another PROBLEM ..using STATICENTITYPROXIES to place actors

[wooper]

Hi all ...

ok..heres what I found last night....

Try this at home.....

using a STATICENTITYPROXY..place a LONG and THIN Actor for geometry
such as a wall or a canyon wall in a level....
now try the level and using DEBUG..see the BOUNDING BOX
and notice that its pretty normal.....
OK...now for the problem......
change horizontal angle of the level to about 90 degrees or more of normal
and now....
re-compile the level and once again..using DEBUG..
view that actors BOUNDING BOX....
and......VOILA.....its now ENORMOUS..and takes up not only
its SURFACE AREA...BUY also,,,,,THE AREA of its NEW ANGLE also
thus making it BLOCK about 4 times as much as it should be blocking.

Now ..someone is going to say...."YEs....BUT...you can change its bounding box size"

and my response is...."I know that but...to make that work..you have to make
the bounding box so SMALL that LARGE parts of the NORMAL bounding box area
are no longer blocked BUT become unnaturally passable."

then others might say..."yes...BUT...you can use a STATICMESH..and then the bounding box will work properly.."

to which I would once again say..."yes....BUT...the STATICMESH does NOT have proper
collision working ..such as...projectiles go right thru them...."

so then......anyone out there have another .."yes...BUT..."
taht will help us to make this work...

for now to try and get around it...
I've gone back to using the method I've used for yrs in UNREAL
SUBTRACTIVE GEOMETRY for the major geometry parts
and then STATICENTITYPROXIES for smaller geometry like
rocks and stones and lanterns and othr such things that
over all have a more ROUND or SQUARE than elongated form.
and so far it works ....BUT....I have over 500 geometry actors made so far
taht id LOVE to use by using STATICENTITYPROXIES because then I coukld
make very detailed levels VERY quickly and easily that would also run smoothly and could
use LOD also.

ok sorry about going on..BUT I want to solve this once and for all...
and i sure MANY of us are in the same boat...and LOVE REALITYFACTORY
for making games..

BTW--if anyone solves this problem I'll send them
a copy of all my geometry actors to use in their game if they want..
I have over 500 so far...all textured and ready to add

thx again to all for your help
WOOPER

[bernie]

What I have done in the past is use SEP (set with no collision) for the model and use transparent level geometry for collision.

[wooper]

Hi theer again BERNIE---
yes
I thought of that too...
BUT
its VERY difficult to do for an actor with an
even slightly complicated shape and
its a LOT of extra work for little betterment.

so far the SUBTRACTIVE GEOMETRY method
seems to be working very well and giving great results
fast...and the compiling trick...
is to leave the LIGHTING to the last...
to just use a basic lighting level to make the level
wioth NO lighting added in
then once the level is mostly done---add the lighting then
and tweak.

thx again bernie
keep em comin..

Wooper