GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[bmw]

While working on my Surface map today I discovered something - the problem I've complained about numerous times in here - seeing through walls when you're up close to them in certain levels -

Its the visibility value that is responsible for this. Dam and Surface suffer from this problem - and they both have their visibility values set much higher than most other levels - at 0.20

Now remember that lowering the value increases the visibility.

The optimal setting is 0.67. This is the absolute longest visibility you can obtain while still not causing any see-through problems. This is the setting you should use for any outdoor stages with long distances.

[SubDrag]

Is this the "Unknown value"?

[bmw]

No, I'm referring to the "visibility" setting - its the value immediately above the UNKNOWN FLOAT on the stage options tab.

[SubDrag]

I've never used that before in my life, I have no idea. It's always 1.0 isn't it?

[bmw]

Nope, dam, surface i, and surface ii have it set to 0.20. Increasing its value actually decreases visibility. Setting it to 1.0 in dam or surface makes it so you can't see things way off in the distance.

Any multiplayer map set in dam, surface, or also runway should set the visibility value to 0.67. Any lower and you start seeing through things when you stand right up next to them.

[Wreck]

I'm able to see through walls in just about every level on PJ64. I haven't used Rice's plug-in for quite sometime, but Jabo's has this effect. Just tonight I ran into this problem in both Caverns and Aztec. But since I've been using a newer computer, I may not have downloaded the newest plug-in's. After I check them out, I'll come back to update my status on it. If only the few levels mentioned suffer, I will try out your fix.

This is an emulator only issue, correct?
_________________

YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN

[SubDrag]

As far as I know, you can't see any walls in console. For example, G5 building multi in GE, you couldn't see through any walls console, but very much could in emulator.

[zoinkity]

Only Dam on console has any sort of visibility issue at all, and that only occurs in a select few places. Emulators suffer in Surface, Dam, Depot, Silo, Caverns, Aztec, Control, and probably others.

The issue is entirely due to plugins not properly rendering viewports. Quite honestly, it seems rather silly to change the game to run better on emulators. While you're at it, why not change any 2D sprite render call into a 3D command so they can do those, or only use render modes that are currently supported...

Recently, they've been making noise about adding in a feature that detects and disables hardcoded frameskip regulation, something virtually every Rare game has. Obviously they're trying to get the thing to actually run at 60fps in-game, not just the window. Even when emulators state the thing is running at 60fps, in reality this only refers to the emulation window. The game itself usually runs much slower, and in GE's case they cap the thing at about 30fps.

Now, you may say, why *not* try to do such a thing. The trouble is the timing used in-game to regulate frameskipping is a CPU clock cycle. More likely than not they'll just fudge any call to the processor clock and hope it doesn't break anything else. Unregulated play like that will screw up anything that requires an accurate read, which in GE's case we know is:
intro demos
animations
certain guard activities
frameskip
all internal timers

Otherwise, the only other way to do it is to physically hack the game, which I wouldn't put past them either. Needless to say, such a hack would invariably not work on console.

Sigh...
_________________
(\_/) Beware
(O.o) ze
(> <) Hoppentruppen!

[bmw]

Wreck - I'm surprised you're having that issue with Jabo's plugin - I have jabo 1.6 on my computer and don't have those problems.

After reading everybody's post, I figured I'd post a screenshot of my results. This is standing in one of the cabins - 3 screenshots, with the ONLY mod being the visibility setting:




EDIT - that first one should say 0.66, not 0.7 - if you look close at the extreme upper-right corner you can see visibility just starting to become an issue.

[Dragonsbrethren]

zoinkity wrote:

Only Dam on console has any sort of visibility issue at all, and that only occurs in a select few places.

Where at in Dam? I know you can see the island in the windows of the guard towers on the dam itself, I mentioned that over at TGS's forum years ago and no one believed me.

I also recall being able to see through parts of the walls in the doorways leading to Silo's missile silos on the console.

[SubDrag]

Is that visibility value the near clipping plane then?

[zoinkity]

Actually it is a z-plane value sent to the RCP to create the viewport. Only MESS actually does z-compare 100% accurately. Depth has always been an issue with plugins.
_________________
(\_/) Beware
(O.o) ze
(> <) Hoppentruppen!

[SubDrag]

How high do you need to make this? I've put it to 1.4 and I see no change on my new level.

[bmw]

I assume you're talking about the level you had me take a look at - leaving it at 1.0 will be just fine. Raising it actually reduces visibility. If you set it to like 5.0 or 6.0, at least in a multiplayer map, you can't see more than like 10 feet in front of you.

[SubDrag]

Actually it's an all new outdoor level I'm referring to. Complex has no issues. The new one has major see thru walls, especially on tight staircases. I assume it wouldn't happen on console.