FSXA Strange Vetex limit problem

[Flying Officer Jevans]

So, when trying to compile the interior model using XToMdl, it's giving me the old Vertex limit error:

CRASHTREE no granularity specified
CRASHTREE completed in 00:00:00.4430254
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (199548), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (199548), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (199548), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list failed allocating. Most likely exceeds the 65535 limit.
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (77940), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (77940), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list has too many vertices (77940), max allowed: 65535
error : Attempting to add an invalid vertex buffer!
error : Vertex list failed allocating. Most likely exceeds the 65535 limit.
error : Failed to resolve vertex: Vert65522

However... There are no materials in the project that exceed the limit, or even come anywhere close to doing so - the most each one uses is about 10,000 verts. What could be causing this error? Any ideas? Running the ACES verify tool in Max does not flag anything. The error sounds odd, as it claims one has nearly 200,000 verts, and there's only 149,000 in the whole model anyway....

 

[arno]

Do you have parts with the same material applied? XtoMDL will all merge them into one drawcall and thus one vertex list.

 

[Flying Officer Jevans]

No, I've checked by using the 'select as material' command.

 

[hairyspin]

Are you using the same material - different name trick to get past the 65K vertices texture limit? You have to change the copied material slightly for this to work IIRC - alter specularity by one point or suchlike. There's been posts about that gotcha before.

 

[Flying Officer Jevans]

Yep, done that.

The strange thing is just how it's reporting these massive vertex lists when there is just no materials with anywhere like the number of vertices on it... As I said, it appears to say there's more in one list than there is in the whole project.

 

[lionheart]

This is usually only related to the Material issue, too many parts on one material.

Also, I recall a memo from Paul at Aces that parts with different Smoothing zones on a part, had doubled Vertices. So if you de-smoothed a hex-nut, you had TONS of Vertices instead of 12, perhaps 144, as each polygon had its own required Vertices. At least this was in FSX. I dont know if FS9 does that.



Bill

 

[Vitus]

Please have a look over here, where this issue is discussed.

I run into this error from time to time, but there are solutions and workarounds for it

Cheers,
Vitus

 

[Flying Officer Jevans]

Looks like this is indeed the problem - there are actually materials that go over the limit, it would appear, by reading how many texture verts there are. I've found one set, but I'm just trying to track down the others now.

 

[lionheart]

If you have Gmax, make sure you have the Max/Gmax script plugin for 'Select by Material'. Then you can;
* Select a part that has that material.
* Click Run Script/Select by Material
(all parts with that same shared material are then selected)
* Click 'Objects List' and 'deselect' half of those parts
* Click on Material Editor and create a new material with same bitmap
* Apply 'new' duplicate material onto the other half of said objects.

Do a test compile to see if that fixes the compile issue.

Having that script really saves tons of time...

Bill

 

[Flying Officer Jevans]

I'm using Max, so I've already got that function built in, it does help.

I just can't find the material responsible for this - if I exclude the center console during compile the number of verts reported in the error goes down, but I've split every single material on the center console and the number still does nothing.

 

[Flying Officer Jevans]

Ok, problem solved - it was the light grilles, which were overloading the material. I found them by exporting the selection, and increasing the selection until it failed, then deceasing it until I found the parts that pushed it over the limit.

Thanks for all your help!