Transparency Nightmares

[Rekindled Phoenix]

I have had the most difficulty creating transparency that doesn't cause a graphical glitch like the image below. Browsing through the tutorials, it seems that none of them reference using the FramewOrk methods. Do they automatically set the clearmode appropriately?

 

Neither smoke (alpha) or fire (light) MAT settings work to fix this issue. I've also tried creating my own textures to replace the defaults, and have had no luck.

 

Either way, this is my basic emitter setup in C#.

 

//transparency refers to foreground
World.Current = Framework.Layers.Transparency.World;
Framework.Layers.Transparency.Camera.ClearMode = CameraClearMode.None;
Emitter flames = new Emitter(new Vector3(-.5F, -.5F, 0),200);
flames.Material = Material.Load("abstract::fire.mat");
flames.Area = new Vector3(.2F, 1, .2F);
flames.Radii = new Radii(.5F, 0);
flames.Waver = 1;
World.Current = Framework.Layers.Main.World;

 

 

In case you're wondering about the enum values

 

public enum CameraClearMode : int //byte
{
Unique = -1, // suggested by Canardian, only godrays visible
None = 0,
Depth = 1,
Color = 2,
}

 

I'm so frustrated, if this doesn't get fixed it's possible I may have to use another engine at this point.

 

Please help, oh wise and knowledgeable forum users. So you have a secret transparency recipe?

 

 

EDIT: Secondly, why does the vertical camera angle effect particle intensity?

[ChrisMAN]

Does the material set the blend mode to transparency?

[Rekindled Phoenix]

Yeah, tried different methods (as mentioned above) for both types. Here's an custom mat that's similar to the smoke.mat

 

texture0="abstract::flame-blur2.dds"
depthmask=0
blend=alpha
zsort=1
shader="abstract::particles.vert","abstract::particles.frag"

 

It's using blend=alpha. I assume that's the same as a 'transparency' setting.

[DigitalHax]

Try this, instead of

 

shader="abstract::particles.vert","abstract::particles.frag"

 

 

this,

shader="abstract::particles.vert","abstract::particles_alpha.frag"

[Pixel Perfect]

As DigitalHax has alluded to, the key thing here is the shader usage and definition. As a general rule:

 

Use _alphatest versions of the frag shaders for full transparency (is either fully transparent or not) which can be used in the main world. So great for things like vegetation etc. This treats all transparency values above a threshold value as fully transparent and is more efficient to render.

 

Use _alpha versions for all graduated transparency which needs to be in the transparency world.

[DigitalHax]

Also to your other problem, it might be that the particles can appear blurry, as usually the particles are rendered in the foreground world, and so if it is being viewed over the skybox, and with DOF activated it will treat the particles as being far away. Just disable DOF if possible.

[Josh]

Does the example in the underground scene work?

[Rekindled Phoenix]

Thanks guys for all of your answers

 

Still stuggling, since the .frag file you mentioned is missing...

 

Try this

shader="abstract::particles.vert","abstract::particles_alpha.frag"

 

I looked throughout the shaders.pak (version 2.5) and I didn't see anything labeled with particles and an alpha frag shader. When I try to use them anyway, since I assumed they were special labels at first, my application freezes.

 

 

Does the example in the underground scene work?

 

Yes, though nothing in that scene exposes particles to the skybox. I'm running a scene within a large open outdoors area, so the chances of particles overlapping the background are high.

 

Could you please attach the appropriate frag shaders to this post?

[Rekindled Phoenix]

Anyone got any suggestions?