Sticker panel usage query...

[fullofwin]

I find that I have a need to overlap 2 pieces of sticker panel on the same layer and thickness. If I fiddle around I can their relative display order how I want. The order seems stable as long as I don't copy or emit the material...but is it? In your experience is it ok to rely on a fixed draw order for concident sticker panel geometry?!?

[Bremnen]

It seems to be completely unreliable, anytime I got it to appear in a set order it always flickered every once in a while, switched, or one would just go invisible.
The most stable thing I came up with was putting one in a layer behind the other and bringing it forward, but it always seemed to go random after a while..
It's better to just work it to where you dont need them to overlap.

[fullofwin]

Hmmm, I feared as much...I haven't seen any issues with these pieces yet, but I just don't trust it. Thanks for the info. Too bad Mm didn't add a priority fraction parameter to the sticker panel material that would allow the effective z of the front face to be anywhere within the z extents of the material. A value of zero would act like it does now, so you could still sticker side faces and such, a value of .5 would give the sticker panel a single z half way between the front and back face, .75 would be 3/4 the way from front to back, etc. Oh well, guess I'll come up with something else.

[waaghgork]

Thick and thack seems to work well with me. But their not really the same layer...

[pivottt]

Actually there are many layer thickness lags with sticker panel. First, it comes out of materials a bit, way more than holo. Not only it makes it a visual problem, but any logic on a material will become inside the material if you change it to sticker panel (and every logic on sticker panel will be sticking out too much if you replace material with another one). Also, copy-pasting sticker panel makes the copied parts have different thickness. I found this when I copy-pasted huds made of segment displays. The copied segments were not all of the same thickness, ruining the display. I think making it all out of holo before material-replacing with sticker panel makes it work. Finally, placing multiple sticker panels overlaping msy make it glitch-blink, so I don't recommend it. Seriously, it makes me sad how glitchy it is.

[fullofwin]

Yeah, it is unfortunate that display priority wasn't introduced with the sticker panel. Not having it limits what you can do with it, but it's still pretty awesome finally being able to show crisp/clear stickers and tweak the color. The theck layer is a huge help because it provides another front surface and gives you 3 planes without too much z separation...but I dislike being forced to use glitches.

[SSTAGG1]

I too had the issue with overlapping panels. Solution, just use the other layers and use a movie camera with complete flatness to align them all properly.

Now, I doubt that works in your situation, but it's an option.

[Aya042]

The order seems stable as long as I don't copy or emit the material...but is it?

Should be, at least until a new patch comes out.

Point about computer programs is that, given identical input data, they always produce the same output each time. So, if you playtest the level a few times and it seems to work, then it should continue to do so, as long as you don't change anything.

[fullofwin]

Should be, at least until a new patch comes out.

Point about computer programs is that, given identical input data, they always produce the same output each time. So, if you playtest the level a few times and it seems to work, then it should continue to do so, as long as you don't change anything.

That's the problem, we don't know exactly what the inputs are. Amount of stuff in the current view, object's display is clipped by view extents, etc. Bremnen is correct, it's unreliable. I noticed just yesterday that I had accidently created a rock and a plant on the same layer of sticker panel that overlapped. Most runs displayed them in the order I intended, but sometimes it would switch...and this is without making any changes to the level.

Speaking of sticker panel...so I guess my level is going to look just awful if anyone takes photos?!? Are photos of sticker panel always horribly pixelated like that?!?

[Aya042]

I noticed just yesterday that I had accidently created a rock and a plant on the same layer of sticker panel that overlapped. Most runs displayed them in the order I intended, but sometimes it would switch...and this is without making any changes to the level.

And they aren't emitted?

[fullofwin]

And they aren't emitted?

Nope, just sitting there like a rock and a plastic plant. The rock is just a static piece of scenery and the plant is attached via a wobble bolt to make it waggle 10 degrees. There's other stuff being emitted on other layers and moving through the area.

[Aya042]

Nope, just sitting there like a rock and a plastic plant.

That's a shame. Oh well, I guess you can always composite multiple stickers on a single piece of sticker panel.

[SSTAGG1]

Try using theck and thack along with your normal thin and thick layers if possible. From what limited testing I did, I saw that:

Thick > Thack > Theck > Thin

They did not appear to interfere.