I know graphics architecture, and I know how to do all the math. But, oddly, I've never actually used a 3D API like OpenGL, Direct3D or Java3D. Well, I'm trying to write a demo for a paper I'm presenting at HPCA, and I've run into something odd. I was hoping some with actual front-end experience might be able to help me. I figured since this is a graphics mailing list, this wouldn't be horribly off topic.
I'm using Java3D to render a scene with lots of translucent planes. If I make everything opaque, it's fine, because it's doing Z culling. But I'm finding that the rendering order isn't near-to-far, as I expected, but something perhaps related to the order in which I created the scene elements. As a result, when I turn on alpha blending, it looks horrible. I'm starting to worry that what I'm going to have to do is do all my coordinate transforms up-front (rather than create a transform group and transform the group), then sort by Z order, then add them to the scene (and by trial and error determine whether it renders first-to-last or last-to-first). But I'm wondering if there isn't a better way. Also, this makes me wonder... if you're a game designer, and you want translucency, does the game engine have to order the scene from back to front so that the alpha blending happens in the right order? Or is Java3D stupid and Direct3D and OpenGL handle this more intelligently? Thanks! -- Timothy Normand Miller http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti Open Graphics Project _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
