graphics [Query] Blending_xx Rendering "Issue"

[ebmar 893]

Greetings, fellow Jedi! Hope y'all doing fine.

In vanilla and/or modded state of the game there seems to be rendering issue with a texture that is rendered behind blending additive shader.

As seen in the screenshot:

• Is there any way to get around this problem?

I have tried with removing the additive and using the alpha channel as transparency instead but it looks ugly and then again, another problem as the hilt that was rendered behind is hidden accordingly with the dimension of the top layer's texture.

By using the TPC format seems to didn't help much as any alpha-blending value between 0 to 1.0 failed to resolve the issue.

I haven't tried with removing the shader/alpha from the hilt that is in the left-hand but- will it work? And even if it works, is there any other way around as a hilt without metal shade is 🤪.

Many thanks for considering this!

[DarthParametric 3,785]

You could try editing the saber models and setting the mesh alpha of the blade planes from 1.0 to something like 0.9. You may have to incrementally adjust the value to see what it looks like. But it's probably never going to render the way you want it to.

[ebmar 893]

23 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

You could try editing the saber models and setting the mesh alpha of the blade planes from 1.0 to something like 0.9.

Thanks! Well, I have tried with mesh alpha batch-setted to 0.5; the hilt does gets transparent [for proof of concept], but it seems the blade wasn't affected at all.

Isn't this the method to get around the transparency problem with VP's "Spectral Ajunta Pall Canonical Appearance"? 🤔

Nice information- by the way. It'd be useful. Thanks!

[DarthParametric 3,785]

It might be because the blade planes are considered their own separate node type. While the ASCII has a mesh alpha value, that may not carry over to the binary model, or be used by the game. That would be a question for bead-v/ndix UR.

As to the Ajunta Pall model, no, that was a model hierarchy issue. The game apparently crashes when you have skinned meshes using mesh alpha below trimeshes with mesh alpha in the hierarchy.

[JCarter426 1,215]

It's a similar issue, except rather than relating to the model hierarchy, it's it's the order in which the sabers are drawn. A newer saber's hilt will always render on top of any older saber's blade. In the screenshot above, you equipped the yellow saber more recently. If you were to keep the yellow saber and replace the blue saber with something else, then the yellow saber would always render behind the new one.

My guess is that the intent was to ensure a saber's blade doesn't render on top of its hilt when it clips through it, but there's a side effect of it applying from object to object as well.

[ebmar 893]

2 hours ago, JCarter426 said:

If you were to keep the yellow saber and replace the blue saber with something else, then the yellow saber would always render behind the new one.

Holy cow- you're right! 

It also happened when equip-unequip the clothing. Take example from the screenshot; if I swapped to another robe starting from there, the purple hilt will be rendered on top of the green's saber. Bizarre!

At least there is a "fix" for this issue then; though not an elegant one, lol.

And thank you for the fix, anyway.

Edited December 17, 2018 by ebmar

[ebmar 893]

Greetings, fellow Jedi! Wish y'all a happy holidays.

So, continuing from where things left off-

I can't seem to resolve this blending additive rendering issue with another instance. As seen in the screenshot below:

For the shader I use only blending additive, which I intent to have with the texture; the rest are just animation command

Is it possible to have Juhani rendered behind the neon sign? Without down-valuing the mesh-alpha of the model, and still using blending additive.

Many thanks for considering this.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

3 minutes ago, ebmar said:

Is it possible to have Juhani rendered behind the neon sign? Without down-valuing the mesh-alpha of the model

No, probably not. Using mesh alpha in conjunction with texture blending additive is the only way I have managed to get meshes to properly render behind glass/transparent objects.

[Hulkninja 0]

I don't mean to kick a dead horse, but was this issue ever resolved? I temporarily downgraded my game from the Aspyr patch to the legacy patch and the blending issue with the lightsabers seemed to go away. Did Aspyr change how OpenGL renders the lightsabers? If so, could one maybe use an OpenGL32.dll file along with a config to revert that change, at least in theory..? I'm not a modder but I've learned a great deal about TSL these last few weeks, so if I'm missing something important let me know.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

This thread was about an issue in K1, so it has nothing to do with Aspyr's adjustments to TSL. If you are talking specifically about the hilt issue, no, that was never fixed (and is only fixable by Aspyr, so it is never going to be fixed).

[Hulkninja 0]

On 12/9/2019 at 1:08 PM, DarthParametric said:

This thread was about an issue in K1, so it has nothing to do with Aspyr's adjustments to TSL. If you are talking specifically about the hilt issue, no, that was never fixed (and is only fixable by Aspyr, so it is never going to be fixed).

Oh, I see. I've been having the same issue in TSL so I kinda jumped the shark, I guess. My bad.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

If it's the same issue as ebmar posted when sabers are are not properly occluding other objects then that's just an inherent render order issue the engine has that affects both games. Likely a deliberate move on Bioware's part, as JC pointed out.

[ebmar 893]

1 hour ago, Hulkninja said:

I've been having the same issue in TSL so I kinda jumped the shark, I guess. My bad.

No worries, I also tag TSL with the thread actually, so I think it's still somewhat relevant.

On 12/9/2019 at 7:04 PM, Hulkninja said:

...could one maybe use an OpenGL32.dll file along with a config to revert that change...

I was also having that thought as I read your post, though as pointed out by DP and JC -

56 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

...when sabers are are not properly occluding other objects then that's just an inherent render order issue the engine has that affects both games. Likely a deliberate move on Bioware's part...

On 12/17/2018 at 7:42 PM, JCarter426 said:

...rather than relating to the model hierarchy, it's it's the order in which the sabers are drawn ...the intent was to ensure a saber's blade doesn't render on top of its hilt when it clips through it, but there's a side effect of it applying from object to object as well.

and an overwhelming fact that occurs on my attempt -

On 12/17/2018 at 9:32 PM, ebmar said:

...also happened when equip-unequip the clothing ...if I swapped to another robe starting from there, the purple hilt will be rendered on top of the green's saber.

I had decided to live with it.

[Hulkninja 0]

Alright, thanks for enlightening me, guys!

I'll learn to live with it, worst case scenario I'll have to stick with dualsabers, one-handing and mixing lightsaber use with regular melee weapons.
It's manageable.