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Re: Rendering transparent objects changed in M8

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg114283] Re: Rendering transparent objects changed in M8
  • From: David Skulsky <edskulsky at gmail.com>
  • Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:02:05 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <iclfbi$l7r$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Nov 25, 2:55 am, David Skulsky <edskul... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On my work machine (Mac Pro with an ATI HD 4870 graphics card) I found
> that transparent objects (i.e., objects with Opacity < 1) were not
> rendering properly under Mathematica 8; these same objects did render
> properly under Mathematica 7.
>
> I contacted Wolfram; they investigated the issue and promptly replied
> with an explanation and what I expect will solve the problem.
> Apparently the default method for rendering transparent objects was
> changed in M8 "from a BSP tree to a depth-peeling method," supposedly
> for speed purposes.  Evidently this change can cause problems on some
> systems (mine!).
>
> Switching back to the BSP tree can be accomplished by adding a hidden
> option to Style:
>
> Style[Graphics3D[...], RenderingOptions->{"Graphics3DRenderingEngine"-
>
> >"BSPTree"}]
>
> I will not be able to test this on my system until next week, but
> Wolfram was able to test it on one of their machines and confirmed
> that it fixed the problem.  They also advise that this workaround has
> not been tested on other ATI Radeon graphics cards.
>
> David Skulsky

This is just a confirmation that the workaround provided by WRI did,
in fact, solve the rendering problem on my machine.

David Skulsky


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