Marcus Barnes (marcus++at++multigen.com)
Tue, 30 Jan 1996 13:03:33 -0800
Sorry, I read that off of the pfdCombineLayers man page. It's in error.
It really forces the layer mode to PFDECAL_BASE_DISPLACE for any layers that
are BASE_FAST or BASE_DISPLACE, according to 2.0MR pfdLayer.c .
Odd ... it used to force (PFDECAL_BASE_DISPLACE | PFDECAL_LAYER_OFFSET).
> We had the same problem.
> The loader shipped with 2.0 caused all the Decal layers to flicker randomly.
> I know FAST may not be as good quality, but I'd still expect it to have
> _some_ effect, yet it does not appear to (if that's really what the loader
> is using).
Yes. FAST is the default. You can call pfdConverterMode_flt( PFFLT_LAYER,
PFDECAL_BASE_* ) to tell the loader to use any pfLayerMode. From perfly's
command line use "-y flt,9,6" to choose BASE_STENCIL for instance. This is the
only mode that works all of the time; but cost about 40% on RE2. SGI has been
trying to develop a faster method that works well and PFDECAL_BASE_DISPLACE |
PFDECAL_LAYER_OFFSET is the result of that effort.
> Doesn't matter how close you get to the Decals, or how you set
> your clipping planes, they still flicker the same.
In my experience, FAST (formerly equivalent to DISPLACE) only works well when
the near/far clipping planes are close together and the near plane is greater
than 1.0. It also helps to have a 32bit Z-buffer configured.
>-- End of excerpt from Robert Webb
As to the problems with pfLayer/pfDecal in 2.0 ... I know there have been many
over the life of the beta. I don't know if the problems are all fixed in the
2.0 release.
Regards.
--
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