Max has always been surprisingly predictable for quite some time.

No problems with instances in B3D pipeline either, which is the only engine exporter comparable to Ofusion I have.

UPDATE:

Ok, it seems like things get corrupted after a while whilst max is running. If I get rid of the ogre viewport. Save, and reload the instances work when I next open a ogreview. have to rinse and repeat as the problems surface again after a while.

I'm going to have to see how this effects the exported results, does the exporter export whats in the Max scene itself, or whats visible in Ogre? it just seems odd that when the viewport goes wrong, the results in the OSM match the ogre viewport rather than what max displays.

I will send to you an updated version, and we can track the propblem if its still present there

In our test, instances work correctly, but several fixes and improvements has been made to the instance system since the last CE version

thanks Lioric that would be useful indeed

yes I've had some problems. Not sure if it was instance/copy or reference, one of those caused crashes I think.

a previously okay max file is now behaving very badly with all the objects in the wrong places and wrong rotations!

Everthing looks okay in a normal 3ds view, but when switching a camera to ogre view the objects look in the wrong places (stay in place in 3 plan windows)

a previously okay max file is now behaving very badly with all the objects in the wrong places and wrong rotations!

Everthing looks okay in a normal 3ds view, but when switching a camera to ogre view the objects look in the wrong places (stay in place in 3 plan windows)

Tried a "Reset Xform" already?

some engines like Blitz3D which Chris is more familiar with don't require you to reset the transforms before export. So chances are he didn't know about it.

It's probably the one most frustrating thing with working with max>ofusion>ogre if your used to other engines that manage to maintain the local transforms of child meshes relative to their parents in the scene.

Having to reset transforms all the time means you lose the benefits of keeping your modifier stack and being able to work more efficiently with many things.

Not sure if its a shortcoming of ogre or ofusion, but it is a big inconvenience for a max based level editing tool.

The "reset xform" will be under review in the next queue

any news on the updated instances fix?

Look forward to getting that sorted out.

well to be honest I think max is nuts how you take an object 100 units big, scale it to anything and it's still 100 units in properties until you xform, so I don't blam oFusion for the contant resetXformness

Vectrex, its not always like that. The B3D pipeline only needs reset xforms for certain types of mirroring techniques. It's quite possible to build levels without ever using reset xform, and scaling, rotating, and instancing to your hearts content.

I did get to test a custom build of ofusion, I can't use it for work since its not 100% compatible with CE version but it fixed a ton of problems, including my instances, some scale issues I was having with animation and some other things. Takes a lot of the pain away.

Even the line spacing tool that places instances along a path worked great, where before it screwed up incredibly badly.



Looking forward to the next update, the changes in the test version makes world of difference

I'm still having some niggles with the new test version. Sometimes the instanced don't work well if you create a large number at once in an array. You still have to restart max after saving to see them.

Doesn't happen with most things, and overall its MUCH MUCH more useable.

One problem I'm having with the test version is fairly frequent lockups when I get in close. Havent been able to determine if its an ofusion or max problem so far.

Generaly speaking, Ofusion is much more useable though, and the viewports are a lot more WYSIWYG where transforms are concerned. You need use reset Xform far less frequently, and things like scaling and transform animation are a lot more predictable now.

Look forward to seeing a new version of ofusion soon .

Send me the scene(s) where you are still having this issue, or a test scene where this can be reproduced

Are the lockups present when using instanced geometry only?
do you have the "AutoMesh Update" option enabled?

hi lioric, the lock ups are not instance related. seem to be when I have the stencil modulative shadows on and automesh update. There seems to be a patern somewhere in how I'm using max that does it. I just have to figure out what it is.

With the many instances not working, I'll have to set up a scene in which you will have to follow the last steps to actualy create the instances, this is because the scene loads and displays the instances just fine if you load the scene after saving and restarting Max.

the test build you sent was MUCH. MUCH more stable on several different levels, so a thumbs up there.

What is the polygon count of the loockup scenes when using the stencil shadow?

The steps to reproduce the instances issue will be good, additionally i will make more test with them

Is this related to certain number of instances? or is present with a few instances too?

I havent had any problems when selecting a few meshes or existing meshes. The problem seems to happen when I use some kind of multi instance duplication, like arrays or use the spacing tools with a large number created at once..

Its a bit unpredictable in that:

A) the first time it often works fine.

B) if you undo it and start over often the instances dont show up till you restart and load your scene again.

C) if you undo, and then change your object you are instancing, sometimes the original object that you had undone gets instanced again.

Here's a sample scene with 2 seperate objects so you can test the above things. I usualy have all the viewport autoupdate settings checked, and do a ofusion/update(global) after each creation process.

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Here's the test scene, where I use the spacing tool to create instances. If your not familiar with the tool, its in the last icon of the extras toolbar which has multiple array type options to choose from.


http://s93153354.onlinehome.us/instances.zip

You may have to try 3 or 4 times before it starts to play up and not refresh the instances in the ogre viewports.

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Lockups update.

I've looked at the shadows with some care, I noticed that when I came up close the shadows woudl corrupt, and it was because I had too many open edges where the light that was casting the shadows were intersecting. Till I moved up close inside the scene the shadows looked fine, and since fixing the mesh its no longer locking up.

So for the minute I'm inclined to think its not an ofusion problem.