Mattijs

Here is a patch in which I tried to illustrate the problem as clearly as possible.

Plane A intersects plane B, A and B are both half-transparent. But they never blend as expected, like in the attached image. Either A blends with B or B blends with A, depending on which one is rendered first.

I know this problem is impossible to solve due to the hardware restrictions of the graphics card. But there have been miracles in this community before, so in case anyone comes up with a trick, feel free to let me know ;)

Here is a patch in which I tried to illustrate the problem as clearly as possible. 

Plane A intersects plane B, A and B are both half-transparent. But they never blend as expected, like in the attached image. Either A blends with B or B blends with A, depending on which one is rendered first. 

the-classic-blend-vs-depth-problem

The most interesting solution I know to this problem is here:

"3.5 Deferred Rendering using a Stencil Routed K-Buffer by Louis

It's certainly non-trivial to implement but simple in concept. What

you do is write fragments that stack on top of each other into a

buffer such that when everything is drawn, you can sort them based on

z depth. They use the stencil buffer as a counter and a

multi-sampling texture hack with feedback to store the drawn

fragments. I know this is not terribly helpful right now, but I

thought I pass the info along since it's the most efficient method to

The most interesting solution I know to this problem is here:
http://www.shaderx6.com/TOC.html

"3.5 Deferred Rendering using a Stencil Routed K-Buffer by Louis
Bavoil and Kevin Myers"

It's certainly non-trivial to implement but simple in concept.  What
you do is write fragments that stack on top of each other into a
buffer such that when everything is drawn, you can sort them based on
z depth.  They use the stencil buffer as a counter and a
multi-sampling texture hack with feedback to store the drawn
fragments.  I know this is not terribly helpful right now, but I
thought I pass the info along since it's the most efficient method to
do this that I've read about.

This is definitely helpful, thanks! At least we have a clue where to look for a solution.

So what you're saying is they render the objects separately and then sort them per pixel based on the z-depth? You're right, that concept seems simple. But it sounds like swapping around a few megabytes per object for every frame. Although, as you say, if they did it in the book it might be time to see if we can transform the code from the book to Jitter :)

Quote: wesley.hoke@gmail.com wrote on Wed, 02 July 2008 19:05

----------------------------------------------------

> The most interesting solution I know to this problem is here:

> "3.5 Deferred Rendering using a Stencil Routed K-Buffer by Louis

> It's certainly non-trivial to implement but simple in concept. What

> you do is write fragments that stack on top of each other into a

> buffer such that when everything is drawn, you can sort them based on

> z depth. They use the stencil buffer as a counter and a

> multi-sampling texture hack with feedback to store the drawn

> fragments. I know this is not terribly helpful right now, but I

> thought I pass the info along since it's the most efficient method to

Quote: wesley.hoke@gmail.com wrote on Wed, 02 July 2008 19:05
----------------------------------------------------
> The most interesting solution I know to this problem is here:
> http://www.shaderx6.com/TOC.html
>
> "3.5 Deferred Rendering using a Stencil Routed K-Buffer by Louis
> Bavoil and Kevin Myers"
>
>
> It's certainly non-trivial to implement but simple in concept.  What
> you do is write fragments that stack on top of each other into a
> buffer such that when everything is drawn, you can sort them based on
> z depth.  They use the stencil buffer as a counter and a
> multi-sampling texture hack with feedback to store the drawn
> fragments.  I know this is not terribly helpful right now, but I
> thought I pass the info along since it's the most efficient method to
> do this that I've read about.
>
> wes
>
----------------------------------------------------


The classic blend vs depth problem.