   Units, clipping, and really large objects
  I am trying to reverse engineer a space simulation game using thier mod resources. Unfortunatly, thier importer totally screws scaling up when you bring models into 3ds max. I have no way of knowing what near and far clip they use, what thier unit of measurement is, or how to scale thier models.My best guess from playing the game is that there is a viewing distance of about 110km and a fade in of 10km.The largest visible object I can find in thier game is an asteroid, which you can build mines on. The smallest is probably a cargo container that floats in space.However, an asteroid comes into 3ds max at 40,000 units wide. I am trying to figure out how to scale it. It couldn't be by 10^-3 because, then 2 asteroids side by side would fill the entire viewing frustrum. The cargo container comes in at 100 units wide.An asteroid should be big, I mean realistically they come as big as planets, but how big should they be in a game? How big should ships be relative to them? What should I use for a near and far clip?Perhaps they make them really big, but just don't allow you to get close enough to where textures get distorted, and just blow you up, along with a really huge far clip? I don't know.I can't wrap my head around it.Does anyone have any input?   
  Units are pretty much arbitrary and the scale does not have to be uniform across an entire scene. Chances are you can only make a best-guess attempt for this problem rather than find an absolute answer - the only really important detail is that its relative, whether it's 100km across or 1cm isn't important.You could try a PIX trace and see if you can pull out any matrix/effect variables that give you a clue.hthJack   ;Quote:Original post by jollyjeffersUnits are pretty much arbitrary and the scale does not have to be uniform across an entire scene. Chances are you can only make a best-guess attempt for this problem rather than find an absolute answer - the only really important detail is that its relative, whether it's 100km across or 1cm isn't important.I understand they are arbitray. However, I also believe that objects need to be scaled in such a manner that they fit within the near and far clip planes. I wouldn't want some very large object getting partially clipped and partially showing. So, my problem is defining a system where the largest objects fit, yet the smallest objects are still visible.If I made my near and far clip 1,000,000 units. The smallest object of size 1x1x1 wouldn't be very visible would it? Not until you are pretty much on top of it anyway.Even though it is arbitrary it must be defined in some manner. I was thinking of using kilometers and making 100km viewable. But I worry if I would still be able to see an object that is say 1 meter wide in such a frustrum. That is the problem. I also thought about just using real world units, but how far could someone see in space without that annoying horizion and curvature of the earth and all?Quote:Original post by jollyjeffersYou could try a PIX trace and see if you can pull out any matrix/effect variables that give you a clue.I didn't think PIX would give any information at all unless the shaders were compiled in debug mode?How would you use PIX to get information about a commercial game?   