Sectors vanishing in the distance

[Laerrus]

Hello, on my large open area maps in GZDOOM, sectors keep vanishing in the distance, so the sky box can be seen through them. It's like a weird draw distance issue. I thought it was my ATI video card not getting along with GZDOOM, however I have loaded up Planisphere 2, from 2012, and it runs just fine with no sectors blinking in and out of existance. I think it's my node builder or settings, I am using ZBSP. In the included screen shot, there should be a second mountain in the middle, and off to the left side you can see where ground sectors have vanished also.

I keep asking around, and looking up anything regarding this, but so far all I have gotten was the suggestion to look at Planisphere, a lot of comments saying the draw distance is unlimited, a few devs saying they have no idea how they got it to work properly and had no idea anyone was having an issue, and a handful of comments from other devs who are encountering the same issue and can't solve it. There doesn't seem to be any real documentation of this issue. It feels like I have tried everything and have spent over a year now trying to solve this, but now am at a point where it really has to be solved.

Thanks in advance.

Screenshot_Doom_20240403_113113.jpg

[Rachael]

What happens when you run with +set gennodes 1 on the command line?

[Laerrus]

What happens when you run with +set gennodes 1 on the command line?

I tried that from inside Slades launcher window and also tried the Set genblockmap 1 variant and still had the same problem.
I also have tried setting ZBSP to extended nodes, and compressed nodes with no difference. I think I tried them both at the same time too.

[Enjay]

A couple of questions.
Obvious one first, have you checked the map for errors? I don't know what checking capabilities Slade has, but I assume it has some. Ultimate DoomBuilder certainly does.

Have you done something like built the map at an extreme corner of the available map space? That can sometimes mess things up.


If nothing else is coming to mind, are you able to upload the map somewhere (even without textures) for other people to check?

[Laerrus]

A couple of questions.
Obvious one first, have you checked the map for errors? I don't know what checking capabilities Slade has, but I assume it has some. Ultimate DoomBuilder certainly does.

Yeah, the maps are within the limits, I keep things under 27,000, -27,000 at absolute max. Maybe those extra 2000 or 3000 units are the issue. I will try trimming it down a bit to see if that changes anything.

Slade has error checks, all errors are corrected.

I could throw together an example map with the DOOM textures for sure if the trim thing doesnt work.

I am highly suspecting the node builder.

[Laerrus]

OpenTestMap.zip

Here is a DOOM 2 textured map of the exact same proportions. I have measured in other maps that do render properly to see their max viewing distances, and this falls within them. I get about half the map not rendering at the worst moments. I tried reducing the map size down to 24,070, -24,070 and that still resulted in the same issue. This is at the max scale I am trying to do this, since it has the same effect/glitch either way.

Update:
Trimming the map down to 16,384, -16,384 is when the sectors function correctly. It might be just that the engine can yes, produce and render a map of the 'max size', but not a true open world map of the max size, ala one giant open field. It has to be done as an open world of blocked view distances and the maze like approch unless it's kept within this 32,768 unit range. However the Planisphere 2 map has a view distance of around 47,000 units with no issue.

[Enjay]

Just to confirm that your example map shows the effect for me too. Pic taken from way up in the NW corner of the map.




My guess is that GZDoom is simply being asked to do something that it is not intended for.

[Laerrus]

Just to confirm that your example map shows the effect for me too. Pic taken from way up in the NW corner of the map.




My guess is that GZDoom is simply being asked to do something that it is not intended for.

Okay, thank you very much for helping confirm this wasn't something on my end and that I have basically been banging my head against a wall for months, I sure learned a lot about the engine along the way however, so it was worth the effort. I will have to design my wide open maps carefully so as to maximize the open spaces but still use up as much of the possible mapping zone as possible.

Now I can finally get back to actually making stuff for my project.

Last night it dawned on me this limitation is kind of a blessing, in that it is forcing me to get creative with map designs, which is overcoming a hurdle I ran into of "Well all the levels can't all just be wide open fields" even with what I am doing for level design in those wide open fields. So in a way this will result in 'less boring level design'.