Items seen through others

I have a major issue with things in certain places being seen through others. In my home for example, trees that are outside, are seen as if they are inside with us. Or, if you are outside, you can see a ladder, a rug, a window, a back wall, or other things (not all at once, usually one or another) through the wall of the cottage. Or you see the tree morph through the privacy screen. I see it elsewhere, but rarely. Any idea what causes it and what to do to fix it?

Sounds like good old alpha textures causing problems. Unfortunately, there isnt really anything you can do other try not have multiple alpha textures in view of each other. They often overlap and appear to be where they should not, been like this for a long long time.

The problem even has a name........"Alpha Sorting Gilitch". The problem occurs when two or more textures containing alpha channels are viewed inline with each other.........the graphics rendering engines used by graphics cards and chipsets get "confused" on which texture is in front of the other texture(s). So the textures swap back and forth depending on the angle viewed from. There's not a lot you can do about it except to make sure any texture containing the alpha channel (a 32 bit texture) is placed in such a way that it does not line up with another 32 bit texture.

A 32 bit texture is a texture that contains an alpha channel in addition to the red, blue, and green channels (RBGA). The alpha channel defines transparent areas (or partially transparent areas) of a texture. A 24 bit texture does not contain that additional channel (RBG) and does not have the problem. There are legitamate reasons to use 32 bit textures (windows and semi see through parts are examples). But over use will cause sorting problems.........such as putting two adjacent walls of a house next to each (from oblique angles you will see the sorting issue). A way to avoid something like that is to place a 24 bit texture on the adjoing wall.

And then there's a problem of some texture makers unnecessarily saving a texture as 32 bit when no transparency (or any partial transparency) is needed. Even if everything in the texture is opaque and no amount of transparency is seen the texture still contains the extra bits defining transparency...........the graphic rendering will see it as a texture that requires transparency and will render it as such. Making a "non transparent" texture subject to the sort glitch.

If you need transparency use it.....but take a minute to think about where you place it in relation to other textures using or needing transparency. But if you don't need transparency save it as 24 bit. A solid wall does not need 32 bits......24 bits is proper. Some people (when I first started my texture making I was one of them ) think that 32 bits is better or higher quality and save all textures that way. That's not true.

Thank you. I was not aware of that. I was simply told to save files as png, and nothing more. unfortunately, what I need it for, I use the alpha textures.. trees, windows, and such. So I guess I just live with it.