Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to get smooth transparency transitions for objects in the software GL renderer.
This would be mostly for particle effects, for example, I would like to render a simple quad polygon with a smoke cloud texture, initially rendered fully opaque and have it gradually become more and more transparent until it disappears (in other words, a smooth fade out).

I am currently using Object3D.setTransparency(int x), but it does not have a great range of transparency values, and the highest transparency value = 0, is not very transparent at all.

With the hardware GL renderer, altering Config.glTransparencyOffset seems to work. But as stated in the docs this is not supported in software mode.

Is there another approach to achieve this, or is this not supported in software mode? If not currently supported, are there any plans to do so in the future?  Particle effects, such as fire, explosions, smoke etc.. do not look good without this functionality.

Thanks in advance,

Ben.

Egon,

Congratulations on the new version 

I have downloaded and would like to experiment. Can you give more details about the new "alpha support for software renderer". More specifically, which classes/methods are involved and what are the actual effects?

Anyway thanks for continuing to develop and support jPCT.

Ben.

Thanks for making this available Egon, I am sure this will be helpful.

Wow! that was fast, thanks for your responses Egon!

The screen shot looks really impressive, I would love to see it running (the shadows look really nice).

Although, I understand that you don't want to make the ported demo available for download, is there any chance you could make a simple applet that would demonstrate getting jPCT and Jbullet working together. Something really simple, although I realize this is asking a lot, and if you don't have the time, I understand.

When I find some spare time (soon), I would definitely like to play around with jPCT and Jbullet together.

Anyway, thanks for your insights, Egon.

Ben.

I am not sure this is the correct section for posting this question, apologies in advance if needs to be moved.

I was wondering if anyone here has used the JBullet Physics engine : http://jbullet.advel.cz/ , and in particular, if they have had any luck using it with jPCT. It (JBullet) seems to be usable in an applet, and I was thinking that something like this combined with a graphics engine like jPCT would be really cool!

Anyone else have thoughts on this, has anyone used the 2 together, is it feasible?

Ben.

Sure, it was the anfy3D engine, which I have been using for a few years now.  I was a bit hesitant to switch, since I have become very used to anfy3D, but after experimenting with jPCT for a few days, and even drawing up a list of pros and cons, it became obvious that jPCT was the  way to go. I probably should have switched a long time ago!

Ben.

I just wanted to say thanks to Egon for creating, supporting, and maintaining such an incredible engine. I starting experimenting with jPCT a few weeks ago, and now I am hooked. I will be using it from now on, I have even converted my existing project from another engine over to jPCT.

Ben.