CompuServe Thread

#Flicking Faces

8 messages in this thread
#67543From: James Coulter[Mindscape]Nov 21, 1993 8:11 PM
On occasion, I have run across a model that creates flickering faces. I wish I could be more specific, but that is exactly what they are. I single face on a surface will flip from lighter than the surrounding area to darker on a 2 to 4 frame interval. This creates a very distracting flicker when I play back a finished animation. I have noticed this phenomenon in both R2 and R3. In my recent experience, I decided to find out what the problem was (using R3). Changing the shading mode, textures, blurring, and filtering method produce no solution. The object in question is an L-shape created from the 2D shaper, then lofted (it is used as a brick wall). When rendered, a single triangular face flickers intensly for no reason. By removing all smothing groups from the object, the problem vanished. If I auto-smooth it again, the problem comes back. I have noticed this with some boolean models too, but only recently found a work-around with the extruded L-shape. This is not a pressing problem since I have found a work-around. However, I was wondering if anyone knew of what conditions might predictably cause this phenomenon so that I may avoid it in the future. Any thoughts are appreciated. — James —
#67558From: John TissavaryNov 21, 1993 11:11 PM
I had a similar problem on one mesh in R2. It seems as though face was flipping its normals over 1 or 2 frames for no apparent reason. Must be a memory conflict <g,d,&r>. Didn't notice it until I put it on an Abekas and played it back at $200/hr. Oh, well… I haven't run into the problem again, though (he said with crossed fingers as he knocked on wood). Regards, John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
#67570From: ALAN IGLESIASNov 22, 1993 1:39 AM
This seems to happen most often after boolean operations, James, and can always (at least in my experience) be fixed with smoothing operations.
#68364From: yann bertaudNov 26, 1993 2:12 AM
This can also happen when you have coincident faces, ie 2 faces that are right on top of each other and coplanar. Make sure you don't have such a case. Yann Bertaud – VPG, Autodesk.
#68409From: ALAN IGLESIASNov 26, 1993 12:06 PM
*What* can happen, Yann? To tell ya the truth, I've forgotten exactly what this thread was about, or my previous comment in it (if there was one). Must have had a little too much holiday cheer yesterday<g>… Have a nice holiday, -Alan PS — I feel pretty good this morning, no hangover at all!
#68454From: John TissavaryNov 26, 1993 7:38 PM
That explains my problem a couple of months ago. I fixed it, but it's nice to know why the face was "flicking". thanks, John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
#67644From: Yost GroupNov 22, 1993 11:22 AM
James, Could you zip and email your reproduceable example so we can look at it? (Please include a brief Readme.doc to jog my failing memory.) Thanks. – Jack
#67859From: James Coulter[Mindscape]Nov 23, 1993 12:23 PM
Thanks for the input everybody. Jack, the file is rather large, but if I can wittle it down to just the one object, I'll zap it over to you. Got it wittled. See file Flicker.Zip in your mail! Thnaks! — James —