Why transparency doesn't work on my mesh? - three.js

I have two meshes on my scene. One cylinder and one classic plane in the middle.
I applied a png texture on my cylinder so we can see through. It seems to work for the cylinder.
On this screenshot you'll easily see my issue : I don't understand why my image is not visible behind my cylinder.
The code I used for my cylinder :
myCylinderMesh.material.transparent = true;
myCylinderMesh.material.side = THREE.DoubleSide;
How can I manage to see the part of the image hidden behind the cylinder ?
EDIT 1 :
I added the code that #ScieCode sent me :
myCylinderMesh.material.alphaTest = 0.5;
Here's the result :
It works better : now I can see the part missing of my image. But there's one thing missing : the opacity of my cylinder. I'm supposed to see my image behind the letters too.
Currently I have this opacity :
myCylinderMesh.material.opacity = 0.7;
Do you know what I am missing ? Thanks
EDIT 2 :
Here's the code for my two meshes :
Cylinder :
geoCylinder = new THREE.CylinderBufferGeometry( 0.4, 0.4, 2*Math.PI*0.4/(2048/128), 64, 1, true );
matCylinder = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial( { map:texture, transparent:true, color:0x000000, alphaTest: 0.5, opacity: 0.6, side: THREE.DoubleSide } );
meshCylinder = new THREE.Mesh( geoCylinder, matCylinder );
Plane :
geoPlane = new THREE.PlaneBufferGeometry( 0.8, 0.8 );
matPlane = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial( { map: texturePlane, transparent:true} );
meshPlane = new THREE.Mesh( geoPlane, matPlane );

This behavior happens because of how transparency rendering works internally. Transparent objects need to be sorted/rendered separately from opaque objects. This assures that objects will render as expected on the final image. (not always, though)
The problem here is that your plane geometry is inside the cylinder geometry, when sorting it will either be rendered first or later. Which, in turn, causes these artifacts you are experiencing here. The whole transparency render is a lot more complex than what I'm making it to be.
Since your plane object doesn't need to be translucent, you can simply set the alphaTest property of its material. Which will only render the fragment pixels with alpha greater than this value. This will also prevent that object from being considered transparent and it will always be rendered first, fixing the artifacts in your scene.
JSFiddle
Additional info: When using a transparent material with DoubleSide, you might experience self transparency problems. This happens for the same reason I just explained, but between faces of the same object. A possible solution for this problem is to set depthWrite = false, this prevent the object from writing to the depth buffer. So every face will get rendered, disregarding if another face occludes it.

Related

How to scale/resize Mesh Outline?

In my current project, I need a way to outline a mesh.This color outline will represent the object's current state, relevant for me.
The problem is that it is a custom mesh, loaded using JSONLoader.
I've tried different approaches, following (mainly) these 2 examples: https://stemkoski.github.io/Three.js/Outline.html and
THREEx.geometricglow. In both cases, I scale the mesh outline to a bit bigger than the original. My main problem is that scaling equally in all axis will not cover my object the way I intended to.
Here is the code I'm using:
var outlineMaterial2 = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial( { color: 0x00ff00, side: THREE.BackSide, transparent: true, opacity:0.5 } );
var outlineMesh2 = new THREE.Mesh( object.geometry, outlineMaterial2 );
outlineMesh2.position.copy(object.position);
outlineMesh2.scale.copy(object.scale);
outlineMesh2.scale.multiplyScalar(1.1)
scene.add( outlineMesh2 );
`
With a simple cube mesh, the outline will be good.
But with my custom mesh, the scale will not fit the shape correctly.
Here is a image demonstrating: http://s13.postimg.org/syujtd75z/print1.png
Also, using Stemkoski approach, the outlining mesh will also show in front of the object, not just outline (as seen in the above picture).
My question is: How should I resize the mesh? For what I know, it might have something to do with face normals.
Thanks for your time.

Threejs - Applying simple texture on a shader material

Using Threejs (67) with a Webgl renderer, I can't seem to get a plane with a shader material to wear its texture. No matter what I do the material would just stay black.
My code at the moment looks quite basic :
var grassT = new Three.Texture(grass); // grass is an already loaded image.
grassT.wrapS = grassT.wrapT = Three.ClampToEdgeWrapping;
grassT.flipY = false;
grassT.minFilter = Three.NearestFilter;
grassT.magFilter = Three.NearestFilter;
grassT.needsUpdate = true;
var terrainUniforms = {
grassTexture : { type: "t", value: grassT},
}
Then I just have this revelant part in the vertexShader :
vUv = uv;
And on the fragmentShader side :
gl_FragColor = texture2D(grassTexture, vUv);
This results in :
Black material.
No error in console.
gl_FragColor value is always (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0).
What I tryed / checked:
Everything works fine if I just apply custom plain colors.
All is ok if I use vertexColors with plain colors too.
My texture width / height is indeed a power of 2.
The image is on the same server than the code.
Tested others images with same result.
The image is actually loading in the browser debugger.
UVS for the mesh are corrects.
Played around with wrapT, wrapS, minFilter, magFilter
Adapted the mesh size so the texture has a 1:1 ratio.
Preloaded the image with requirejs image plugin and created the texture from THREE.Texture() instead of using THREE.ImageUtils();
Played around with needsUpdate : true;
Tryed to add defines['USE_MAP'] during material instanciation.
Tryed to add material.dynamic = true.
I have a correct rendering loop (interraction with terrain is working).
What I still wonder :
It's a multiplayer game using a custom port with express + socket.io. Am I hit by any Webgl security policy ?
I have no lights logic at the moment, is that a problem ?
Maybe the shader material needs other "defines" at instanciation ?
I guess I'm overlooking something simpler, this is why I'm asking...
Thanks.
I am applying various effects on the same shader. I have a custom API that merge all different effects uniforms simply by using Three.UniformsUtils.merge() However this function is calling the clone() method on the texture and this is causing to reset needsUpdate to false before the texture reach the renderer.
It appears that you should set your texture needsUpdate property to true when reaching the material level. On the texture level, if the uniform you set get merged, and therefore cloned, later in the process, it'll lose its needsUpdate property.
The issue is also detailled here: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/3393
In my case the following wasn't working (grassT is my texture):
grassT.needsUpdate = true
while the following is running perfectly later on in the code:
material.uniforms.grassTexture.value.needsUpdate = true;
Image loading is asynchronous. Most likely, you are rendering your scene before the texture image loads.
You must set the texture.needsUpdate flag to true after the image loads. three.js has a utility that will do that for you:
var texture = THREE.ImageUtils.loadTexture( "texture.jpg" );
Once rendered, the renderer sets the texture.needsUpdate flag back to false.
three.js r.68

Make environment map scale when moving from the object

I use CubeCamera to build a simple reflection model. The setup can be seen on the picture below.
If the camera is close enough to the cube - the reflection looks fine. However, if i move away from the objects - the reflection just gets bigger. See the picture below.
This is not the way i want it. I'd like the reflection to proportionally get smaller. I tried to play with different settings, then I thought this could be achieved using a proper shader program (just squish the cube texture, kind of), so i've tried to mess with the existing PhongShader, but no luck there, i'm too newbie to this.
Also, i've noticed that if i change the width and height of the cubeCamera.renderTarget, i.e.
cubeCamera.renderTarget.width = cubeCamera.renderTarget.height = 150;
i can get the proper dimensions of the reflection, but its position on the surface is wrong. It's visible from the angle presented on the picture below, but not visible if i place the camera straight. Looks like the texture needs to be centered.
The actual code is pretty straightforward:
var cubeCamera = new THREE.CubeCamera(1, 520, 512);
cubeCamera.position.set(0, 1, 0);
cubeCamera.renderTarget.format = THREE.RGBAFormat;
scene.add(cubeCamera);
var reflectorObj = new THREE.Mesh(
new THREE.CubeGeometry(20, 20, 20),
new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial({
envMap: cubeCamera.renderTarget,
reflectivity: 0.3
})
);
reflectorObj.position.set(0, 0, 0);
scene.add(reflectorObj);
var reflectionObj = new THREE.Mesh(
new THREE.SphereGeometry(5),
new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({
color: 0x00ff00
})
);
reflectionObj.position.set(0, -5, 20);
scene.add(reflectionObj);
function animate () {
reflectorObj.visible = false;
cubeCamera.updateCubeMap(renderer, scene);
reflectorObj.visible = true;
renderer.render(scene, camera);
requestAnimationFrame(animate);
}
Appreciate any help!
Environment mapping in three.js is based on the assumption that the object being reflected is "infinitely" far away from the reflective surface.
The reflected ray used in the environment map look-up does not emanate from the surface of the reflective material, but from the CubeCamera's center. This approximation is OK, as long as the reflected object is sufficiently far away. In your case it is not.
You can read more about this topic in this tutorial.
three.js r.58

Intermittent semi-transparent sphere in Three.js

I would like somebody to explain me how I can achieve the blue semi-transparent intermittent sphere of this example: (the one next to the intermittent red sphere)
http://threejs.org/examples/webgl_materials.html
I believe in first place that this is a matter of using the right material with the right settings (specially because the example is about materials) but not sure anyway.
Hopefully you do not feel my question does not deserve to be made here. I was trying to analyze it but definitely it is written in a non-friendly way for newbies, and I've not been able to separate this part from the rest, not I find an explanation anywhere else.
To create, for example, a partially transparent blue sphere, you could try:
var sphereGeom = new THREE.SphereGeometry( 40, 32, 16 );
var blueMaterial = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial( { color: 0x0000ff, transparent: true, opacity: 0.5 } );
var sphere = new THREE.Mesh( sphereGeom, blueMaterial );
For more examples of creating semi-transparent materials, check out
http://stemkoski.github.io/Three.js/Translucence.html
If you want the sphere to fade in and out, you can change the transparency in your update or render function -- make the sphere a global object, also create a (global) clock object to keep track of the time in your initialization, for example, with
clock = new THREE.Clock();
and then in your update, you could, for example, write
sphere.material.opacity = 0.5 * (1 + Math.sin( clock.getElapsedTime() ) );

Three.js custom objLoader geometry lighting

I have this object I'm loading with THREE.objLoader and then create a mesh with it like so:
mesh = new THREE.SceneUtils.createMultiMaterialObject(
geometry,
[
new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({color: 0xFEC1EA}),
new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({
color: 0x999999,
wireframe: true,
transparent: true,
opacity: 0.85
})
]
);
In my scene I then add a DirectionalLight, it works and I can see my object, however it's like the DirectionalLight was an ambient one. No face is getting darker or lighter as it should be.
The object is filled with the color, but no lighting is applied to it.
If someone can help me with that it would be much appreciated :)
What could I be missing ?
Jsfiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/5hcDs/
Ok folks, thanks to Maƫl Nison and mr doob I was able to understand the few things I was missing, being the total 3d noob that I am... I believe people starting to get into the 3d may find useful a little recap:
Basic 3d concepts
A 3d Face is made of some points (Vertex), and a vector called a normal, indicating the direction of the face (which side is the front and which one is the backside).
Not having normals can be really bad, because lighting is applied on the frontside only by default. Hence the black model when trying to apply a LambertMaterial or PhongMaterial.
An OBJ file is a way to describe 3D information. Want more info on this? Read this wikipedia article (en). Also, the french page provides a cube example which can be useful for testing.
Three.js tips and tricks
When normals are not present, the lighting can't be applied, hence the black model render. Three.js can actually compute vertex and face normals with geometry.computeVertexNormals() and/or geometry.computeFaceNormals() depending on what's missing
When you do so, there's a chance Three.js' normal calculation will be wrong and your normals will be flipped, to fix this you can simply loop through your geometry's faces array like so:
/* Compute normals */
geometry.computeFaceNormals();
geometry.computeVertexNormals();
/* Next 3 lines seems not to be mandatory */
mesh.geometry.dynamic = true
mesh.geometry.__dirtyVertices = true;
mesh.geometry.__dirtyNormals = true;
mesh.flipSided = true;
mesh.doubleSided = true;
/* Flip normals*/
for(var i = 0; i<mesh.geometry.faces.length; i++) {
mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.x = -1*mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.x;
mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.y = -1*mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.y;
mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.z = -1*mesh.geometry.faces[i].normal.z;
}
You have to use a MeshPhongMaterial. MeshBasicMaterial does not take light in account when computing fragment color.
However, when using a MeshPhongMaterial, your mesh becomes black. I've never used the OBJ loader, but are you sure your model normales are right ?
Btw : you probably want to use a PointLight instead. And its position should probably be set to the camera position (light.position = camera.position should do the trick, as it will allow the light to be moved when the camera position will be edited by the Controls).

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