TSStatic Crashes

[DirtNastyGC8]

As outlined in my topic here:

http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/143932

I've been having a strange issue when converting my staticShape based prop spawning to tsstatic as part of an upgrade to PhysX.

When I try to spawn a TSStatic with a collision mesh I get instant CTD. However without collisions everything proceeds as usual. A problem with my collisions perhaps? Well not quite because I use tsstatic terrain props with collision and they work just fine. Only now that I try to spawn my previously working StaticShapes as TSStatic does the game crash.

TLDR: It seems like any model that was once a working static shape with collisions is now a tsstatic that will crash the game instantly.

More info can be found in my old topic: http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/143932

Here are my shapes in ms3d and dts format: https://hostr.co/n6ltxWhslddA

[Jason Campbell]

Not a big help but I noticed that your collision in your corner shape is not named correctly. Perhaps the reason why it doesn't crash is because the collision isn't there. Doesn't help with why your other perfectly fine shapes are crashing with perfectly fine collision.

[DirtNastyGC8]

oh yea, corner didn't have collision to begin with. I thought I had done it that way on purpose. Maby I forgot to name it, been awhile since I modeled all that. :P

[LoLJester]

I would start by making sure that all shapes have a simple collision box. If no crash, then you know that the collisions are the culprit.

Also, I believe that all LODs have to be named the same to work correctly (i.e: mesh 100; mesh 0;)

[Duion]

Even broken models should not cause a crash, when something is wrong, the engine will simply not load it, but still load the model, even if it is empty.

Can you provide the source files, in collada or blender format? I don't know what ms3d is.

[LoLJester]

Sometimes shapes added to the scene as TSStatic with 'Visible Mesh' selected as collision will cause a crash.

ms3d is Milkshape 3D. It has a very good DTS exporter (probably the best.)

[Duion]

I use visible mesh collision a lot and never had a crash. I don't know about Milkshape3D, but I would guess the problem lies either in that program or in the DTS exporter.

I use Blender for modeling, export to .dae and then use Torque3D to convert to .dts, perhaps not an ideal workflow, but it works and I never had issues with that.

So it may be worth a try to use a different program or different format and still see if the problem exists. If I can get a version I can import in Blender, I would take a look at the model.

[DirtNastyGC8]

plot thickens... I took duion's advice and export as collada.dae and use the engine to convert. I select trailing number for LODs because that's the way milkshape's .dts exporter sorts LODs (left detail size at 2, not sure what this does yet) Otherwise everything was left default when loading in the shape.

And what do you know, it works! however, it's 10 times too large, since the DTS exporter I use had a scale option I had set to .1. No big deal right? Scaled the model to .1 in milkshape and export as collada. Crash. What the hell lol?

Here are the models in collada.dae format. Only difference is SmallyMcWally has been scaled to .1

https://hostr.co/jRX89rG8Nk56

EDIT: do you guys still use the blender 2.49b .dts exporter or one like this? https://github.com/qoh/io_scene_dts

Edited June 28, 2019 by DirtNastyGC8

[Happenstance]

Which version of T3D are you using? I just tested both meshes using the latest development build and had no issues.

[LoLJester]

You're right Duion, DAE is most of the time the way to go. But, sometimes there are features that only work with DTS. That's the only time I export to DTS.

[DirtNastyGC8]

Torque3D-Release_3_10_1

with physx 3.4 using this as a guide: https://forums.torque3d.org/viewtopic.php?t=1163

[Duion]

@DirtNastyGC8

I looked at the model and its pretty bad setup, you should delete everything except the mesh100 version and use visible mesh as collision and build using metric system and everything is just fine also don't bother with naming conventions, you do not need to add any number to the mesh.

For such objects it is perfectly fine to just have one mesh in the whole file, collision meshes and LOD levels are meant for complex shapes, what you have with 150 polygons or so is almost nothing.

What feature is there that only works with DTS?

[DirtNastyGC8]

I don't need it to be .dts for any reason these are purly static. As with the lods, I plan to have quite a lot of these and similar structures on screen at times, as I'm going for a "sandbox" experience. I want to save as many resources as possible. So visible collision just takes the visible part of the shape and creates collision around that? how do I apply that to my shape?

If it's any consolation, here is a working model made in the exact way I've been making props.

https://hostr.co/59tckNifekS7

[DirtNastyGC8]

Ok wow. I've been living under a rock. Visible mesh collision is pretty badass, Is there a notable performance impact? I mean in my current setup LODs work just fine, only when collision gets involved is there ever a problem. This could be a solution for me.

Is there a way I can still include parts of a model that don't have collision?

What is "build using metric system"? As like the scaling for my models?

[Duion]

Yes you are thinking far too complicated, just model it and done, don't bother with LOD or collisionmeshes.

LOD levels and collisionmeshes are meant for complex shapes like a player model that have thousands of polygons.

I think with models up to a few hundred polygons there is no noticeable performance problem with using no LOD levels and no collisionmshes, you have to consider that LOD levels and collisionmeshes also take some resources and you will see the LOD levels popping, which is ugly and you may notice the incorrect collision from too rough collisionmeshes.

If you want parts of the model have no collision, either make another model, or use the lazy method of just dublicating the model and delete what you don't want to have collision and call that whole thing collisionmesh.

Using metric system means, you model using metric system, where 1 unit is 1 meter, since Torque also uses metric system.

[DirtNastyGC8]

You guys are the bomb. Thanks a bunch to Duion and Azaezl from the discord for the knowledge. I've got some work to do now :)