Problem Pluto and Moons add on

[bcbarnes]

Using Orbiter2016. I downloaded and installed the 'Pluto and Moons' add on. I see that Pluto and Charon look great.

I noticed in the config files that Pluto and Charon had 'MaxPatchResolution = 8' while Nix and hydra had 'MaxPatchResolution = 0'. With these setting Nix and Hydra existed but appeared to be tiny dots that I couldn't zoom in to. I changed the Nix and Hydra config files to 'MaxPatchResolution = 8', and now I can see spherical black bodies. A step in the right direction

Using Windows 10 pro, d3d9client, radeon 8600/8700M video w/ 1Gb video ram, 16Gb main memory. Toyed with all the 'advanced' video settings but got nowhere. Anybody else see this? Any known solution?

Brian

 

[Face]

Using Orbiter2016. I downloaded and installed the 'Pluto and Moons' add on. I see that Pluto and Charon look great.

I noticed in the config files that Pluto and Charon had 'MaxPatchResolution = 8' while Nix and hydra had 'MaxPatchResolution = 0'. With these setting Nix and Hydra existed but appeared to be tiny dots that I couldn't zoom in to. I changed the Nix and Hydra config files to 'MaxPatchResolution = 8', and now I can see spherical black bodies. A step in the right direction

Using Windows 10 pro, d3d9client, radeon 8600/8700M video w/ 1Gb video ram, 16Gb main memory. Toyed with all the 'advanced' video settings but got nowhere. Anybody else see this? Any known solution?

AFAIK, old gbody addons often used meshes for tiny bodies. The usual sphere-texture mechanism was then disabled. Can you give us a link to the addon?

---------- Post added at 09:20 ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 ----------

Yeah, it is the mesh-for-planet feature that gets activated with patch resolution zero. If you compare 2010 with 2016, you'll find that the stock Phobos definition has changed. I suppose Martin dropped that feature entirely, so old addons using it won't work anymore.

 

[BrianJ]

I suppose Martin dropped that feature entirely, so old addons using it won't work anymore.

I'm not sure that's correct. Orbiter2016 still has Deimos and Phobos meshes, and they are visible if you set MaxPatchResolution = 0 .

@bcbarnes - If you can give us a link to the add-on you're using, it would be easier to diagnose the problem.

Check in your Meshes folder, confirm you have:
nix.msh
hydra.msh

If you can load one of the meshes into ShipEdit.exe (in /Orbitersdk/Utils folder) you can check it is scaled correctly by looking at the "BoundingBox" values - they should all be roughly 1 (or -1).

NOTE:The version of D3D9 Graphics Client I'm using, handles planet meshes differently - the mesh should be the actual size of the planet - BoundingBox values will be much larger

Cheers,
BrianJ

 

[bcbarnes]

Here is the link: https://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4595

The bounding box values for Hydra.msh: [-1.09 -0.80 -1.22][1.09 0.80 1.22]

>>NOTE:The version of D3D9 Graphics Client I'm using, handles planet meshes differently

Is it possible that I also have this version of D3D9? Mine is reported as R2.1, Jul 5 2017

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

 

[BrianJ]

Here is the link: https://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4595

The bounding box values for Hydra.msh: [-1.09 -0.80 -1.22][1.09 0.80 1.22]

>>NOTE:The version of D3D9 Graphics Client I'm using, handles planet meshes differently

Is it possible that I also have this version of D3D9? Mine is reported as R2.1, Jul 5 2017

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

I think that's the same D3D9 version as mine.

I think the add-on should work if you use Orbiter2016 default rendering(you could check).

If you want to use D3D9 Graphics Client, you could try scaling-up the mesh using ShipEdit.exe. You need to scale by the "Size" parameter in the .cfg file (for Nix that's 39779) ShipEdit.exe: Load mesh file -> Transform -> Scale (set X,Y,Z to 39779)-> Save mesh file

NOTE: I just tried scaling Deimos mesh for D3D9 and it does work but ShipEdit.exe has messed up the surface texture mapping a bit (maybe a different scaling method is better?)

Cheers,
Brian

 

[Face]

Wouldn't that be a bug in D3D9Client then? IMHO it should not need modifications of addons to make basic functionality like proper size rendering work in OVP clients.

---------- Post added at 20:26 ---------- Previous post was at 20:13 ----------

I can confirm that it works in 2016 stock engine with patch resolution zero for Phobos. In D3D9Client for 2016 R1, it does not.

 

[BrianJ]

Wouldn't that be a bug in D3D9Client then? IMHO it should not need modifications of addons to make basic functionality like proper size rendering work in OVP clients.

I tend to agree (not complaining about D3D9Client though) but it will disable quite a few add-ons.
I did make a note here https://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=561403&postcount=4384

 

[Face]

I tend to agree (not complaining about D3D9Client though) but it will disable quite a few add-ons.

I don't understand that. Sounds like fixing this bug would break addons? Not fixing it is obviously breaking addons, too, as we can see here.

If there are addons that exploited this bug somehow, how do you weigh them against "normal" addons that work fine in stock Orbiter, but not in one OVP client due to that bug? This here would be such a case.

 

[BrianJ]

I don't understand that.

Apologies for bad punctuation and wording.

I agree it would be better if D3D9Client handled planet meshes the same way as Orbiter2016 default renderer.

 

[bcbarnes]

The default renderer had no problems, so I tried scaling up the two meshes using ShipEdit and that has solved the problem.

Thanks to both of you for your time and effort

 

[Face]

Apologies for bad punctuation and wording.

I agree it would be better if D3D9Client handled planet meshes the same way as Orbiter2016 default renderer.

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like your input got missed somehow in the D3D9Client development thread. I've checked the code, and it seems like the D3D9 uses the same approach to this feature as Martin's example D3D7 does, so it was not oversight or somesuch. I'll look into it and perhaps submit a patch if I can do anything about it.