Translucent?

Troubleshooting graphics
1

Now perhaps I'm missing something here, and perhaps I'm not, but when I create an Object and setSolidColor(new ColorRGBA(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.5f)); shouldn't this give me a translucently black/gray object?  Is alpha channels not yet supported or am I doing something wrong?  I am trying to figure out how to create translucent objects with and without textures.



Thanks,



darkfrog

2

See TestRenderQueue for an example on creating a translucent object.

3

Yeah, I was monkeying around with the AlphaState just a few minutes ago, but I've got a textured ball that I'm applying this to and it looks good but as it rolls it fades from a darker blue to a lighter blue…just looks strange and unrealistic.  I can put up a WebStart of it if you'd like to see it.



Thanks,



darkfrog

4

do you have culling enabled?  often translucent items will appear odd if backface triangles are rendered.

5

Well here is the code segment:



Sphere sphereGraphics = new Sphere("Sphere", new Vector3f(), 50, 50, 3.0f);

        sphereGraphics.setLocalTranslation(new Vector3f(0.0f, 8.0f, 5.0f));

        sphereGraphics.setRenderState(loadTexture("/data/brushedMetal.png"));

        MaterialState ms1 = display.getRenderer().createMaterialState();

        ms1.setEnabled(true);

        ms1.setDiffuse(new ColorRGBA(0,0,1,.75f));

        ms1.setShininess(128);

        sphereGraphics.setRenderState(ms1);

        as = display.getRenderer().createAlphaState();

        as.setEnabled(true);

        as.setBlendEnabled(true);

        as.setSrcFunction(AlphaState.SB_SRC_ALPHA);

        as.setDstFunction(AlphaState.DB_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);

        sphereGraphics.setRenderState(as);

        rootNode.attachChild(sphereGraphics);

        DynamicPhysicsObject spherePhysics = new DynamicPhysicsObject(sphereGraphics, 1.0f);

        pw.addObject(spherePhysics);



I copied and pasted what I saw in TestRenderQueue just in case I was missing something in the first test.



Thanks,



darkfrog

6

Sure, but those are boxes.  Spheres are quite a bit different.  Anyhow, please go ahead and webstart it so I can see what you're up against.

7

Maybe this thread should be moved to the "Graphics" board?

8

Yeah, sorry about that…I've just been living in the Physics forum and forgot that anything existed outside of it. :o  Feel free to move it if you'd like.



The WebStart for it is: http://www.pyramex.com/webstart/test2/GameTest01.jnlp



I've been playing with explosions too, so if you hit 'X' you can see verbatim of what I stole out of the ExplosionTest. :-p



Thanks,



darkfrog

9

Now that this has been moved to Graphics nobody is responding…what's up with that? :-p



Thanks,



darkfrog

10

Sorry, I looked at the webstart a few days ago and thought, yep, it's translucent…  and yep I see the issue you describe.  :P  I had the same issue too when I was making a translucent sphere to put around the planets in FurBallz to simulate atmosphere (eventually stripped out.)  I believe I was able to get rid of most of the issue by adding a Cull state to the sphere to remove back faces.  The other thing I think I did was try using CompositeSphere instead to try and make the cap circles less evident.  Anyhow, see if those two things help at all.

11

Thanks, I'll give a little more time to this over the weekend and see if those fix the problem.



darkfrog