SOLVED!!! You won't believe it! Billboard facing direction it should be!

ititrx · July 20, 2007, 7:21pm

:spin:
Stupid thing, no matter what I do I cant get it turned around. LOL.

Even after I unparented it and just use it, I cannot flip it around.

I have flipped the normals, doesnt matter, turned the empty every which way, doesnt matter…

While it was parented to object with camera, it dropped behind the player instead of in front, which is why I played with the axis…

i dont know but I could use a little help, thanks very much,
iti

If you run the blend, notice it isnt parented anymore. When you press p, move forward a bit W and the turn around and you will see what I mean.

Mmph · July 20, 2007, 7:24pm

try pressing ALT-R with your camera selected to clear the rotation… If your camera is not facing in either the Z+ or y+ it wont display properly…

sorry I don’t remember if it is z- or y+

Try facing it in y+ direction and pressing control A to apply scale and rotation…If that dont make them face the right way try z-

hope that helps…
I personaly don’t use billboards, so it has been a long time for me,sorry about that.

Edit ,
It seems to me that there was a bug that does this if the two side is set, along with the billboard.
Last time I used billboards was back in blender 2.27a days…

ititrx · July 20, 2007, 8:16pm

LOL, I tried both two and one, same thing…will have to take the player apart, the z is the , idont know, im tired. will think on it tommmmmmmmrrrow. lol

Thanks for your advice.

ititrx · July 20, 2007, 8:18pm

The axis arrows on the camera show the z sticking out the back of the camera.

Mmph · July 20, 2007, 8:27pm

after you rotate the billboarded plane around in object mode, press control A to apply the scale and rotation…

in the first place you may have rotated it in object mode , is my guess now…

rotate it on the Z axis 180 degrees and press control A to apply the scale and rotation…

if that dont work, please ask again… p00f will be off work soon too, he might know.

ititrx · July 21, 2007, 10:47am

Yes, I turned it in object mode, and applied scale and rotation. Then I tried it in edit mode, and the applied scale and rotation in object mode.

I will look at it again in a bit…I need to eat first, lol.

I flipped the normals this way and that.

What do you use for rain if you dont use the billboard to follow the camera? Just curious, when you have the time.

Thanks again for helping.

Arr_Matey · July 21, 2007, 11:16am

Just turn it around in editmode.

purgarus · July 21, 2007, 8:54pm

Do you have a key set at frame one? i probably have no idea of what im talking of.

Grenade · July 21, 2007, 10:51pm

Try to put the object center on the opposite side it’s on now, that might work.

ititrx · July 22, 2007, 1:27pm

LOL, that would be a good idea, but no, no keys set. Its just a plane with a Uv alpha image on it.

Thats why its so odd…

This just a strange thing. I got rid of billboard and just made it alpha, and it was still backwards. So I rotated it again, following OPGL tut, it says billboards should face front, from front option.

So I did that too, and was able to see it, but of course, now it was twisted to the side…

I dont know, it should be so simple? I played with it again today and found two of the polys, were turned sidways, or I should say the uv’s were turned sideways?

So I turned them around the right way to, recalculated the normals, etc and each time did Ctrl A. Still no luck…

I think I need to read the wiki on orientations…it seems the empty and the plane have different orientations, so perhaps thats it…

I dont know, I should probably give up and do something else, but I hate to give up, lol.

facemania · July 22, 2007, 2:10pm

That’s what I’d do. It may take some playing around, but you can always get it.

ititrx · July 22, 2007, 3:40pm

I DID!!! It doesnt work!

Please, someone, download the file and look at it? LOL.

facemania · July 22, 2007, 5:24pm

Ah, sorry I didn’t read through it all, didn’t see the blend file :o

I took a look at your file, and I think you’re trying to get a rain effect. So why would you need the rain on billboard?
Maybe if you’re simulating a kind of rain falling off a roof and going on either side…Then you could just duplicate the rain planes and flip one of them.

ititrx · July 22, 2007, 5:49pm

LOL, please dont be sorry… Im happy you even looked and read a bit of it. Really.

Yes, it will be rain, with empties parented to the camera.

Billboard? Im using it because the example rain file I have used it. So the thing will always face the camera, no matter which direction you look.

I am no trying it with track to, to turn the planes to the camera, however now they are laying down. LOL…

I havent used track to before. LIke you couldnt tell, right? Anyway, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

The “Track to” type, rotates the object in such a way that the Y-axis points to the target specified in the “OB:” field. Normally this happens only in the X/Y plane of the object (indicated by the “3D” button not beeing pressed). With “3D” pressed the tracking is done in 3D. The “Time:” parameter sets how fast the tracking is done. Zero means immedeately, values above zero produce a delay (are slower) in tracking.

facemania · July 22, 2007, 6:04pm

ititrx:

LOL, please dont be sorry… Im happy you even looked and read a bit of it. Really.

Yes, it will be rain, with empties parented to the camera.

Billboard? Im using it because the example rain file I have used it. So the thing will always face the camera, no matter which direction you look.

I am no trying it with track to, to turn the planes to the camera, however now they are laying down. LOL…

I havent used track to before. LIke you couldnt tell, right? Anyway, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

The “Track to” type, rotates the object in such a way that the Y-axis points to the target specified in the “OB:” field. Normally this happens only in the X/Y plane of the object (indicated by the “3D” button not beeing pressed). With “3D” pressed the tracking is done in 3D. The “Time:” parameter sets how fast the tracking is done. Zero means immedeately, values above zero produce a delay (are slower) in tracking.

You’re observations about the track to are correct.

I put together a simple blend file for the track to rain. It still needs to be tweaked, so it’s more natural when it’s turning. But I’m sure you can handle it. http://www.fileden.com/files/17915/not%20as%20ugly.blend

PapaSmurf · July 22, 2007, 6:09pm

i don’t mean to be a butinsky, since you are having soooooo much fun with this. But…it is tracking to face the camera. If you want the rain to like appear to always be in front of the camera, parent the rain “cloud” to the camera, and remove the track to, When the parent camera rotates, the rain cloud will too and thus always be raining in front

facemania · July 22, 2007, 6:13pm

You raise a good point, but if you rotate fast enough, the planes will no longer be facing you. It depends on the kind of effect you want to get really.

Mmph · July 22, 2007, 6:35pm

Here is what I do rather than billboard stuff…
http://www.savefile.com/files/909871

Sorry I did not see your blender file for some reason either

I cant get the billboards to work in my file or in your file.

imagine the above example with drip textures, and splash textures for the ground

ititrx · July 22, 2007, 6:46pm

facemania:
Thank you very much I will dwnld it now, so fast!

Oh Mmmph! We were posting at the same time. I was slower, thanks for the file I will gander at it too.

Papasmuf:
LOL, yeah having lots and lots of fun… even just dropping them with the empty, they always face the wrong direction. Or lay down…

I dont understand how the axis work together, for local, global, view, and 2D versus 3D…

ANd then I found this which I dont understand what plant person is saying:

Note that for Halo, the visible side of your plane must face the negative X axis.

So Im guessing that in global, the object shows the X axis arrow pointing out on way only, and thats the Pos side, and the neg side is the opposite…ok? OK>

And facing towards that neg x would mean the normals would have to face that way? Correct?

And when you start flipping the axis or turning the plane on its axis, how does it all work for edit and then object…

oh heck. Sorry for such a long post…

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billboard = Z always faces camera. Good 4 trees.

halo = completely faces camera. Good 4 particles.
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#4 Posted on 30-Jun-07, 22:17
[RIGHT] [/RIGHT]

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Excelent,thank you guys,now I can get back to work
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Note that for Halo, the visible side of your plane must face the negative X axis.
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#6 Posted on 01-Jul-07, 18:45
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ititrx · July 22, 2007, 7:12pm

facemania:
Thank you, I only used the one empty because I got so tired of the black rain! So I deleted them all to just one to deal with. LOL

(then went to flipping the normals, axis etc like a crazy person. as above)

Do you notice when you start it the rain is black, thats the back side or somthing, the rain is the grey light color.

If you rotate around to the left, you will see the rain turn the correct color, grey. But you have to face that direction to see the billboard correctly.

Thanks for trying though, I really appreciate it. I cracked up when I saw the name, lol.