Not drawing invisible objects
 

I've created a Vizard virtual world that stretches the hardware power to it's maximum because of this I've been looking at optimizations. One would be to reduce the polygons that need to be draw. Therefore I started to look at which area's had the most polygons and I noticed that Vizard also counts/draws polygons that are hidden by other objects.

Is there a way to tell vizard to not draw object that are hidden behind other objects in the world?

Hi,

There isn't a built in Vizard function for occlusion tests - you would have to manually do this, but performing this test will also increase the load on your cpu, especially if you're doing it every frame.

Best,
Masaki

Just to state the problem the otherway around, How can vizard handle large outstretched worlds or a building with multiple rooms?

Though Vizard does not currently have a way of automatically doing occlusion culling, Occluders can be added manually within 3ds max using rectangular splines and the OSG Occluder helper. (Helpers --> OpenSceneGraph --> Occluder)

-For a large world, one option is to use fog + distance culling.
-Another option is to use the OSG Level of Detail helper. With this one, you would merge or group all the objects in a room and add it to the LOD helper, then set the distance in meters for that object to be visible. (Helpers --> OpenSceneGraph --> LOD)

I will have to look into those functions then. Thanks for the tips. Are there any plans for vizard to include these functionalities in future versions?

We are always working towards improving our graphical capabilities, so this function may show up in a later version.

I've finally switch to the osg/ive export format for my world to be able to use the occlusion helper.

I'm using 3ds max 2011 and OSGEXP 0.9.8 but can't seem to find the occlusion helper anywhere in the menu's.

Do i need to install some addition software (openscenegraph) or set some options if max to get the occusion helper options?

Hi sleiN13,

OSG Occluders are found under Helpers in the Create tab of the command panel. Select OpenSceneGraph from the dropdown list and the option should appear.

Doing occluders in OSG requires two things:
-The helper
-Rectangular splines that get added to the helper

That works very nicely thanks you :)

Never thought off looking in that create menu always assumed the same things would be in me create menu in the main menubar.

Woderfull, I think I will use these occluders property too!