Object Cloning Faux Neon Sign is screwy when placed in a window :(

I made this sign by cloning a poster and setting stdMatAlphaBlendMode to "blend" in the TXMT. Trouble is, the whole reason I made this sign was to place it in a window, and that doesn't work right. It looks okay from a zoomed-in low angle, but not from most camera positions. These pics are taken from different angles - the sign was not moved at all, and the one on the wall displays fine.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

ETA: Not sure if this thread should go here in WIP or in the Modding Help forum (which I located after posting, whoops) ... so please move it if this is the wrong place.

Attached File(s)

Thumbnail(s)
           

I have no idea what to do with this, but why didn't you pick a curtain to clone from when it's supposed to be (mainly) in a window?

I moved it cos I was not sure either, but it made me feel important doing so

Hmm, have you tried it with any other windows?

It might be the transparency that's causing this; the game doesn't like it when you have a transparent texture over another transparent texture, at least not when they're both transparent because the stdMatAlphaBlendMode is set to "blend". There's a way around it, though: Have your sign's stdMatAlphaBlendMode set to none, and instead change the stdMatAlphaTestEnabled to 1. Then your transparent texture will play nice with other transparent textures.

Note that you can't have a texture that's semitransparent with this method. You won't get any subtle antialiasing that goes from being 10% transparent to 25% to 45% and so on; the parts of the texture are either not transparent at all, or completely transparent.

You can look at my Leefish mobile if you want to see how it looks "in action".

Of course, if that doesn't help, then I'm at a loss without looking at the object.

YAY it worked it worked!!! Thank you so much, Nix!! The edges aren't perfect but I think it's decent enough for what it is.

After posting this thread I had the idea to make a non-transparent recolour of the window (it's supposed to be blacked out anyway since it's a vampire bar) - I may still try that to see if it works.

@Lee - No I didn't try any other windows since that's the window it needs to be in. Pretty sure there'd be no difference though.

@DutchXfan - I cloned a poster because its mesh is the right shape and size so I wouldn't have to make a new one - just had to edit it to remove the wall shadow and permanent tape from the poster's corners. The only difference between a curtain and poster is that you have to hold down ctrl-alt when placing the poster over a window (or use moveobjects if you don't have AL), so I thought using the poster would be easiest. It's not something I plan to upload anyway since I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who wants a faux-neon fangtasia sign so I just went for the simplest option.

Attached File(s)

Thumbnail(s)
       

Awesomesauce! Happy to help. I actually wasn't 100% sure this was the issue; before, I've only seen it happen with single objects that had several transparent textures, so it's very useful to know that the game is equally unforgiving when it's different objects.

I think the not-transparent window recol should work. It shouldn't be necessary when the texture isn't transparent, but just to be on the safe side I'd change the stdMatAlphaBlendMode to none anyway, so that it doesn't just look transparent to human eyes (undead or otherwise) but to the game's as well. Then the game shouldn't have anything to complain about.

Thanks for the answer, fansee. I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, but on my way to work I thought my post might've sounded a bit judgemental while I was only being curious. I'm always very interested in the whole creation proces, and I like to learn about why people do the things they do.

I don't think you're the only one who wants this, though. It looks great. I'd love to have it as well, and I'm sure there are True Blood fans out there who'd be thrilled.

Yea, that is why I asked if you had tried any other windows - not sure, but I thought that would only happen with windows with a texture in the glass.....

You might be on to something there, Lee, that the problem is with transparent textures and not with transparency in general. I'm going to have to investigate that.

(Not tonight, though. There's hockey tonight.)

Ah, windows with texture in the glass. I hadn't considered that, Lee. Mkay well I've done a bit of testing. Went back to my first version of the sign [stdMatAlphaBlendMode blend] and made a window with non-transparent texture in it [stdMatAlphaBlendMode none]. Then I tested on various windows. Conclusion? Looks like it's something in the glass of the window that's causing this oddness. I might experiment with that some more. But I'm rather pleased with how this version of the sign looks on a non-transparent textured window, so will probably stick with that combo for my own use.

Just need to redo my non-transparent window recolour because someone apparently repositoried their awesome window to a door so I accidentally recoloured the wrong master.

Attached File(s)

Thumbnail(s)