Transparency due to powers...

[Rudra]

15 minutes ago, Owl Girl said:

'd also like if my invisibility powers worked on other characters outside of PvP situations. right now it's the worst of both worlds: everybody knows i'm hiding in that bush, but they can't see my fabulous costume.

So you want to be completely invisible to other players that don't have enough perception to see you in PvE? Gonna make it hard for PBAoE healers like my MM to heal you....

[Owl Girl]

7 hours ago, Rudra said:

So you want to be completely invisible to other players that don't have enough perception to see you in PvE? Gonna make it hard for PBAoE healers like my MM to heal you....

this is my fault for not specifying. i sort of assumed we'd all envision this as functioning normally for team and league mates.

[gameboy1234]

16 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

I'd like to not have my lower legs to be visible through my pants, but my upper legs transparent in whole when using some pant models. Any stealth looks stupid when my pants look like doilies from the knee down.

 

I'd like to see this fixed too, but it might be hard.  One question is "how much other stuff do you want to break?"  If you just stop drawing objects that are obscured by other objects, then when your character's hand is in front of the character, you won't see it as it passes in front ("in front" assumes your camera is behind the character, that is when your hand in front of your character, it's behind the character from the point of view of a camera that is behind the character). 

 

This is how 3D drawing normally works. When objects behind other objects are hidden  by the object in front.  But when transparency is involved that goes out the window.  You'd have to draw each "part" of a character that might cross in front of another part into a separate buffer, then copy that buffer with a different drawing mode onto the screen.  I think we could do that for most of the character's parts, but I think the legs are one single part and you'd have to figure out a way to draw each leg separately (and "leg" means all costume parts that go between the waist and the boots).   I think you'd also have to cull polygons that are facing away from the camera (which is also not being done currently for transparent objects).  And there might be visible seams in a character this way if the polygons don't match perfectly.

 

OTOH if some graphical weirdness is OK then this could be a cheap fix, just draw transparent characters with GL_DEPTH_TEST set to GL_LEQUAL  (I think less than or equal means "in front," didn't double check that).  You'll seen hands and legs, maybe weapons, disappear when they are "behind" a transparent character, but you won't see inside of your clothing anymore either.