Model Glossiness/White Dots

from Sins Forums

I'm working on a set of models and am having issues with tiny white dots that appear along the edges of the ships.  Now, before anyone suggests that I go find the one or two threads pertaining to the whtie artifacts, I've done that already.  None of those suggestions helped.

What has helped is setting the glossiness to 0.000000 in the mesh file.  Obviously, this destroys any possibility I have of using a spectral map (it results in a second skin that lightens/darkens the model without any regard to light).  It's too late to test it tonight, but I think I might be able to simulate the glossiness/spectral map with a creative reflective map in the blue layer of the data file.  What I'd really like though is to have my cake and eat it to.  That is, I'd like to set all of the maps and glossiness where they should be and have no white dots as a result. 

One final thought.  These dots only show up along the edges of the model.  Might it be possible to modify the mesh to get rid of this issue?  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

modding
3,032 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

screen shots are very helpfull :P

are they just light parts of the model next to dark parts or actual 'white dots'?

 

Do they happen along texture seam lines by any chance?


Do you have a texture on the model atm?

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Check it with Anti-aliasing off.

 

:fox:

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

They're actual white dots along any type of straight edge.

As I said in my original post, I've already been through the whole anti-aliasing thing.  Yes, it gets rid of the problem (for the most part), but then I get jagged models when I zoom out.  Who wants that? Plus, some models have very few dots while others have a ton.  That tells me that it's not some all-encompassing anti-aliasing issue.

The problem seems to be how light is reflecting off the model, and that's what I want help with.  As you can see with the top two pictures, when I zoom out white dots appear on edges, especially engine pylons and the the phaser arrays on the saucer. 

The bottom two pictures illustrate the difference between two different ships.  The left ship has white dots no matter the distance I'm zoomed in or out, but the right ship has only a few that are hardly noticeable when zoomed out.  I believe the right model is a bit smoother as far as the mesh is concerned, so it could just be a problem with sharp angles.  However, I've never seen these white dots on any of the stock models from Sins or Entrenchment.

 

Edit:  Sorry, didn't see your question about seams.  Many instances are texture and mesh seams, like the phaser arrays.  Since they're edges, there obviously isn't a way around this.  Is there some kind of problem with the UV Map, do you think?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mystic, reply 3
Many instances are texture and mesh seams, like the phaser arrays.  Since they're edges, there obviously isn't a way around this.  Is there some kind of problem with the UV Map, do you think?

 

I dont think so. Conflicting UVs can cause lighting issues but that dosn't look like your problem.

 

(is the bottom left ship supposed to be that dark? It dosn't seem to have much lighting on it?)

 

Random Thought: Im not familiar with the way Sins 'zooming detail system' works, but that reminds me of textures that are on a white background and are too close to the UV map (no margin). Back then the inpresice nature of the rendering (Freespace 2) made white dots appear, they were bits of the texture map background where the UV overlapped a pixel or two. Anyway I doubt thats helpfull...

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

The ship in the top pictures is definitely on a white background, but it's the hull template (which is white for all intents and purposes).  The ship in the bottom on the right is also on a white and gray background.  The bottom left ship is a bit dark; I haven't tweaked it's color scheme or lighting to my liking yet.

I'll look into the UV overlapping thing.  I'm not sure if it's the problem since the hull texture itself is white, but you never know.  Something is casuing that bottom right ship to appear with far fewer obnxious dots than the other two, and I aim to figure out what it is.