Planar texture mapping + tapered prims = flicker

I've noticed a problem with planar texture mapping and tapered prims recently. Being more of a builder than a grafix artist I've posted this in the building forum. Here's the background:

I recently updated all the cabins in my treehouses with planar texture mapping so that they'd look better. I made the floors and roofs using shapemaker which generates tapered prims. The default mapping on tapered prims is simply awful so I reckoned it was about time to 'pretty up' my wares so they'd look better.

While I was busy racing through my catalogue of treehouses I noticed that some of the prims would flicker in and out of view temporarily going transparent/invisible. This is not your typical 'overlapping prim' flicker as I'm very precise with my building. The prims were still there. It wasn't as if I suddenly found myself falling to the ground or anything. Anyway, I put it down to my crap graphics card (nvidia 6200) and kept soldiering on, finished up that project and put them up for sale.

Today I got a distressed call from a customer who was experiencing severe prim flicker. When I arrived to help I noticed that the treehouse cabin had planar texture mapping. We tried alot of different 'fixes' and eventually resorted to the bad old cache-clearing which seemed to fix the problem temporarily. No doubt it'll return in a few days' time.

The problem for me is that I've used tapered prims extensively in my treehouse cabins and don't really want to go back to selling them with the default texture mapping. First it looks horrible and second it means a whole lot more work for me. Has anyone else had any issues with planar texture mapping on tapered prims? And if so are there any real fixes for this problem?

Yes, Ive experienced this too, and like you, I put it down to a crap graphics card (NVidia 5200). Basically I dont use planar texturing on tapered prims. Not the best solution but i've had no complaints from customers. Am sure someone else can offer more constructive advice, just thought I would let you know your not alone

I've noticed a lot of weird texturing anomalies lately. I definitely see the flicker from time to time with planar mapping, and not just on tapered surfaces. On one of my current ESC projects, almost the entire build is planar mapped. Stuff flickers on and off all the time. It didn't occur to me that that was why.

Default mapping has its issues too these days, so there's really no way to win. Every so often, default-mapped surfaces with repeats per face set to higher than 1 end up with just one instance of the repeat looking normal, and all the others stretched out to infinite width. You end up with the one instance that looks right being surrounded by what can only be described as a dense field of hairlines.

With either problem, relogging seems is a temporary fix. Hopefully this Wednesday's update, which will scrap the existing graphics pipeline in favor of the First Look technology, will clear up these issues. If it's still going on after Wednesday, then it might be time to crack some heads over at LL. (And by "crack some heads", I of course mean bribe them into solving the problem right away with lots of pizza and beer. )

I guess the irony is that tapered prims are the biggest reason to switch to planar mapping.

Ho hum