Transparency of the new Circuit Blocks

[Vakna]

Simple suggestion, make the circuit blocks such as "Active Bastyn Processor" and the like, more (or completely) opaque. They all have amazing potential for decorating ships, but being as transparent as tinted glass makes them less than ideal.

 

[Byamarro]

Agree with that one. +1

 

[Lecic]

The active one are the highest tier, correct? I think they should become solid, with the one beneath remaining translucent.

 

[Vakna]

The active one are the highest tier, correct? I think they should become solid, with the one beneath remaining translucent.

Since one has an animation and one does not, both types should be solid looking for decoration purposes. Sometimes you don't want them to look "active" but still want the solid consistency.

The only way to get them to look somewhat solid right now is to surround all but 1 face in black hull.

 

[mrsinister]

Since one has an animation and one does not, both types should be solid looking for decoration purposes. Sometimes you don't want them to look "active" but still want the solid consistency.

The only way to get them to look somewhat solid right now is to surround all but 1 face in black hull.

Well, time to edit the texture pack and make them solid

 

[jayman38]

Well, time to edit the texture pack and make them solid

That's an interesting idea! Two new realistic (assuming the texture mentioned in the OP is from the realism texture pack) texture packs titled "transparent" and "solid". "Transparent" textures would have transparent features on all images, while "Solid" would have no transparent features at all. "Transparent" might be a little overwhelming for people with modest computers, but could be a fun for those who can handle it. If not in the offiicial texture packs, "Transparent" and "Solid" could still be good community-driven texture mods.

Traditionally, special visual features in computer graphics are limited to 5 iterations to avoid significant lag, so when you look through 5 transparent blocks, the transparent parts on that last, fifth block will probably be painted black, even if there is more to see behind it. And that's assuming that an Intel graphics chip can handle 5 transparent blocks in a row. The devs don't want to exclude too many potential players, so they might not want to account for many transparent blocks. That means that a community texture mod is more likely than an official texture pack.

 

[NeonSturm]

Traditionally, special visual features in computer graphics are limited to 5 iterations to avoid significant lag, so when you look through 5 transparent blocks, the transparent parts on that last, fifth block will probably be painted black, even if there is more to see behind it. And that's assuming that an Intel graphics chip can handle 5 transparent blocks in a row. The devs don't want to exclude too many potential players, so they might not want to account for many transparent blocks. That means that a community texture mod is more likely than an official texture pack.

I tested water+glass+water+glass+water+glass... 5x glass 6x water and I saw the block behind them without problems.

It just didn't showed the also partially transparent metal grid.

Blocks which are png-transparent, but not block-config-transparent hide else visible blocks behind them.

 

[jayman38]

Thanks, that is interesting. It sounds like the devs went to at least 12 iterations for transparency. Out of curiosity, did you notice any significant drop in FPS?

 

[NeonSturm]

It was just a small test-case.

But I noticed issues after 5 transparent blocks in a row. Weird :D

Especially if you have water, 2 diagonal "air" bubbles and want to see what is in the other one.

 

[srs008]

why not just have a "extras" option menu? the very base game settings are used to load the game, and users (or auto-detect if we are lucky) will turn on settings as they see fit, if for example "transparency" is off, it ignores the Transparent textures entirely and renders normal.
however placing a "transparent" block means you hold [button] it begins at 0%, and goes to 100%, in say 5% increments.
gives those with the grunt the nice effect, and allows those without to run standard, even better the code could be implemented, and a example pack could be released, and the community would pick up the optional pack.