Do we still not have window transparency or am I doing something wrong? I have tried all of the DDS save options in paint.net and
GG refuses to handle transparency correctly.



In the image, looking thru the doorway of the building, you can see the underside of the roof but thru the glass the underside of the roof becomes transparent as though the roof does not exist. If I am not creating this illusion myself then what is the problem.

This is usually solved by making the glass its own entity and assigning transparency mode 3.

See if this will make a difference for you.

What about transparency 5. Used to be king and show all in its sights. I also put transparency 5 on all models that way they all appear. I had issues way back and lee sorted it for me. Bit I heard they changed it but I think 5 still works too

This isn't really ideal, particularly where users would have to be placing it down separately.

Meantime you could try sorting the order of your windows in the modeling app, try grouping your windows and export these then delete the ones you have and re-import the exported windows into your modelers scene. This should place the windows last in the sorting order for the exported model properties and prevent your issue above. Export to .x as usual.

It may be that the order is reversed and your glass should be placed first in the modeling app, might depend on the shader but one or the other should help. If not you are going to have to wait till Lee fixes things.

Use transparency 3, transparency 5 is now reserved for water.

I export them from the same location, and set them in the editor with snap on grid . No misalignment.

That would work Myke but better to have a complete model to drop into a level and the extra steps shouldn't be required. Particularly if creating store media.

Yes, I agree, should not have to separate.

I like it for custom stuff as I can choose what gets collision and what don't need it. Separating the building so that the ceiling has no collision and columns against walls with no collision. once the pieces are exported, I can set them in under 5 minutes in the editor and they work well. This is for me, and for my client use. For store use not a good idea.

Just another optimization to reduce over head. Also allows me no need for multi textured objects, each piece can have only the texture needed and I can get more detail into them.

If we get a prefab system, then they could all be set at once. That would be sweet.

This I am going to try...



I want my models to be complete entities, with out trying to move things around to make the glass sit where it belongs. It would be nice if Lee would fix this problem soon rather then the time it would take to get this to the top of the useless (my opinion only) vote list.

Thanks everyone for the help. The impossible is never a problem.

Glass and such like this would be great to set as part of your model for the obvious reasons as stated above, but that's not always ideal and separate glass gives one options - unless one has a way to access the glass part of a model alone inside GG. e.g. Breakable glass. In a game I often want to make many glass and other objects destructable/moveable so they need to be dynamic and or carry a script though that may be not needed here. (Glass normally breaks when hit with a bullet or a chair is thrown at it). Yes I know GG is limited perhaps in such dynamics at the moment and perhaps that wont get any better. Many such things are missing.....

Personally I gave up with GG using .dds anyway for transparency as it's just a pain now to get working I found myself. As with many things got fed up with fighting it and banging my head against a brick wall - perhaps because info is scattered and or I don't understand how GG works - and it's constantly being changed too....

Thus - if it helps I switched to 32 bit .png. I use "Fireworks" - open any texture file - set the transparency to 51% - save as .png - job done. A few seconds with no messy work or time wasted. Works perfectly.



m2design

Nice building by the way.

I was able to get my glass to work but not in a manner that is ideal. My modeling software allows me to create the model, assign textures and export out as a "X" file but I can not import an "X" file so I was not able to make Rolfy's suggestion work (Darn it).

I had to use Pirate Myke's solution that requires making the glass a separate entity. When the base building with out the glass has been rotated off the normal rotation grid it is a real pain to position the glass exactly in the openings. (Lee) This is not an acceptable process.

@ Uman
I am going to check out "Fireworks" now. Thanks for the comment.

I have had Fireworks for ages - many years - bought it together with a lot of other software in a pack when it was owned by Macromedia until Adobe took them over. It's probably well over 10 years old but still works under Windows 10 when some older progs don't.

I guess if Adobe are the only ones who have it now then it would be expensive - too rich for me so I am lucky I got it a long time ago. Not sure if Paint.net or other prog can do the same with .png files so easily. I did not find it so myself.

I use .png for transparent decals too as again found it hard work in GG with .dds and transparency.

I am working on some models myself with glass and such like transparencies and at multiple scattered height levels so think I will be adding the glass as individual pieces.

Looks like you got the windows/glass in now anyway?

Nice to know, thanks Rolfy.

In Gimp set transparency/alpha channel is relatively easy.

3com

http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/files/assimp-3.1/

This software will open an x file and export it to .obj, or dea fbx files. Then you can import them into your model program this way.

@everyone..

I just realized all I had to do was add this to the model FPE file "transparency = 2" and bingo the glass works as required.
The image below illustrates the proper glass effect.

The earlier image that took me a good 30 minutes to create a separate glass entity and a separate building with no glass and then position the glass where it belongs was just not required.



Although they look the same, the new image only took the time required to add "transparency = 2" to the FPE file.
So much for banging around most of the day yesterday to solve the problem.

The dds file for the model was created in paint.net and the layer that contains the glass image was made transparent using the layer slider control to change the glass image layer from solid to semi transparent.
The additional "transparent = 2" command in the FPE files told GG how to handle glass.

Silly simple.

I guess one great advantage to having your glass windows a separate entity... is you can have the ability to make them break apart if shot and become an entry way for the player. Kind of like segements in FPSCx9 that had windows.

That was actually done with a decal. Worked very well.

Using transparency = 2 you may find that other entity's on the other side of your model are culled by the windows, those trees for instance. Transparency has always been a bit hit and miss in GG from the beginning. Though I guess you have walked around inside it to see it is okay, as with the sorting order of model parts in the app it is same in GG with order placing, try putting a tree down then the model then another tree and make sure both trees can be seen through the glass to be certain. Transparency = 3 is supposed to force the object draw order in the engine.

Rolfy...

You called it ... I think GG transparency sucks. From the front of the model looking through the glass everything looks good. From inside the model everything looks good through the glass. Walk around the building from the outside the transparency is a total disaster. Looking through the model end glass the front and rear walls disappear or looking through the rear glass the end walls and the front walls disappear. I will try transparency = 3 later I don't hold out much hope.

Looks like, for now, I'm stuck with the hard way.

Transparency = 3 will work as it should if the Artist remembers to put any transparent parts of the model such as windows last in the hierarchy of the modeling app before export to prevent any culling issues on the model itself, once you do that as standard then you know it will be fine whatever Lee does with the shader in future. I guess with a drag and drop game creation tool like GG we will run into this occasionally.

This doesn't mean the transparency is all okay and it is the Artist's fault it may still need some work to fix in GG itself.

Dx11 is sure to change everything as well and bring other goodness with its own problems so I wouldn't rely on things being changed to suit just now and simply rely on yourself to prevent these problems and any future ones of this kind

I've got it...
Thank you for the explanation and guidance.

That, my friend, works to perfection. Unbelievable ! I will post a couple of images later...

Just a short video to show how it works...

Looks great! I like the little detail with the broken glass.

Glad you sorted it out and your level design is looking awesome

i learnt the hard way with modelling that when you put windows in and still work on the model that it will not shw anything after the windows have been placed. thus a good 2 months of tinkering on my house kits realized that putting the windows in last works, and hence a good learning curve. but now i know why of this. cheers rolfy.

Looks great, glad you sorted out the issue. When a related feature gets to the top of the voting board (i.e. Easy Building Editor), I plan to create composite entities which would allow you to place individual window entities in your building so they can be depth sorted, which will remove the need to organise them inside the 3D model, allow windows to be interchanged and also the bonus of being able to destroy them dynamically. Also, I recommend transparency mode 6 for entities that need to be rendered last and in depth order.