Priority Planes or something else? I'm confused

[Luorax]

Okay, I'd greatly appreciate if someone'd tell me how can I fix these things:

1, http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/163/wc3scrnshot120211162933.jpg

That black rect is supposed to be in the background, but I can't get it there...

2, http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/373/wc3scrnshot120211162950.jpg

The health bar is getting overlayed by that effects, but surprisingly not by units or doodads. Strange.

I do suck at modelling (=> I don't know too much about these things), so once again, I'd appreciate if someone would tell me how to fix them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Maker]

Using images? Change the image types: http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=107737

 

[Luorax]

Everything is model based in both systems. I'm not using images beause AFAIK they're buggy (don't scale correctly with resolution?)

 

[Dr Super Good]

Make sure your destructables and doodads are configured properly. Someone had this problem with fire once where the flames were rendered behind a building they were infront of. The solution was to change some field like occlusion so the destructable/doodad behaves normally and renders dependant on Z.

Also do remember that stuff in the background must be further away from the screen than stuff in the forground.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Download War3 Model Editor.

Open your model.

Go to Windows -> Model Editor.

Select all the vertices.

Go to the "Transformation" window. (or whatever it is called)

There should be some option (probably named Z) to modify the height. It will modify it by an offset. (therefore, inputting a value of 50 would move its current height up by 50, it wouldn't set its height to 50)

Then just go to file -> save as. Type your models name and don't forget to add a .mdx extension when you are saving it. (otherwise war3 model editor throws an error) Simple as that. =) Sorry if the names are wrong, I made this post off of memory so they may not be exact.

Alternatively, move everything else up for #1. For #2, you can just add z-offset. (by this I mean you add z/height in the editor to the health bar, and then just rescale it so it looks the same)

 

[Luorax]

Okay, great, I've completely forgot about Magos (I was doing some tests yesterday and then realized that the problem is with the model Z heights, but I didn't really bother myself trying to fix it, rewriting some of my older systems took all my time)

EDIT: well, giving height to the health bar model won't help me. Let me tell you some in-depth information about them:
each health bar uses 3 models: the background + level, health and resource (usually mana). As you can see on the picture, the level is clearly visible whilst the background isn't. I've also tried to modify the background height of the model and it was still behind the SFX when it was over the level text. I had the same problem once with the model, changing the priority planes helped me, but it doesn't work now. That's why I'm asking for ideas.

EDIT 2: Okay, I think I got it. The background had "Transparent" set on its material layer and the level text had "Blend". I swtiched them and now the level text gets messy (althought it looks way better now). Any idea how to get both material layers work with "Blend"?

 

[PurgeandFire]

Can't you have one Blend and the other as None? I haven't tried it, but it is worth a shot. (in fact, I am not sure what exactly he means by "none" for blending)

 

[Luorax]

I've tried all the possible combinations, none of them worked (when you set one of them to "none", the whole texture becomes visible, and you know, a huge square would be ugly)

 

[PurgeandFire]

So what happens when they are both set to blend? Does one not display? (a screenshot would be nice) Is the text a separate model? Would offsetting it change anything?

 

[Luorax]

When both is set to blend, the level text doesn't even appear. Offsetting didn't change anything.