Re: Rendering transparent objects changed in M8
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg114177] Re: Rendering transparent objects changed in M8
- From: truxton spangler <truxtonspangler29 at gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 05:28:15 -0500 (EST)
- References: <iclfbi$l7r$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Nov 25, 9:55 pm, 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
Shame there isn't a web page on their site with bug fixes and work
arounds. Apart from being useful for users it would reduce the load on
their tech support people I would guess, because we could check out
the fixes and work arounds page before contacting them.
TS