T3D 1.1 Final - Odd particle emitter render - LOGGED (THREED-2066)
by Fyodor -bank- Osokin · in Torque 3D Professional · 06/27/2011 (5:26 am) · 6 replies
Build: T3D 1.1 Final (and any pre-final versions of T3D 1.1)
Platform: Windows 7 SP1, June 2010 DX SDK, MS VC2008 Pro
Target: Particle Emitter
Issues:
Default particle renders fine only with sky at the back. Anything else leads to odd render. See screenshot.
click to see fullsize screenshot
You may notice that at the left of tower, another emitter's particles are rendering ok.
Steps to Repeat:
Load stock Deathball Desert level, start WorldEditor, switch to Particle Emitter (it will automatically drop default emitter). Fly around and notice that rendering is different when you have sky and other objects behind particles.
Suggested Fix:
None yet.
Platform: Windows 7 SP1, June 2010 DX SDK, MS VC2008 Pro
Target: Particle Emitter
Issues:
Default particle renders fine only with sky at the back. Anything else leads to odd render. See screenshot.
click to see fullsize screenshot
You may notice that at the left of tower, another emitter's particles are rendering ok.
Steps to Repeat:
Load stock Deathball Desert level, start WorldEditor, switch to Particle Emitter (it will automatically drop default emitter). Fly around and notice that rendering is different when you have sky and other objects behind particles.
Suggested Fix:
None yet.
About the author
Game developer.
Recent Threads
#2
06/27/2011 (9:06 am)
i'm pretty sure this is all to do with the way that the individual material uses transparency handling, i'll see if i can remember what i did to solve a similar issue. 
#3
06/27/2011 (9:42 am)
I thought it was something to do with soft particles, I am not 100% sure though. I think tweaking some values (can't remember what) in the particle editor did the trick. 
#4
I've confirmed the presents of this bug. Logged as THREED-2066.
06/27/2011 (9:46 am)
It is really noticeable in top down view with Terrain. The Emitter is being hidden behind terrain.I've confirmed the presents of this bug. Logged as THREED-2066.
#5
06/29/2011 (5:14 pm)
Just to point out this happens with a high or 0 "softness distance". Put it to 1 and the emitter works as expected. 
#6
Example screenshot, with softness set to a very high number:
www.flickr.com/photos/sickheadgames/6757866119/
The particles are not rendering behind the mesh; the illusion that they are is caused by having a very large softness distance (or zero, which is treated the same as a very large number).
Until the depth behind a particle exceeds the softness distance value, that pixel will not be fully opaque. So while the GroundPlane (or any other mesh) is behind, the distance is much less than 1000 and the particles are hard to see. Since the sky is infinitely far away, particle pixels rendered in front of it are fully opaque.
01/24/2012 (5:42 pm)
I just finished investigating this bug and have come to the conclusion that it is actually obeying the settings correctly. Example screenshot, with softness set to a very high number:
www.flickr.com/photos/sickheadgames/6757866119/
The particles are not rendering behind the mesh; the illusion that they are is caused by having a very large softness distance (or zero, which is treated the same as a very large number).
Until the depth behind a particle exceeds the softness distance value, that pixel will not be fully opaque. So while the GroundPlane (or any other mesh) is behind, the distance is much less than 1000 and the particles are hard to see. Since the sky is infinitely far away, particle pixels rendered in front of it are fully opaque.
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
But also ... it doesn't happen with all stock particles.
After looking at the scripts between default particle (wonky) and smoke emitter, there's no real obvious difference to explain the very obvious difference in rendering ...