Weird effect: help needed

[Monkwarrior]

Hi
Again a request of help for one of my "weird" problems.

In some I see this effect on battle:






The images correspond to two different battles.

Conditions for this effect:
- Only observed when fighting against rebels of one given culture.
- Only observed on the model of an official when it is dead.
- Not observed each time this official dies. Only in some cases.
- Only observed at certain distance and with certain angle.
- The model for this official is used also for at least two playable factions and the effect has not been observed (but it doesn't mean that it doesn't occur)

I've checked the 3D model one trillion times and I cannot find any problem with it. I've imported all the "dead animations" and I haven't observed any effect in 3ds max.

Any idea?
Could it be something related to vegetation sprites or models? (hypothesis to explain the apparent aleatory character of the effect )

[satanea juda]

It's a lose (unconected) verticle on a model, I've seen it a few times and it's always been the same thing, you might not see it in max because it's inside the model (I've had that a couple of times)...The game is trying to attach the texture to a single verticle and that's the effect (flaring)..If you can't find the lose vert the model is usless and you'd be better off making a new one.

This guy had the same problem.

[Red Spot]

Isnt that the new euro-fighter ... ?!?


G

[Monkwarrior]

It's a lose (unconected) verticle on a model, I've seen it a few times and it's always been the same thing, you might not see it in max because it's inside the model (I've had that a couple of times)...The game is trying to attach the texture to a single verticle and that's the effect (flaring)..If you can't find the lose vert the model is usless and you'd be better off making a new one.

This guy had the same problem.

Thanks.
I've found several unconnected vertex in different parts of the model. I've eliminated all of them (I hope) and in the first test the model looks OK. In any case, it is difficult to demonstrate the lack of this effect (Occam dixit), but for the moment it works.

@Red Spot
Yeah!

[satanea juda]

Ah right, glad you fixed it, sometimes they're a bugger to find and you'll spend as much time looking as it would take to knock a new model together, but at least in the future you'll know what your looking for.

[Monkwarrior]

Well, finally the problem was not solved:


In this case, even the weird figure floating in air had movement, like a flag.

The most embarrasing point is that the problem and the solution had been reported... BY ME.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...&postcount=171

The number of elements in this model was 14. The solution has been the elimination of three elements: feathers attached to helmet, one sword as secondary weapon (not necessary) and the shoulder pads (hidden by cloak).

[satanea juda]

Hmm, if it was moving like a flag I would think something was connected to the cloak bone, it's the only bone that has that movement, most likely the shoulder pads, "and the shoulder pads (hidden by cloak)."...

[Monkwarrior]

Hmm, if it was moving like a flag I would think something was connected to the cloak bone, it's the only bone that has that movement, most likely the shoulder pads, "and the shoulder pads (hidden by cloak)."...

I think the problem is that some object is not considered as part of the model, as it exceeds the maximum limit of object number.
Perhaps in this case the officer was the last man in the unit, and it had the flag on him before dying. The position and the movement of the effect remembered those of the unit flag. But as shown in previous images, in other occasions the effect was different (like a eurofighter, for example ).

The shoulder pads were an object different from body or cloak (also one different from the other) and cloak need a skin modifier because it is linked (weighed) to several bones. Shoulder pads were assigned to only one bone (torso?) and they were not messed up with cloak.

Just to confirm this hypothesis, I prepared several models in which one object was eliminated, and I used the replay option to see if the modification had any effect. Firstly I tried the model without shield on the back. The effect disappeared and I was happy. Just to confirm this, I tried the model without helmet (with shield)... and the effect had also disappeared . The third model tried was the one without shoulder pads (with everything else), and the effect had almost disappeared (only a thin line was observed, perhaps the stick of the flag?). I looked very carefully the model of shoulder pads, and I could not find any lost vertex, or any other reason to justify the effect (that was also due to shield or helmet). The only possible reason is the number of objects, as I has already remarked some time ago with different models, all of them corresponding to generals or officers, as they have lots of details.

Sorry for this long post.