Drawing limit

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Rikia
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Drawing limit

Post by Rikia »

Hey guys, I'm making a big map and have a drawing limit.
I'm sorry if this is not right place to post things about Unreal 1, but I'm too hurry for waiting answers on OldUnreal forums.

You can see it when you walk on the borders of map. It looks like a hole that changes it's size when you walk against or to it, and it can be complete black or full of graphic glitches. I thought that this drawing limit is normal for a 1998 engine, but once I understood that it is not normal, because when I tried my map on my friend's computer I found that there wasn't that drawing limit.
Is there an option supposed to change the drawing limit?
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Note: That's not BSP holes.

Unreal 227i patch only.

And also, how to add fog to the skybox? I'm doing a night city map with fog and bright buildings in skybox spoil the view of it. The ZoneInfo actor with fog options doesn't work in skybox.
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Barbie
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by Barbie »

Rikia wrote: Thu Jan 07, 2021 1:14 pmHey guys, I'm making a big map and have a drawing limit.
The engine does not support views to things beyond 32768 UU (32 k).
"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." --Terry Pratchett
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anth
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by anth »

The view distance is controlled by the renderer. Some renderers support view distances of up to 65k UU.
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Rikia
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by Rikia »

anth wrote: Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:18 pm The view distance is controlled by the renderer. Some renderers support view distances of up to 65k UU.
Okay, the question is solved.
I'm currently seeking the idea how to get fog in skybox.

EDIT: The Unreal Wiki and Internet has no any info about fog in skybox or a proper imitation of it. Please guys, just give me the idea and this topic can be useful for other mappers.
Last edited by Rikia on Fri Jan 08, 2021 6:18 pm, edited 3 times in total.
sn260591
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by sn260591 »

Barbie wrote: Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:15 pmThe engine does not support views to things beyond 32768 UU (32 k).
Not true, for software renderer the drawing distance is limited only by the maximum brush size.
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Barbie
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by Barbie »

sn260591 wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:25 pm
Barbie wrote: Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:15 pmThe engine does not support views to things beyond 32768 UU (32 k).
Not true, for software renderer the drawing distance is limited only by the maximum brush size.
Ok, let's correct my statement: in my experiments views above 32 k UU were not possible.
"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." --Terry Pratchett
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by Myth »

Draw distance depends on the renderers Z-Buffer, there is not much you can control inside the map, tell people to update their renderers. They might listen.
- Software Renderer is so awesome it doesn't need a Z-Buffer, so it does not have this limitation, theoretically it can have polygons stretching off til infinity.
- The original hardware accelerated renderers have a limited Z-Buffer, you might get things clipped off in a huge map, though you should see the sky-box there instead of an empty hole, that's if you have a skybox, I recommend having one
- Updated renders have higher precision & range Z-Buffers so practically it would take maps larger than what's possible in UT99 to get to that limit, using updated renderes is the best option here.

So what I recommend would be to use a skybox in huge maps like that, so even if it's not drawn, you get the skybox instead of an ugly hole.

Fog is only supported on top of lightmapped surfaces, and it doesn't mix well with the skybox. You get fog by enabling some fog flags in the light settings. I recommend against using fog in open areas, fog can be quite performance intensive, most people disable it because of performance reasons. It should only be used for subtle atmospheric touches. If you really really want fog in your level, tick the low and high quality shadows in surface properties to get ultra low quality shadows, this will lessen the performance impact of fog.

You can just make the skybox darker, fog is only useful if you can move through it. Delete the bright windows from the skybox, if it's real fog you want then your skybox should be a solid fog color. See https://unsplash.com/photos/37ZuGYD3JOk There is no sky to see when there is fog.

For dark level you should use the lights strategically to only light up what's needed in the level. I find the standard city building windows to be waaaaay tooooo bright I usually enable lighting for them and add a few dim lights to barely light them up, maybe add a few local lights to a few windows for some highlights, but if it's fog you want to emulate, a better effect would be to not have lights at all, just some faint building silhouettes.
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Rikia
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Re: Drawing limit

Post by Rikia »

Myth wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:32 pm Fog is only supported on top of lightmapped surfaces, and it doesn't mix well with the skybox. You get fog by enabling some fog flags in the light settings. I recommend against using fog in open areas, fog can be quite performance intensive, most people disable it because of performance reasons. It should only be used for subtle atmospheric touches. If you really really want fog in your level, tick the low and high quality shadows in surface properties to get ultra low quality shadows, this will lessen the performance impact of fog.

You can just make the skybox darker, fog is only useful if you can move through it. Delete the bright windows from the skybox, if it's real fog you want then your skybox should be a solid fog color. See https://unsplash.com/photos/37ZuGYD3JOk There is no sky to see when there is fog.

For dark level you should use the lights strategically to only light up what's needed in the level. I find the standard city building windows to be waaaaay tooooo bright I usually enable lighting for them and add a few dim lights to barely light them up, maybe add a few local lights to a few windows for some highlights, but if it's fog you want to emulate, a better effect would be to not have lights at all, just some faint building silhouettes.
I thought that there's is more simple and correct way to make skybox darker by the default actors, but there isn't.
So you recommended me to make buildings darker, then I chose the simplest possible solution of the problem by the making new darker textures.
Myth wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:32 pm I find the standard city building windows to be waaaaay tooooo bright I usually enable lighting for them and add a few dim lights to barely light them up, maybe add a few local lights to a few windows for some highlights, but if it's fog you want to emulate, a better effect would be to not have lights at all, just some faint building silhouettes.
I did not experiment with lighting, because I wanted to save the lighting of clouds.
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Thank you for your advices.
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