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Something I can't understand with Alpha Blend limitations

Discussion in 'Shaders' started by n0mad, Sep 21, 2009.

  1. n0mad

    n0mad

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    3,732
    Hello,

    I can't understand why are we forced to use AlphaTest in order to display proper overlapping semi-transparencies on different depth values, as the Unity layer system can manage very efficiently that kind of trick with cameras...

    AlphaTest is very hungry, it just sucks up to 15 fps in some of my scenes compared to simple Blend SrcAlpha, as I proceed alpha depth renders with 2 passes, each containing an AlphaTest (as the docs explain, one above a cutoff value, one below).

    To make it short, is there a trick to properly render overlapping semi-transparency textures without AlphaTest ?


    Thank you for your attention
     
  2. Daniel_Brauer

    Daniel_Brauer

    Unity Technologies

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    This is simply a limitation of the way OpenGL/D3D render transparent triangles. Everything has to be drawn back-to-front, which is difficult to do if two models intersect. By default, Unity only orders transparent meshes by their origins' distance from the camera. Perfect ordering would require not only ordering every transparent triangle (usually an unreasonably processor- and draw call-intensive approach), but splitting intersecting triangles such that every fragment was drawn in the correct order.

    Even the technique at the end of the Alpha Testing page doesn't solve the problem, as it uses a combination of two approaches: a pass with ZWrite enabled that doesn't blend at all, and a pass that does alpha blending. Each part still suffers from its limitations: the ZWrite pass is not transparent, and the alpha blended pass can appear out-of-order when there is intersecting geometry.
     
  3. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Then it's hopeless ? :(

    Ok then, thank you Daniel ;)
     
  4. Daniel_Brauer

    Daniel_Brauer

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    It's not hopeless, it's just a difficult problem to solve in the general case. If you provide some detail about the situation in which you'd like to get geometry drawn correctly, there might be a simple solution for your case.
     
  5. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Ah, that's cool.

    So here we go :

    I have a full environment using a texture with semi or full transparent alpha portions. I just simply want these alpha portions to be rendered with the proper alpha transparency set in the PNG. Like alpha 50 would be half transparent with meshes beyond it, 100 totally opaque.

    Actually I can do it with a Shader that uses 2 passes : one for the opaque pixels, and one for the semi / fully transparent pixels. It works, but I'm forced to use AlphaTest, which consumes a lot of horsepower compared to simple "Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha".

    What I'm targeting is to use one pass with no AlphaTest.

    It is targetted for iPhone, so no CG fragment is allowed :roll:

    I'm still researching a solution.
    Speaking of which, I found a way to delete one AlphaTest from the Vegetation shader in the Unity docs :

    Here is the initial code :

    Code (csharp):
    1. Shader "Vegetation" {
    2.     Properties {
    3.         _Color ("Main Color", Color) = (.5, .5, .5, .5)
    4.         _MainTex ("Base (RGB) Alpha (A)", 2D) = "white" {}
    5.         _Cutoff ("Base Alpha cutoff", Range (0,.9)) = .5
    6.     }
    7.     SubShader {
    8.         // Set up basic lighting
    9.         Material {
    10.             Diffuse [_Color]
    11.             Ambient [_Color]
    12.         }
    13.         Lighting On
    14.  
    15.         // Render both front and back facing polygons.
    16.         Cull Off
    17.  
    18.         // first pass:
    19.         //   render any pixels that are more than [_Cutoff] opaque
    20.         Pass {
    21.             AlphaTest Greater [_Cutoff]
    22.             SetTexture [_MainTex] {
    23.                 combine texture * primary, texture
    24.             }
    25.         }
    26.  
    27.         // Second pass:
    28.         //   render in the semitransparent details.
    29.         Pass {
    30.             // Dont write to the depth buffer
    31.             ZWrite off
    32.             // Don't write pixels we have already written.
    33.             ZTest Less
    34.             // Only render pixels less or equal to the value
    35.             AlphaTest LEqual [_Cutoff]
    36.  
    37.             // Set up alpha blending
    38.             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
    39.  
    40.             SetTexture [_MainTex] {
    41.                 combine texture * primary, texture
    42.             }
    43.         }
    44.     }
    45. }
    Here is the modified shader :

    Code (csharp):
    1. Shader "Vegetation" {
    2.     Properties {
    3.         _Color ("Main Color", Color) = (.5, .5, .5, .5)
    4.         _MainTex ("Base (RGB) Alpha (A)", 2D) = "white" {}
    5.         _Cutoff ("Base Alpha cutoff", Range (0,.9)) = .5
    6.     }
    7.     SubShader {
    8.         // Set up basic lighting
    9.         Material {
    10.             Diffuse [_Color]
    11.             Ambient [_Color]
    12.         }
    13.         Lighting On
    14.  
    15.         // Render both front and back facing polygons.
    16.         Cull Off
    17.  
    18.         // first pass:
    19.         //   render any pixels that are more than 0.95 opaque
    20.         Pass {
    21.             AlphaTest GEqual 0.95
    22.             SetTexture [_MainTex] {
    23.                 combine texture * primary, texture
    24.             }
    25.         }
    26.  
    27.         // Second pass:
    28.         //   render in the semitransparent details.
    29.         Pass {
    30.             // Dont write to the depth buffer
    31.             ZWrite off
    32.             // Don't write pixels we have already written.
    33.             ZTest Less
    34.            
    35.  
    36.             // Set up alpha blending
    37.             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
    38.  
    39.             SetTexture [_MainTex] {
    40.                 combine texture * primary, texture
    41.             }
    42.         }
    43.     }
    44. }
    By setting the first pass AlphaTest to a high value let us remove the 2nd pass one.

    At least it works for me. And it saves a bit horsepower.
     
  6. Daniel_Brauer

    Daniel_Brauer

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    I'm more curious about the geometry in question. Without knowing what your triangles look like, it's hard to suggest a shader-based solution.
     
  7. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Ah ok, the geometry is various, it can be simple quads to hemispheres. Textures are placed on them, with semi-transparent parts.
    Unfortunately I'm limited in term of triangles budget, and cannot change this geometry.

    Plus some textures are unreproducanle with meshes, because too complex, like dozens of humans, rain or destroyed buildings.

    I will post a screenshot this noon to be the most concise possible ;)

    Thank you again
     
  8. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Well, a simple example that would be more explicit than a screenshot :

    1) a quad with a circle PNG texture on it. What is not inside the circle is alpha zero.
    2) a cube with another texture on it. No alpha (we don't need it here for the example).
    3) quad is in front of the cube.

    I would just want the final render to display a circle in front of a cube :

    a) without alpha testing
    b) possibly in one single pass.


    _____________

    From that apart, using this example, even if I understand the hardware limitations you specified above, I just can't understand yet why would it be impossible for lighting buffer ("primary" combiner in the texture block) to be faded by the texture's alpha.

    Can't we hack that lighting basic render at all, like we can modify the texture's one ?

    It would just boost by x1.5 (at least) every semi-transparency render ... And which game doesn't use semi-transparency nowadays ? It is so a primary feature in graphism, I can't understand why it's so complicated to properly do it :(

    edit : Found this article interesting.
    Don't know if Unity takes that front-to-back uselessness in account.


    edit 2 : finally, another article that confirms we shouldn't use AlphaTest.

    This truly means we can replace AlphaTest by Blend, with the same result.
     
  9. Daniel_Brauer

    Daniel_Brauer

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    Is your geometry actually intersecting? If not, you might just need to use Material.renderQueue to force the drawing order of your objects.
    The advantage that alpha test has is that it won't write anything if the test fails. If you're using the Z buffer for sorting, alpha testing will look right. Alpha blending will write to the Z buffer for every fragment, meaning that even transparent pixels will stop geometry behind them from being rendered later.
     
  10. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Geometry is not intersecting. Material.renderQueue would be an awesome solution, but on the iPhone we have to use the smallest possible amount of them. For example, a whole level will often have only one UV mapped material, making this solution uneffective.

    But I keep your advice at warm, could be really useful for certain situations :)

    I'm continuing my researches about Apple's Blending recommandation.
     
  11. n0mad

    n0mad

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    From the OpenGL FAQ :

    Underlined the interesting part.

    Where could we find that glTexEnv() in Unity Shader language ref ?

    This would be the exact perfect solution.
     
  12. n0mad

    n0mad

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    After a small amount of research, I found that polygon depth sorting is not possible (thing that wasn't specified in OpenGL Apple overground docs).

    So in order to save performance, it would be better to use one pass, no Z writing, "queue"="Transparent", and detach all the translucent polygons apart, making them concave instead of convex, to avoid bad depths based on their object container (a huge cube containing a camera and another object would be displayed behind this object, for example).

    I will keep the thread updated with any performance delta between this method and classic 2-pass AlphaTest.


    Now another question, but that doesn't have to do with shader anymore (lol there should be a "Performance Tweakings" forum) :

    Would it be even faster to split those translucent polygons into separate objects, to activate Dynamic Batching ?
    (considering Dynamic batching was not activated before)
     
  13. FernandoRibeiro

    FernandoRibeiro

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    Hi there!
    I've been having the same hard time in my project :( Aff
    Could you elaborate a bit about:
    "
    So in order to save performance, it would be better to use one pass, no Z writing, "queue"="Transparent", and detach all the translucent polygons apart, making them concave instead of convex, to avoid bad depths based on their object container (a huge cube containing a camera and another object would be displayed behind this object, for example).
    "

    Thanks a lot =)
     
  14. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Hi :)

    This is a very old topic ! Right now I don't have anymore Z sorting problems, as I'm using Surface shaders instead of Shaderlab. They seem to manage far better on that part (plus years of Unity engine improvements, btw). If you're still experiencing Z fighting, try to use a builtin shader, and avoid overlapping transparent objects (or put them on different Z depthes).
     
  15. FernandoRibeiro

    FernandoRibeiro

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    Hey, good to know. I'm still having some trouble with that... Your entire hair is one mesh, or you've separated each module to get a batch? That might also help ordering.
    I've even tried changing the index ordering of vertices, but its quite hard to manage in complex mesh.

    Thanks a lot for your answer.
     
  16. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    its also beneficial to split your mesh up into smaller parts if you don't want to fiddle too much as the origin point of the mesh is used for sorting transparency, so obviously big things will glitch. Splitting them up or using a clever design is an acceptable compromise in a lot of cases.
     
  17. FernandoRibeiro

    FernandoRibeiro

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    Yep, doing some tests right now :)
    Do you guys can confirm if hair mesh bounding box has also anything to do with z depth calculation? I've read somewhere that people were including far vertices to get a bigger bounding volume.

    Thanks a lot for the info!
     
  18. FernandoRibeiro

    FernandoRibeiro

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    Based on my last test, it looks like the ordering isn't done based on mesh pivot, but on the bounding volume center.
    Hope this helps more people :)