Steve Baker (sbaker++at++link.com)
Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:40:25 -0600 (CST)
> I have tried doing what you suggested without any change. Also I
> compared the pfTexture format and filters between the Onyx and Octane,
> they are exactly the same.
>
> There seem to be some default behaviour on the Octane that makes the
> texture look perfect. This behaviour is not the default on the Onyx (It
> would be strange if the Octane could produce better results than the Onyx,
> wouldn´t it :)
>
> So my problem remains:
> What else except the filters and formats could make the difference?
Multisample versus blended alpha.
The Octane probably isn't doing multisampling - so it uses blended alpha
which produces a higher quality translucency - but which doesn't Z-buffer
as you would probably like.
The Onyx is probably multisampling (antialiasing) and the Performer default
is then to use multisampling for alpha too. This severely reduces the number
of transparency steps between opaque and transparent (which explains the
difference in your two images) - but it will Z-buffer perfectly (which is
more important to many people than the quality).
You can force the ONYX to use blended alpha by setting the appropriate
state in the pfGeoState - but you can't force the Octane to use multisample
unless it has a multisample-capable graphics adaptor and enough memory
to turn that stuff on. I don't use Octanes - so I don't know for sure.
Steve Baker (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
Raytheon Systems Inc. (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: sjbaker++at++hti.com http://www.hti.com
Home: sjbaker1++at++airmail.net http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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