Transparency Sorting

[Cirevam]

Recently, I've been struggling with a transparency sorting issue that sometimes comes up in my models. It doesn't happen all the time. I first noticed it with a glow effect I've been using where, sometimes, the bright glow would appear very dull. Here's what it looks like:

 

 

 

I thought I messed up the texture properties, but I realized that the texture is actually not modified. It's appearing under the 1x1 round stud, which has its own transparency. You can notice a slight halo of the glow texture. The two lasers in this picture have the exact same textures and surface properties, so the only thing left was the geometry. I found the problem and fixed it.

 

 

 

The problem is the order of groups in the geometry itself. I use Milkshape to make stuff, and you can change the group order. I never understood why I would ever do this, but now I realize it's how the program sorts things when using Simple transparency (this is an option in Milkshape's 3D viewport). I think LRR must use this same sort of transparency. I moved the glow's group to the end of the list, exported as LWO, and it fixed the problem. Here's where you can check this yourself:

 

 

 

Here, "eyes" is the 1x1 stud, and "eyeglow1" is the glow effect. I confirmed that Milkshape sorts groups from back to front, starting with the first group in the list. If you want something to appear in front of something else, move it lower in the list. You can probably use Milkshape to preview this effect as well. It seems to be accurate to the game.