Transparent Graphics in Same Proximity

Hello,

An object that is "mostly transparent" is designed as such so you can see through it, or see through at least some of it from various angles. Examples of "transparent" objects include windows, lamp shades, or house plants. These objects are of course not completely transparent, so you know that they're there.

If you've furnished your SL dwelling, you probably encountered the following or similar.

My cottage has many windows. Therefore, I have to be careful when placing transparent objects near them. Two transparent objects placed next to one another will "fight" until only one of them can be seen while part of the other object disappears--until you change your viewing perspective of the two items.

This problem can be quite frustrating because my cottage is relatively small, and again it has several windows. Moving things around can help, but only to a point, and I'm left with a less-than-perfect display.

Based on the information I've found, it seems nothing can be done about this problem. And the problem probably has nothing to do with Second Life, but instead involves the general nature of "transparent" graphics and how they interact with one another. But I could be wrong.

Other than moving objects around, has anyone found a way to resolve this problem? In addition to "regular" SL users like myself, I'd love to hear from graphics people.

Thanks!
Avanti

What I did in one room of my house which has less actual wall space, and more windows, was to create two boxes, lengthen and narrow them and create a + shape. I then colored them white and placed them in each hollowed wall piece to create the illusion of there being an alpha/trans window texture. after that i could toss plants in front of it, or drape alphas over the windows with no issues.

The only time that doesn't work, obviously, is if the texture includes the window (as in a 3D build texture set), because the entire wall would be a tga file.

What graphics card do you have? I've heard that this sort of problem can be quite bad on ATI cards where it will be fine with nVidia ones.

I have an nVidia card and it's the same issue as the OP.

I wish I understood more about the "alpha sorting problem" too. Its severity seems to be a function of both the client and the OpenGL drivers (so the speculation that ATI or nVidia might be better or worse in one release or another may have some reality behind it). For a while, the Linux alpha client was just godawful, with surfaces scores of meters away fighting for front when viewed from certain angles.

One thing I find particularly puzzling is the (relative) immunity of Linden plants. They'll still interact with other alpha-channel surfaces, but it seems to be much harder to trigger, compared to "store-bought" and "homegrown" plants. Is it just the multitude of viewing angles involved with the complex Linden plants? Or perhaps something to do with their magical Level of Detail rendering? Or, by any lucky chance, something mere mortals could use to improve behavior of their own alpha-channel surfaces?

There is some great information down in the texture forum regarding working with alpha channels. That being said, alpha channel flicker is the bane of all builders. You have to play with it a bit to find out just what proximity you can place things that have transparency in the texture. And yes, the Linden made plants seem to be done with something other than a traditional alpha channel and are not affected by being in close proximity. I'm working on a new house that has lower windows with alpha cut outs and a solarium inside that can only use Linden plants otherwise everything flickers. It sucks but you learn to build around it. Some things you have to build with actual prims instead of relying on an alpha texture and some places you can use a texture with transparency to save yourself some prims.

With the cottage, the only thing you could really do is keep anything with transparency away from the windows, you'll have to tweak a bit to see how close you can get to the window before the channels start to flicker but you can still get satisfactory results even if it won't ever be perfect. It's one of those things that just is what it is.