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Wow, there are so many puns that could go with that title... it's staggering!

Anyway, to the brass tacks. First off, the standing question; I'm looking for a good Matrix Tutorial for DBPRO.

Specifically what I want to know right now; I noticed that when I make a matrix I get a grid with diagonal lines going through them. What are those? How do I get rid of them?
When they were just stylistic I didn't care, but I just tried raising exactly one square and two of my bordering squares were broken in half along the diagonal line I mentioned above! It looks really weird! Help!

Each tile of a matrix is made up of 2 triangles (polys). By default the matrix is in wireframe mode so you can see the lines. When you texture the matrix (premare matrix texture command) you will not longer see the lines.

So why is each tile broken into two Polys? Is there a way to change this? I would prefer that each tile were broken into either no polys or four polys so that when I'm stretching them they remain uniform. Any ideas?

Why don't you try to use an object instead a Matrix?

That's what I've always done, but I'm trying to learn what I can and can not do with the matrix. Its a matter of completeness you understand.

lol, matrixes are not a great stuff. It's great when you need to test some feaures of the game on a field but are you execting to make great stuff with that?

Just thought I'd see what I could do with it. I'm working on a project that it would be nice to have an outdoor setting with slopes and things, and I thought that it might be an attractive way of doing it, but that vertice is really tripping it up, maybe I'll try Make Terrain with grey maps instead.

The help files:


MAKE MATRIX : MAKE MATRIX Matrix Number, Width, Height, XSegments, ZSegments
DELETE MATRIX : DELETE MATRIX Matrix Number
PREPARE MATRIX TEXTURE : PREPARE MATRIX TEXTURE Matrix Number, Image Number, Across, Down
POSITION MATRIX : POSITION MATRIX Matrix Number, X, Y, Z
FILL MATRIX : FILL MATRIX Matrix Number, Height, Tile Number
RANDOMIZE MATRIX : RANDOMIZE MATRIX Matrix Number, Maximum Height
GHOST MATRIX ON : GHOST MATRIX ON Matrix Number
GHOST MATRIX OFF : GHOST MATRIX OFF Matrix Number
SET MATRIX WIREFRAME ON : SET MATRIX WIREFRAME ON Matrix Number
SET MATRIX WIREFRAME OFF : SET MATRIX WIREFRAME OFF Matrix Number
SET VECTOR3 TO MATRIX POSITION : SET VECTOR3 TO MATRIX POSITION Vector, Matrix Number
SET MATRIX TEXTURE : SET MATRIX TEXTURE Matrix Number, Texture Mode, Mip Mode
SET MATRIX : SET MATRIX Matrix Number, Wire, Transparency, Cull, Filter, Light, Fog, Ambient
SET MATRIX TRIM : SET MATRIX TRIM Matrix Number, TrimX, TrimY
SET MATRIX PRIORITY : SET MATRIX PRIORITY Matrix Number, Priority Flag
SHIFT MATRIX DOWN : SHIFT MATRIX DOWN Matrix Number
SHIFT MATRIX LEFT : SHIFT MATRIX LEFT Matrix Number
SHIFT MATRIX RIGHT : SHIFT MATRIX RIGHT Matrix Number
SHIFT MATRIX UP : SHIFT MATRIX UP Matrix Number
SET MATRIX HEIGHT : SET MATRIX HEIGHT Matrix Number, TileX, TileZ, Height
SET MATRIX NORMAL : SET MATRIX NORMAL Matrix Number, TileX, TileZ, NX, NY, NZ
SET MATRIX TILE : SET MATRIX TILE Matrix Number, TileX, TileZ, Tile Number
UPDATE MATRIX : UPDATE MATRIX Matrix Number
MATRIX EXIST : Return Integer=MATRIX EXIST(Matrix Number)
MATRIX POSITION X : Return Float=MATRIX POSITION X(Matrix Number)
MATRIX POSITION Y : Return Float=MATRIX POSITION Y(Matrix Number)
MATRIX POSITION Z : Return Float=MATRIX POSITION Z(Matrix Number)
MATRIX TILE COUNT : Return Integer=MATRIX TILE COUNT(Matrix Number)
MATRIX TILES EXIST : Return Integer=MATRIX TILES EXIST(Matrix Number)
MATRIX WIREFRAME STATE : Return Integer=MATRIX WIREFRAME STATE(Matrix Number)
GET GROUND HEIGHT : Return Float=GET GROUND HEIGHT(Matrix Number, X, Z)
GET MATRIX HEIGHT : Return Float=GET MATRIX HEIGHT(Matrix Number, TileX, TileZ)

actually its broken into 4, 2 polys per tile, one ontop and the other underneath, thats why its so slow

There are no polys on the underside of a matrix. Thats why you can't see it from underneith without turning culling off. Having invisible polys would be pointless, especially since you cannot change their heights seperate from the ones above.

I want to know what people on this forum think of the matrix commands. I've heard quite a few people refer to them as worthless.

Does anyone disagree? If so, what alternatives do you recommend? How are they superior to the Matrix commands?

Does anyone agree? If so, what are their virtues? Do you use them? In what way?

I'm using DBPRO, but how do Matrix commands stack up in DBC?