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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>David-<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Unless I have misunderstood something, the image rendering is clearly being done first, because I have SetDisplayLocationToBackground() on the Actor2D&#8217;s property. If my geometry were not being rendered in the translucent pass (I didn&#8217;t even know there *<b>was</b>* a &#8220;translucent pass&#8221; &#8211; thanks for the info!), would I still be able to see one piece of geometry through another?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Anyway, I tried what you said &#8211; setting the opacity to &nbsp;.995 on the geometry&#8217;s actor&#8217;s property &#8211; and that made it worse. Now, all of a sudden, the image is no longer drawn in the background &#8211; it&#8217;s obscuring all the geometry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Does the order in which the Actors and Actor2Ds get added to the renderer matter?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>-Chris<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt'><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> David Gobbi [mailto:david.gobbi@gmail.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, July 08, 2011 3:12 PM<br><b>To:</b> Chris Volpe ARA/SED<br><b>Cc:</b> vtkusers<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [vtkusers] transparent 3D over 2D<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Then the problem is the order in which the items are rendered. &nbsp;Perhaps your geometry is not being rendered in the translucent pass. &nbsp;If you set the Opacity in the property to 0.995, that will force the geometry to be rendered in the translucent pass, i.e. after all opaque geometry has already rendered. &nbsp;It is the Opacity of the property, rather than the alpha of the lookup table, that VTK uses to decide whether to use the translucent pass.<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>What is probably happening in your case is that the geometry is rendered first, causing a write to the depth buffer. &nbsp;Then the image is drawn afterwards, and the depth buffer check causes it not to be written to any pixels that the geometry rendered to.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;- David<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Chris Volpe ARA/SED &lt;<a href="mailto:cvolpe@ara.com">cvolpe@ara.com</a>&gt; wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If depth peeling is something that's off by default, unless you explicitly enable it, then I'm not doing it. (In fact, I've never heard of it.) I just have 3D geometry with a color lookup table that varies the hue but keeps alpha constant at 0.5.<br><span style='color:#888888'><br><br>-Chris</span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br>&gt; -----Original Message-----<br>&gt; From: David Gobbi [mailto:<a href="mailto:david.gobbi@gmail.com">david.gobbi@gmail.com</a>]<br>&gt; Sent: Friday, July 08, 2011 12:43 PM<br>&gt; To: Chris Volpe ARA/SED<br>&gt; Cc: vtkusers<br>&gt; Subject: Re: [vtkusers] transparent 3D over 2D<br>&gt;<br>&gt; Are you using depth peeling? &nbsp;Depth peeling disables alpha, it is an<br>&gt; alternate strategy to translucent rendering that doesn't use alpha and<br>&gt; as far as I understand, it actually requires alpha-blending to turned<br>&gt; off in order to work.<br>&gt;<br>&gt; So I don't think that depth peeling can be used when an underlay is<br>&gt; present (or at least, not in VTK).<br>&gt;<br>&gt; &nbsp;- David<br>&gt;<br>&gt;<br>&gt; On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 10:32 AM, Chris Volpe ARA/SED &lt;<a href="mailto:cvolpe@ara.com">cvolpe@ara.com</a>&gt;<br>&gt; wrote:<br>&gt; &gt; I'm rendering 3D geometry over a 2D image drawn onto the rendering<br>&gt; window<br>&gt; &gt; using an Actor2D. The 3D geometry&nbsp; is semi transparent, as can be<br>&gt; seen when<br>&gt; &gt; some 3D geometry is drawn on top of other 3D geometry. However, the<br>&gt; &gt; transparency does not permit seeing the background image through the<br>&gt; 3D<br>&gt; &gt; geometry. For purposes of the background image, the 3D geometry is<br>&gt; &gt; completely opaque. Is this an inherent limitation, or am I doing<br>&gt; something<br>&gt; &gt; wrong?<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Thanks,<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Chris<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; --<br>&gt; &gt; Christopher R. Volpe,<br>&gt; &gt; Ph.D.<br>&gt; Email:<br>&gt; &gt; <a href="mailto:cvolpe@ara.com">cvolpe@ara.com</a><br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Senior Scientist, Information Exploitation Systems &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Main<br>&gt; Desk:<br>&gt; &gt; <a href="tel:919-582-3300">919-582-3300</a><br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Applied Research Associates,<br>&gt; &gt; Inc&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Direct: 919-<br>&gt; 582-3380<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; 8537 Six Forks Rd., Suite<br>&gt; &gt; 6000&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fax&nbsp;:<br>&gt; &gt; <a href="tel:919-582-3301">919-582-3301</a><br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Raleigh, NC 27615&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Web:<br>&gt; &gt; <a href="http://www.ara.com/offices/NC.htm" target="_blank">http://www.ara.com/offices/NC.htm</a><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>