What causes my builds to have textures flickering?

Why is it everytime I build something the textures start flickering? By flickering I mean
the prim or the texture flashes and the basic color of the texture will try to blend into the enitre prim while it is flashing.... Or something like that

It's a little hard to tell what you mean based on your description, but chances are you've got some overlapping prims. Make sure no two surfaces are occupying the same space at the same time.

If, as you say, it's truly happening every time you build anything, then I'd say you've got a graphics problem. Make sure you've got an SL compatible video card, the latest drivers for it, and the latest version of DirectX.

The problem you are having would appear to be as suggested above. if you have 2 prims with a face that occupies the same coordinates your graphics card cannot decide which texture to apply to the face. try to make sure you dont have overlaps. if you have to overlap prims then try to make the faces at slightly different coordinates. this will allow your graphics card to decide which is in front and then render it correctly.

this is the result of two textures trying to exist in the same place at the same time. this can be cured by either butting prims end to end, or if that is impractical make one prim .002 thinner than the other.

Thank you all. I will try to make sure my prims arent touching. Also
I have noticed that it does not happen nearly as often if I do not set the texture to full bright. That does cause me some problems at night. I guess I should use light in my textures ...? How do you use light in your builds?

Its okay if they are touching. As long as they not overlapping right at the surface. It difficult to explain.

heres an attempt at drawing it
imagine PPPP is the textured surface of one prim
imagine bbbb is the textured surface of another prim
...... represents empty space or the space inside a prim.
BBBB represents P + b in the exactly the same place.

This is Okay
PPPPPPPPPP....................
....................bbbbbbbbbb
......................................
....................bbbbbbbbbb
PPPPPPPPPP....................


So is this
PPPPPPPPPP...................
..........bbbbbbbbbb..........
......................................
..........bbbbbbbbbb..........
PPPPPPPPPP...................

So is this:
..........bbbbbbbbbb..........
PPPPPPPPPP...................
......................................
..........bbbbbbbbbb..........
PPPPPPPPPP...................

But, this will cause problems:
.....PPPPPPBBBBbbbbbb.....
...........................................
.....PPPPPPBBBBbbbbbb.....

The computer won't know how to render the "BBBB" surface properly.
How's that?

I believe this phenomenon is called "Z-Flicker" if that helps you in your research. Can anyone confirm?

Also, textures with alpha layers cause even more problems.

They can be touching; just make sure they're not overlapping. Don't ever have two or more surfaces occupying exactly the same space and you'll be fine.


By turning on Full Bright, you're eliminating the effects of lighting conditions on each surface. Lighting plays a large role in the flickering, so when you eliminate it, it makes sense that you'd see less flicker. You're only putting a band-aid over the problem though, not solving it. To solve it, all you need to do is simply make sure prims don't overlap, which is really, really, really, really easy.



That depends on what you mean by "light". Are you talking about using prims to emit local light, or are you talking about faking the appearance of lighting by painting faux light and shadow into your textures (baking)?

The former is simple. Just select a prim, go to the Features tab in the editor, and turn on the light. The parameters for the light's properties are pretty self explanatory. Just be a aware of a couple things. First, not everyone will be able to see the light, as it's dependent on hardware power and on preferences settings. Second, only the closest six lights to a person's avatar will ever be rendered on his or her screen, so choose carefully how many lights you want to use and where you want to put them.

If you're asking about baking, that's a much more complicated subject. Generally, there are two ways to go with that. You can use a 3D modeling program like Maya or 3DS Max to simulate the effects of real light on a real surface and output the results as a texture, or you can paint your lighting onto your texture by hand in Photoshop (or any combination of the two). Which way you will want to go will obviously depend on what software you have, your familiarity with how to use it to get the results you want, and your skill as a 2D/3D artist. If you don't understand any of what I've been talking about in this paragraph, then I'd suggest you buy yourself a good book on texturing. This forum is a good place for discussing simple how-to questions, but it's not well suited for explaining the entirety of such a large subject from A-Z.

I've always heard it called "Z-fighting", but I guess "Z-flicker" is probably close enough that people would know what you mean.


Here's an example of where "close enough" does not apply. You mean "alpha channel", not "alpha layer". There's no such thing as an alpha layer. Mixing up the words "layer" and "channel" makes for extreme confusion for those trying to learn how graphics works for the first time. Please use correct terminology.

Thank you very much chosen. I will study all of what you said to get great builds.

What happen on the last build was, I was trying to build a house when I noticed that at sl nighttime I couldnt see things as clearly in the house. I then changed many of the textures to full bright. When I did that it started flickering very often. Maybe that only happens on my pc I dont know. but now I dont know what to do about light in my builds.

I'm sorry!

Just a suggestion for having the inside of your house lighter.

Go to Edit then click the button for "Select Texture." By clicking on the interior texture of your wall, and then turning on "full bright," it will make that side of the prim light while the others remain normal with no lighting. This make reduce the chances of flicker if only one texture being loaded is set at full bright. However I too believe your Z-Flicker is caused by overlapping prims, which is most common. But try selecting only the inside faces of the prims and making them light, versus the whole prim.

Also you could just make lights; just simple prims set at full bright or light, and you could make as many as you want with as few prims as you need.

SL only has a maximum of 8 lights. This includes the sun and the moon, leaving a maximum of 6 light prims in any one area. Any more than this will not appear to cast light.

Well then my suggestion stands corrected. Thank you.

So then Gregg, you would have to make the prim lights "full bright" apparently, instead of "light."

Gregg - I had this problem after downloading an updated version of SL: lots of textures flashed and flickered, it was driving me mad, I eventually realised it was happening with all full bright textures and the only way I eliminated it was by downloading the latest driver for my graphics card.

Ricci

In some occasions, sinking one prim's surface 0.001 m below the other prim's surface is an option. But, this is very situational, you will not want to do this with walls for example, since it'll result in a 0.001 m line of the joint side of the wall. But for smaller objects, especially with curved shapes, it's an ideal solution

Depending on the textures used on the wall, it may not be objectionable. I have had to deal with misaligned prims before and by texturing the ends the same as the sides, and choosing an appropriate texture for all ... the misaligned seam never shows.

If you want to see something interesting, make a simple box. Change it to bright red. Shift drag to copy it, then control-z to move it back to its original position. Change it to bright blue. Copy again, undo, change it to green. Do this a few times until you have 8 or so boxes. Now walk around the box.

Crazy huh?