Various maps that come with Nexuiz 2.0 have a problem on this system with having hairline cracks. The cracks look like single-pixel dots or sometimes lines which quickly move or become invisible when I move or change the direction I am looking. Since they come in and out so quickly, they flicker and are distracting.

These cracks are most commonly visible at the edge of a curved surface in the map. For example, many of the rounded corners in the map Downer have this issue. One place where this is very visible is the rounded wood ceiling next to the 4 mini-healths near the rocket launcher. I see these spots very clearly when I look up at this rounded corner. I've seen this on two different computer systems and can not make the hairline cracks go away with any of the available video settings.

The chipset on this system is an Ati Radeon X300 SE 128mb HyperMemory.

- Sam

Duno never tried before try gl_parnoid and gl_errorreport something maybe that can show some stuff up ? (Never tried it before though)

That could be z-fighting. Someone had a similar problem before when running in 16bpp.

The zfighting with 16 bbp occur if the graphic drivers take the bpp also for the zbuffer.. using 32 bit is better, or some drivers allow to force the zbuffer to 32 bit.

I don't thin it's z-fighting. I run Nexuiz in 32-bit mode; I tried running it in 16-bit mode but that didn't help.

I think it's an error in the maps. I notice that Maik Merten's maps always have this problem; in fact, the only map not made by Merten with this problem is Skyway. Farwell, which also has a lot of curved textures, does not have the problem at all. It looks like Merten may have a graphics card/video driver setup which makes him unable to see these "sparklies" which I can easily see on my setup.

I'll probably have to use gtkradient to make the .map files from the offending bsp's and slightly resize the offending slightly misaligned brushes.

- Sam

Hm do you mean probably this:
www.dxx-rebirth.de/files/div/
?

I just saw this yesterday and was reminded on that thread.

Known bug with maps that are compiled with q3map2 and -patchmeta.

It's on our radar, thanks for reporting.

edit: actually I seem to have placed this answer in the wrong thread... hooray

Actually, here is what I'm seeing: http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000001.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000002.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000003.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000004.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000006.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000007.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000008.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000009.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000010.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000011.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000012.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000013.jpg
http://www.samiam.org/nexuiz/nexuiz000014.jpg

And, oh, thanks for all of the great work!

(Edit: Removed misaligned texture which is a separate issue)


- Sam

Zico wrote:Hm do you mean probably this:
www.dxx-rebirth.de/files/div/
?

I just saw this yesterday and was reminded on that thread.

Nope; the issue you're seeing can be worked around by disabling "realtime world lights". What I'm seeing can't be worked around at all.

- Sam

After seeing those pictures i think its a driver problem. Can you see if there is an update available? Do other games for fine? You might try (in the console - open it with shift escape) gl_combine 0 and/or gl_lockarrays 0
Hmm it might be that vid_restart is needed after those changes..

Nope, that doesn't fix it. Setting gl_lockarrays to zero doesn't fix it. Setting gl_combine to zero doesn't fix it. It's still broken after vid_restart. I just downloaded and updated the drivers--that doesn't fix it. Resetting the anti-aliasing doesn't fix it.

I don't play many 3d games, but, no, I haven't seen this with the other 3d game I have played, jdoom (doomsday).

I'm still convinced it's the maps; Some maps with curves *do not* have this problem, while others do.

That said, my next step in troubleshooting this is to see if I can recreate this on other computers (I know at leat one other computer has this problem). I'll list the drivers and chipset for other computers that have the same problem.

If I find a computer without the problem, I'll list its driver and chipset.

Having something in the support database that says "This is a known issue with the XXX driver/chipset; since no developers have this driver/chipset combo, we can not help you resolve this issue. Donations are appreciated" will certaintly makes things better for the next user that sees this.

- Sam

Well i'm rather sure its NOT the maps as i do not have this problem and its also the first time it was mentioned so i guess noone else has it too. Those problems are very visible so it would have been reported earlier

Suppose you are using windows. Is there any difference in using nexuiz.exe vs nexuiz-sdl.exe?

samiam wrote:Having something in the support database that says "This is a known issue with the XXX driver/chipset; since no developers have this driver/chipset combo, we can not help you resolve this issue. Donations are appreciated" will certaintly makes things better for the next user that sees this.

For this we first have to make sure its the driver/chipset or maybe something else afterall

esteel wrote:Well i'm rather sure its NOT the maps as i do not have this problem and its also the first time it was mentioned so i guess noone else has it too. Those problems are very visible so it would have been reported earlier

I essentially didn't see the problem on another computer, so I'll say it is the chipset. My theory now is that, when brushes are almost but not quite aligned, it looks OK on most chipsets, but looks really bad on my chipset.

I don't think this is an issue that's going to get resolved by LordHavoc; his general answer to "I'm using an ATI card and have this problem" is "Get a NVidia card".

- Sam

samiam wrote:I essentially didn't see the problem on another computer, so I'll say it is the chipset.
My theory now is that, when brushes are almost but not quite aligned, it looks OK on most chipsets, but looks really bad on my chipset. I don't think this is an issue that's going to get resolved by LordHavoc; his general answer to "I'm using an ATI card and have this problem" is "Get a NVidia card".

It might be a chipset problem but drivers are also very important. I'm not sure that a database is worth the work. Such a thing needs updating and the team does not have access to all those cards to test it. And you are the first to report such a problem

Brushes have to be aligned or you get a leak. I think you are unfair to LordHavoc, he is doing a great job maintaining the engine in his free time and fixing bugs. Most of the time he is right with his tips . But SUCH A BUG would have been noticed much much earlier if it were indeed a map or engine bug.