How to use blends & Invisible Doodad problem

[Zwiebelchen]

I got this problem of creating a semi-transparent model. Whenever I use the "blend" mode for a material, everything gets drawn "on the ground". All doodads that clip into my model or are below my model appear like as if the model wouldn't be there ingame.

I attached a screenshot of both editor and ingame view:

Upper picture is editor view and how it is supposed to look like, lower picture is ingame view, where the doodads behind the transparent layer are not properly covered.


Third and Fourth picture shows another problem I encountered:
When using destructables, models will disappear when coming close to the camera's edges (check picture 3 and 4; the ground that is clearly visible in picture 2 disappears when zooming in (picture 1).
picture 1: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=115820&stc=1&d=1342727757
picture 2: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=115821&stc=1&d=1342727757

How can I fix this? Does it have something to do with the extends or bound radius of the model in the model editor?

 

[Marshmalo]

Well I'm not an expert but regarding first problem, can you not use "Additive" or "Add Alpha" mode for your water model and see how that reacts? I have semi transparent models with "Add Alpha" mode on.

The second problem I have had loads of issues with myself! It's because wc3 will only load the model if its centre of mass is on screen. If anyone knows a solution to this let me know too

 

[Zwiebelchen]

The second problem I have had loads of issues with myself! It's because wc3 will only load the model if its centre of mass is on screen. If anyone knows a solution to this let me know too

I could fix the second problem by increasing the bounds radius of the model in the model editor.

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

Blend filtermode is a bit flaky, so you'll have to live with it. The worst of its dodginess can be alleviated by not using the TwoSided flag (though I presume you're already single-sided for a ground water plane), and there are rumours that the SortPrimsFarZ material flag is meant to help (never has in my experience). Priority planes help with this sort of thing in skyboxes, but I've never got any concrete results with real models (give the doodad models a PriorityPlane higher than the water model, so the water is always drawn last?).

I've noticed that it sometimes does this when the transparent object is a destructible and the other objects are doodads.

The second issue is one of extents/bounds. Hit "Recalculate Extents" in Magos' War3ModelEditor, then run round the model properties and all the sequences and bump the numbers up by a few hundred (make sure minimum extents never get higher than 0, and maxes never lower than 0). If you've got an odd-shaped model, it sometimes helps to just blast the extents up to some kind of cube (rather than a rough cuboid approximating the model's shape).

However, funny camera angles will sometimes conk out anyway, so unless you keep it tradaitional even good extents can't guarantee results.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Blend filtermode is a bit flaky, so you'll have to live with it. The worst of its dodginess can be alleviated by not using the TwoSided flag (though I presume you're already single-sided for a ground water plane), and there are rumours that the SortPrimsFarZ material flag is meant to help (never has in my experience). Priority planes help with this sort of thing in skyboxes, but I've never got any concrete results with real models (give the doodad models a PriorityPlane higher than the water model, so the water is always drawn last?).

I've noticed that it sometimes does this when the transparent object is a destructible and the other objects are doodads.

The second issue is one of extents/bounds. Hit "Recalculate Extents" in Magos' War3ModelEditor, then run round the model properties and all the sequences and bump the numbers up by a few hundred (make sure minimum extents never get higher than 0, and maxes never lower than 0). If you've got an odd-shaped model, it sometimes helps to just blast the extents up to some kind of cube (rather than a rough cuboid approximating the model's shape).

However, funny camera angles will sometimes conk out anyway, so unless you keep it tradaitional even good extents can't guarantee results.

Thanks for this. That really helps. I will try out the sort primitives thing and the priority planes. Clashing of destructables against doodads makes indeed sense, as the ice planes (it's not meant to be water) are walkable destructables, whereas the plants and trees are doodads. I will try out your ideas and report back what helped then.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Did some more testing. Sorting primitives and priority planes didn't help.
It seems to be the problem with destructables and doodads mixed up. When I temporarily replaced the model by the original water plane model, it didnt work either (and the water plane model works fine on other places). Seems I gotta replace the destructables by doodads and use invis platforms instead.