This is getting frustrating! Blue snow? The heck?!

temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
This is starting to piss me off. This morning I started a new map and I'm currently working with 1 large displacement (destroyed cube set to the power of 4) to create a large large floating island. The displacement is done and works great. I notice however that *only* when trying to use the new textures from Viaduct I get some bizarre errors.

This happens specifically with "/nature/blendrockgroundwallsnow" and is sadly the only good blend texture I can find for this project.

Does anyone have idea what is causing this error and maybe how to fix it? Nothing comes up when I hit alt+p

floatingisland30000.jpg
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
"Blue Snow"?
Obviously you put your mountain under a major airline route...

But seriously, I don't know, although I do know some folks have had crashing problems with power-of-four displacements. If you change it to a lower power (maybe slice it into separate displacements each of a of lower power) does the problem still occur?
 

mtv22

L3: Member
Feb 28, 2009
116
22
Well look on the bright side, that's a nice mountain, something I could never accomplish.
 

benbrooks

L1: Registered
Jul 25, 2009
4
0
Power of 4 displacements don't tend to play nice with the orange box engine. Try power of 3 ones and if it's not detailed enough, split the displacement into 2, and have both power of 3.
 

temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
Building cube maps didn't help. :(

Can i lower the power without destroying the displacement? Or .. if possible.. unsew the 6 faces?
 

benbrooks

L1: Registered
Jul 25, 2009
4
0
In the displacement tab there is a box to change your power level, Although, I think this will unsew things slightly.
 

lucky

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
May 25, 2009
583
145
Yes but after changing powers you can sew them back up easily enough
 

temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
Well I lowered the power to 3 and I still get blue snow. This is feeling hopeless! :(

floatingisland30000.jpg
 

lucky

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
May 25, 2009
583
145
did you link the cubemap directly to the displacement face? I have no idea if that will help
 

re1wind

aa
Aug 12, 2009
644
588
Doesn't really look like a cubemap issue. missing cubemap textures are the purple/black checkers, which this isn't. Part of the snow is normal, part of it turns light purple. If it were a cubemap issue, then all the snow would have a purple/black checker pattern.

Looks like a shader issue limited to the snow texture. Opening up the material's vmt, and with appropriate shader-parameter-knowledge someone could help you to figure out what's going on.

I'm also tempted to say that it's a lightmap issue if it were not for the snow texture only being affected.

Check viaduct's light & environment settings (via the decompiled maps, which are here somewhere...) copy them into your map, compile, and see if that helps at all.
 
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temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
I'm lost, i'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for in viaduct's entities. Perhaps someone can just take a peak at this in hammer and see.. maybe it is something obvious I am overlooking. :(
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Does the blue color happen correspond to whatever you have set for your fog controller?
 
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temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
Does the blue color happen correspond to whatever you have set for your fog controller?

It is close, however removing the fog controller entirely doesn't fix anything. :bored:

edit: and after testing the fog controller at random colors, i still get the same blue snow.
 
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Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Maybe it's reacting to shadow_control? Dunno.

Long shot: Are you compiling with super-duper lighting quality? Cordon it off with the relevant lighting/fog entities and then pass -textureshadows -StaticPropPolys -StaticPropLighting to VRAD.
 
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temion

L2: Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
77
4
Is that the color of your ambient lighting? Is that part of the mountian in shadows?

It is. However, the shadows aren't following the form of the displacement but appear to be following the form of the original cube. I mean, if this can be solved by simply separating the faces from each other while still maintaining the shape of the displacements, then I'm all for it. However, I don't know how to break apart my displacement this way since this entire mountain is 1 brush. :confused:
 

lucky

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
May 25, 2009
583
145
Use the clipping tool, you draw the line where you want to cut and use shift+x to change which part you want to discard (a/b/neither)