topic Re: .obj Display Issue in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

.obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:26:55 GMT

Hi All,

I am still waiting to upgrade to 2011 (In talks with ESRI, shouldn't be to long) so I have been using the 2011 trial in the interim. I have come across a potential display bug. With the CGA rule I am inserting an obj based on the model itemised in the object's attributes, the textures are then applied as well - every obj and texture is stored in the asset directory of the project.

As you can see from the attached image; City Engine shapes are being displayed correctly whereas the imported objs are only being rendered as wire frame. And suggestions on how to remedy this issue?

Running Windows 7, Nvidia Quadro FX 7800

NOTE - In CE 2010.3 I have not encountered this issue. Also, all of the obj's normals are facing outwards

Cheers,

Dan.

Re: .obj Display Issue

MatthiasBuehler1 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:15:06 GMT

I've seen similar issues. Updating the graphics driver did the job.

Let me know if it works for you too.

If not, are you getting any error entries in the Log Window ?

Re: .obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:30:34 GMT

Hi Matt,

I have done a clean install of the Nvidia Quadro drivers and am still getting the same issue (only displaying wire frames). I am getting this error in the log window:

Message: Native Render: found GL Errors on exit!glError: invalid vale
Plug-in: com.procedural.assets

Any ideas on how to fix?

Might it be an issue that I still have 2010.3 installed? Maybe pointing to some of the old plugins, etc.

Cheers,

Dan.

Re: .obj Display Issue

MatthiasBuehler1 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:27:35 GMT

hi Dan !

1]

do you have the same issues if you deactivate Ambient Occlusion (save scene /restart may be needed.) ?

2]
can you send a more complete log ?

3]
how much RAM do you have ? 64 bit OS ?

4]
If you can not fix the issue with point 1] or upcoming hints, maybe we'll need to get the project ..

Re: .obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:25:38 GMT

Hi Matt,

Happy new year! I have the full version of CE2011 now running ( licence files finally came through ).

In regards to your last post, switching the ambient occlusion off ( with restart ) does not seem to work. I have done another clean install of the display divers ( NVIDIA QuadroFX 4800 - Driver update 276.42 ). In regards to the log, I am not getting the GLErrors message anymore but am still having the same display issue - which leads me to think it may be another problem. I am running windows 7 64bit with 24GB of RAM ( although the 2011 upgrade seems to be more ram hungry than 2010.3 especially when loading in .obj files ).

I am a little stumped on the cause of the display issue ( I am hoping that it is something relatively simple ).

To help out getting to the bottom of this issue I can send an archived .rar of an example project for you to have a look at. I cant attach the RAR file to this post as it is to large ( 3.4mb ). Is there any way I can send this to you? email or ftp?

Cheers!

Re: .obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:21:14 GMT

I think I may have found the source of the display issue. The static models I am using are taken from a dataset that was created from aerial imagery and scanning. The model creation process was undertaken via a survey contractor using an automated process. The building models, whilst fulfilling their purpose are quite rough and do not adhere to any proper content creation standards - therefore there are allot of duplicate edges, overlapping faces, etc.

In the previous verison of CE importing these objects was not an issue. Under the 2011 upgrade there must have been changes / optimisations made to the geometry import engine. I have noticed that I have been getting errors in the 'Problems' window ( not in the log ) saying something like:

'SprH0250.obj' contains: 0-area faces (removed) and/or faces referencing a vertex more than once (split): 265 => 264 faces; 12 0-length edges; 1 unreferenced vertices (removed them); CBD_Export_2011.cej /VB_Export/scenes Hole - 42dfc373-1e5c-11b2-b94c-001f2904abb3 Model Error

For the sake of trial and error I took one of the building models into MAX and went through and optimised the model ( welded all verts to 0.1m, removed isolated verts, smoothed normals, etc). This optimised model imports into CE 2011 with no issues.

With approx 98,000 individual building models in our dataset - short of writing up a MAX-Script to batch process all of these models - Is there a way to revert the CE import plugin so that I can import these unoptimised models without these issues ( pretty much use the 2010.3 importer ) ?

Any ideas on any good mesh optimisation tools I could use? Mesh-lab, etc? Am not looking forward to writing a custom MAX-Script is all.

Cheers,

Dan.

Re: .obj Display Issue

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:28:15 GMT

hi !

sorry for the late reply.

can you send me the file(s) to mBuehler@esri.com ?

please let me know ..

Re: .obj Display Issue

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:45:20 GMT

hi !

we have changed some of the behaviour for transparency.

before (up to 2010.3 ) it's been treated as 'transparency', now (2011+) it is 'opacity'. it seems that in this inversion process, one thing was not adapted perfectly.

fact is that currently, due to the
tr 1.0000000
line in all your mtl files, all your models are completely transparent, thus showing only the wireframe. a ticket's been made. this should be fixed in the upcoming SR.

btw. all your mtls point to targa textures which were not in the dataset (just the jpgs in an other subfolder).

to fix such issues, you may also use NotePad++ to search-and-replace over a series of documents (e.g. all mtl files in a folder).

btw.2 :
a current fix to work on would be to replace all tr 1.00 to 0.00

Re: .obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:32:04 GMT

Matthias - You are a champion 😄

I have made the interim changes to the .mtl files for both the transparency and texture paths. Everything imports fine!

No the only barrier keeping me from porting our entire dataset into ArcGlobe is the .dae export issues. Any shapes that I build from within CE export to .dae fine - from there I can import the models into ArcGlobe as a multipatch via ArcScene. I am running into problems with our static models though. I am exporting them the same way from CE as .dae files, but when I go to import them into ArcScene I am getting an error saying that the file type is not compatible. If you get a chance could you see if you can import the static models I gave you into ArcScene via CE? ( Projection: National Grids, Australia, GDA 1994 MGA Zone 56 )

Let me know if you need me to start a new thread for this topic.

Thanks again for your help, it is very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan. 🙂

Re: .obj Display Issue

DanSmith3 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:12:19 GMT

Just ignore that last post - I have applied the appropriate updates to ArcGIS Desktop see: http://resources.arcgis.com/content/patches-and-service-packs?fa=viewPatch&PID=66&MetaID=1819. The models are importing fine into Arc as dae, then being stored as multipatches. Islooking good, having a small rotation problem on import, but will get to the bottom of that.

Re: .obj Display Issue

KathrinSchulte-Braucks — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:05:12 GMT

I have got a similar issue.

I'm new to City Engine and just working through the tutorials.

When I started practizing a few hours ago, everything worked fine, but now, the models won't display correctly any more. Only wire frames, no textures or shades. Additionally, there are black polygons flashing on the screen, thus making it very hard to continue working. These graphic issues are only present in City Engine, in no other application I use, so I do not think that there is sth wrong with my PC or graphics card.

I've got 8 GB of RAM, Win 7 64bit and a HD 4890 graphics card.

Restarting, reloading or just regenerating the scenes or buildings do not help.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Re: .obj Display Issue

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:00:27 GMT

hi Kathrin !

first thing I recommend is to upgrade the graphics driver to the latest version. This usually solves a lot of issues.

http://support.amd.com/US/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

if this does not help, please create a screenshot of the CE where I can see also the opended display settings menu (little cogwheel menu) on the top right corner of the viewport.

lemme know ..