Transparency on textures overlapping?

[titipoko]

I've got a small problem that is bugging me and I cannot seem to solve myself.

 

I'm currently working with textures with transparency. The problem is, that sometimes (while changing perspective, aka rotating the camera) a mesh with an AlphaProperty behaves strange. See the screenshot for what I'm talking about:

 

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6740/screenshot26xv1.th.jpg

 

The corsage is made of two meshes: one for the cloth (the white and red parts, has an AlphaProperty) and one for the lace (black brim, has AlphaProperty aswell)

The brim mesh sometimes makes the cloth mesh behind it invisible on the areas it covers the cloth, and sometimes not.

 

Is there a possible solution? Is it because both meshes have AlphaProperty? If this is the case, I'll have to merge all transparent parts into one mesh and delete the Alpha on the other parts maybe.

[Vagrant0]

Is there a possible solution? Is it because both meshes have AlphaProperty? If this is the case, I'll have to merge all transparent parts into one mesh and delete the Alpha on the other parts maybe.

The engine that Oblivion uses doesn't handle multiple transparent layers well. This is an engine issue (quite a common one since many other games seem to have this issue as well). The only way to have one transparent object over another is to use DXT1 format for the layer behind, which causes that texture to lose some graphic quality. The other option is to use not use alpha layers to make gaps appear in a mesh, but to actually make those holes part of the mesh. In this case, it wouldn't make sense to make all those holes in the lace mesh based, but instead make the portion in the center, and the lacing mesh based. If the object isn't very complicated, this usually has better results since it tends to make those details a bit more defined.

[titipoko]

The engine that Oblivion uses doesn't handle multiple transparent layers well. This is an engine issue (quite a common one since many other games seem to have this issue as well). The only way to have one transparent object over another is to use DXT1 format for the layer behind, which causes that texture to lose some graphic quality. The other option is to use not use alpha layers to make gaps appear in a mesh, but to actually make those holes part of the mesh. In this case, it wouldn't make sense to make all those holes in the lace mesh based, but instead make the portion in the center, and the lacing mesh based. If the object isn't very complicated, this usually has better results since it tends to make those details a bit more defined.

Hmm, so in the end it's like I thought - the game itself has problems handling this case. Too bad, but I have to deal with it. I'll try out your advise reducing the DXT first, if this doesn't work well, I'll simply reduce transparency to one mesh with AlphaProperty. Recreating the pattern with vertices is beyond question.

 

Thanks alot for explaining! :thanks: I'll keep in mind for further designs :yes:

 

EDIT

The DXT solution did not create the results I hoped it would, so I've merged all the transparent parts into one mesh, with only one AlphaProperty left for the whole thing. Now it works like a charm! :bunny:

 

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/2616/screenshot27mp9.th.jpg

 

There is still a minimum exposure, but only from really weird perspectives you rarely experience while playing. I guess this is regular.