PolyVox as Terrain builder

David Williams · **Joined:** Sun May 04, 2008 6:35 pm **Posts:** 1827

[WuTz]! wrote:

Good news: I built it in and found no real problems so far! Just one thing: The GetVoxelAt() implementation complained about the parameter you removed, so I had to fix this in you code.
Now it works fine.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? Maybe post the code that you changed? PolyVox uses a lot of templates (maybe less in the future) and one of the problems with templatized code is that it is not compiled unless you actually call it. Not sure of the exact rules, but it means compile errors can slip through...

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Here's a small volume for you...

Ok, I fixed the bug :-)

You can down load a new release from http://www.thermite3d.org/temp/PolyVox-rev1216.zip

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In our private forum you can't simply register (I think), and I never had to create an account for someone yet. A teammate did that whenever we needed a new one. I'll ask him when he comes online.

No problem, just let me know when it works. I'm already registered on ModDB as 'PolyVox'.

[WuTz]! · **Joined:** Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:52 pm **Posts:** 37

Quote:

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? Maybe post the code that you changed? PolyVox uses a lot of templates (maybe less in the future) and one of the problems with templatized code is that it is not compiled unless you actually call it. Not sure of the exact rules, but it means compile errors can slip through...

Here, from Voxel.inl:

Code:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    /// \param v3dPos the 3D position of the voxel
    /// \param tDefault the voxel to be returned if the requested position is outside the volume
    /// \return the voxel value
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    template <typename VoxelType>
    VoxelType Volume<VoxelType>::getVoxelAt(const Vector3DUint16& v3dPos, VoxelType tDefault) const
    {
        return getVoxelAt(v3dPos.getX(), v3dPos.getY(), v3dPos.getZ()/*, tDefault*/);
    }
    #pragma endregion    

I had to comment out the ",tDefault" to make it working.

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Ok, I fixed the bug

Nice to hear that!

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No problem, just let me know when it works. I'm already registered on ModDB as 'PolyVox'.

Our Forum has nothing to do with ModDB. We have a private one, hosted on a server of a teammate. But I just realized, that
it is completely senseless to give you an Account for this Forum, as it will close in a few weeks, and no one of us writes postings
on it because of this. There is a reason for this, though. We are moving. But as the new forum isn't finished yet, we can't use it now.
Our Web-"Manager" ( Still don't know the right job description for him :/ ) is still coding on it.

However, I will send you a binary of [w]tech in the next days. Currently I have to fix a wired issue:
-The less pixels get shaded, the worse the performance get.
This only happens with the deferred renderer of the terrain, and only when I use triplanar texturing.
If you can live with the bad performance (Shouldn't be too bad on your computer, I get 20FPS on mine with an old Nvidia GF8400 when I'm far away) I can send it to you.

It would also be good then if we could meet on some instant messaging service, just because it is easier to explain the engine then. There are a few nitpicks here and there, as well as things that are a bit confusing. And I think you shouldn't be able to figure out our a bit special HLSL functions

I can be found on ICQ(Mostly), AIM, MSN (I think so..), IRC, and Facebook. If you are using something different, okay, no problem.
If you aren't using any you may are good at creating an Account somewhere (ICQ would be great then). I'll email you my contact information then.

David Williams · **Joined:** Sun May 04, 2008 6:35 pm **Posts:** 1827

[WuTz]! wrote:

Here, from Voxel.inl:

Code:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    /// \param v3dPos the 3D position of the voxel
    /// \param tDefault the voxel to be returned if the requested position is outside the volume
    /// \return the voxel value
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    template <typename VoxelType>
    VoxelType Volume<VoxelType>::getVoxelAt(const Vector3DUint16& v3dPos, VoxelType tDefault) const
    {
        return getVoxelAt(v3dPos.getX(), v3dPos.getY(), v3dPos.getZ()/*, tDefault*/);
    }
    #pragma endregion    

I had to comment out the ",tDefault" to make it working.

That's strange - I don't find any reference to 'tDefault' in the latest version of my code. And my function definition doesn't look like the one you posted. Are you sure you copied all the files across? Or did I make a mistake with the upload?

[WuTz]! wrote:

Quote:

Ok, I fixed the bug

Nice to hear that!

Can you confirm the bug is fixed? I'm still wondering if you got the right version of the code...

[WuTz]! wrote:

However, I will send you a binary of [w]tech in the next days. Currently I have to fix a wired issue:
-The less pixels get shaded, the worse the performance get.
This only happens with the deferred renderer of the terrain, and only when I use triplanar texturing.
If you can live with the bad performance (Shouldn't be too bad on your computer, I get 20FPS on mine with an old Nvidia GF8400 when I'm far away) I can send it to you.

It would also be good then if we could meet on some instant messaging service, just because it is easier to explain the engine then. There are a few nitpicks here and there, as well as things that are a bit confusing. And I think you shouldn't be able to figure out our a bit special HLSL functions

I can be found on ICQ(Mostly), AIM, MSN (I think so..), IRC, and Facebook. If you are using something different, okay, no problem.
If you aren't using any you may are good at creating an Account somewhere (ICQ would be great then). I'll email you my contact information then.

Great, you can send me the binary any time. But I should say, I don't think I'll really have time to explore the engine down to the shader level or investigate how things work internally. I'm more interested in testing the PolyVox part, so that I can see the remaining problems that you are having. Maybe then I can give some tips on fixing the cracks, improving the performance, or seeing what other features are needed. But mostly I'm just curious what has been done with PolyVox :-)

I do have MSN (but haven't used it for a few years!) so if I can't get it working then we can discuss it the following weekend maybe.

[WuTz]! · **Joined:** Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:52 pm **Posts:** 37

Quote:

That's strange - I don't find any reference to 'tDefault' in the latest version of my code. And my function definition doesn't look like the one you posted. Are you sure you copied all the files across? Or did I make a mistake with the upload?

No, everything is okay. I got the error before you uploaded the new version. Now everything is fine there.

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Can you confirm the bug is fixed? I'm still wondering if you got the right version of the code...

Yep, playing around about 15 minutes with the terrain builder didn't gave me any of those holes.

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Great, you can send me the binary any time. But I should say, I don't think I'll really have time to explore the engine down to the shader level or investigate how things work internally. I'm more interested in testing the PolyVox part, so that I can see the remaining problems that you are having. Maybe then I can give some tips on fixing the cracks, improving the performance, or seeing what other features are needed. But mostly I'm just curious what has been done with PolyVox :-)

Well, we must go a bit deeper. You can't just add a terrain and use it out of the box. I haven't made a default material for it yet, so you'll need to create a shader. Luckily there is a template for that, so all shader stuff will be done with a few clicks. However, you do not need to learn any HLSL specific code or other things to make it work.

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I do have MSN (but haven't used it for a few years!) so if I can't get it working then we can discuss it the following weekend maybe.

I've sent you an Email.

PolyVox as Terrain builder

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