*BUG* COPYENTITY b3d animmesh strange behaviour?

Copyentity a B3d loadedanimmesh works strange, or maybe there's something I dunno.
Those meshes are made by 2 texture, one of them Alphaed.
When duplicating those meshes, only the last looks right. The firsts don't display Alphaed textures...
Tried with other b3d models too...
Why only the *LAST* copied entity works??

BTW *Masked* flag works correctly...

Include "B3dExtensions.bb"

Global displaywidth=640
Global displayheight=480

Graphics3D displaywidth,displayheight,32,0
SetBuffer BackBuffer()
WBuffer=True

HidePointer()

Global cpos#=-6
Global filemesh$=("castagnola.b3d")

Function SmoothTurn(Entity,entity2,entity3)
	gMXSpeed = gMXSpeed*.9 - MouseXSpeed()*.12
	gMYSpeed = gMYSpeed*.9 + MouseYSpeed()*.12
	AX# = EntityPitch(Entity)
	AY# = EntityYaw(Entity)
	AX = AX + gMYSpeed
	AY = AY + gMXSpeed
	RotateEntity Entity, AX, AY, 0
	RotateEntity Entity2, AX, AY, 0
	RotateEntity Entity3, AX, AY, 0
	MoveMouse GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2
End Function

; CAMERA INIT------------------------------------------------------------
	camera=CreateCamera()
	PositionEntity camera,0,0,-6
	CameraProjMode camera,1
	CameraClsColor camera,180,180,180
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------

	light=CreateLight()

	mesh=LoadAnimMesh (filemesh)
	mesh1=(CopyEntity (mesh))	MoveEntity(mesh1),1,0,0
	mesh2=(CopyEntity (mesh))	MoveEntity(mesh2),2,0,0

frameTimer = CreateTimer(30)
; MAIN LOOP -------------------------------------------------------------
While Not KeyHit(1)
WaitTimer(frameTimer)

	PositionEntity camera,0,0,cpos
	PointEntity camera,mesh1
	PointEntity light,mesh
		
	smoothturn(mesh,mesh1,mesh2)
	Select MouseZSpeed ()
	Case -1
	cpos=cpos-0.5
	Case 1
	cpos=cpos+0.5
	End Select

	UpdateWorld()
	RenderWorld()
	Text 0,0,"Mousewheel to zoom"
Flip
Wend
End

Code+Models ** HERE **

This code sample also shows oddness (with copyentity on an animated mesh) similar to the above glitch.

homepages.ihug.co.nz/~pajones/blitzbug.zip

Any update on this bug or official acknowledgement?

Thanks muchly

if you replace this line:

mesh=LoadAnimMesh (filemesh)

with this:

mesh=LoadMesh (filemesh)

you'll see it fixed.

i think it's because copyentity is for a mesh not a mesh hierarchy.
if you use Wireframe True you'll see there is only one mesh copied.

edit: this is wrong, sorry.

'you'll see it fixed. '

It isn't 'fixed' - it's buggered.

Being able to use copyentity on animated meshes without needing workarounds is central to keeping surface counts down.

indeed

did you test this in previous versions?

i just tested this example in v1.88,v1.89,v1.90,v1.91 and v1.95 and they all do the same thing.

so how is it "buggered" if it always did that?

edit: i just tested with another hierachy model and it works. maybe the problem is with the model itself?

The answer is that it was 'buggered' in the previous versions as well.

And the issue relates to using copyentity on animated meshes that contain alpha masked textures or surfaces set to an additive blend.

Probably CopyENtity wasn't intended to work with animated meshes in the first place. At least, it works "almost" today.

I have an other issue with CopyEntity, that maybe was already mentioned:

When using copyentity with a simple grass quad, all copies will use the light information of the original mesh, so when I turn the copies, the shading of DX lights won't be correct. Any ideas?

CopyMesh?



ie. it should have it's own light information, etc.

Yeah, thanks. Problem is: CopyEntity was used due to its speed capabilities. Although, not sure if individual shading is possible this way at all.

...the shading of DX lights won't be correct. Any ideas?

With copyentity I believe the only option available to you is setting each copy to its own colour (entitycolor). A rather blunt way of doing things but if you have a thick grass cover then this may work out.

Else it's the mysteries of single surface meshes for you ;-)

Thanks. Single surface meshes would require to realtime deform the vertices for wind FX. Something that may be easier with entities that can be rotated. Also, hypoteticly there are zillions of grass quads that are positioned dynamicly around the player, each one using EntityAutoFade. You see this would be pretty complicated with Singlesurface. Singlesurface even forces to render the quads behind the players back (if there are any). After all, the copied entities work pretty well. I got dense grass all around, at high speed even in a real game enviroment.