alpha test in max viewport??

konstruct

I`ve been messing with alpha planes for what feels like ages now and I know alpha sorting is a no go with the max view port.

With that said, I was wondering if anyone knew if alpha test, I.E. 1 bit alphas sort properly, and if they do- how would one set up the shader??

thanks in advance.

Eric Chadwick

Possible with an FX file I think, check out Shader FX.
http://www.lumonix.biz/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1217140563

konstruct

DAGH will the alpha planes madness ever end?!?!?

I`ve been messing a bit with .fx files and have yet to find any documentation on alpha test stuff. I guess its onto to shaderFX. but ONLY cause it has Clowards stamp of approval :P

thanx for the new lead Eric-

CrazyButcher

in the normal directx sdk you will find all "state" switches.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172254(VS.85).aspx

while this refers to c++. the same keywords are used in .fx (just stripped the prefix)
so inside an .fx in the "pass" you would do

technique DefaultTechnique
{
    pass P0
    {
        // state
        AlphaTestEnable = True;
        AlphaRef = 0;
        AlphaFunc = Greater;
...

in that case alpha values greater 0 will pass the test

konstruct

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH Butcher!. that shit totally worked. I had to tweak some values, but dang! whats more I`m a little blown away I actually got it to work. I would have had no idea where to find that info so thank you a billion times.

Sage

Crazybutcher, you need to remember artist normally don't read microsofts sdks. LOL Thanks for sharing that bit of information I always wondered how the hell to enable alpha test. I'm glad you like game art smarty pants. Thanks for sharing.

Alex

CrazyButcher

I just posted the sdk link, in case someone wants to know where to find the "source" information, and konstruct said he couldnt find information. didnt mean to sound lecturing.

MoP

Hehe, I think Sage was being a little excited in his over-appreciativeness. Nobody can complain about being shown where the information is, and I don't think you sounded lecturing at all, just helpful!

Sage

Crazy I was excited and pleased that's all.

Noren

" I`ve been messing with alpha planes for what feels like ages now and I know alpha sorting is a no go with the max view port."

Polygons are sorted in order of creation. At least in Max 8.
So as a hack you can detach all of the masked polies/elements and attach them in the order you want them to be sorted. That's what I recall at least.

konstruct

yeah I`ve always heard that too, but wouldn't that be super contextual? like if you had two planes, attached them in order on a Z axiz. when looking down the Z axis they would draw properly, but then when looking down the (-)Z axis the back plane would draw in front of the one now in front. right?