{SOLVED} Viewer Angle Makes Face Texture Disappear or Overlap

[joeyblueyes]

I'm using the latest SL beta, so not sure if this is the right place to post this, but the beta thread hasn't seen activity since July.....

 

I have 2 strange viewing issues that maybe are settings, but can't seem to find the solution...

The first is an issue where the texture on the face of a prim "Vanishes" when viewed from some angles!  The prim has the texture of an oven on one side, and that prim is embedded into another prim (kitchen counter), but is sticking out plenty far enough.  When viewing, if I change the angle just a slight bit, the oven texture disappears...  Move a bit more, and it is back....  See the pic below that shows the 2 angles...

 

As you see above, a slight angle change and it does not display.  The oven is set out from the cabinets plenty far enough also......

 

The second issue is similar but different where the texture does not vanish, but instead has another texture on an unlinked prim display over (or partically over) it!

The pic below shows another oven that when viewed straight on, looks perfectly normal, but when viewed from an angle, the window texture next to it, displays as if it were over-lapping the oven!

 

Soooo, is this just a setting issue, or maybe a beta bug?  Has anyone else seen this?

 

My PC specs....

Win 7 - 64bit

Intel i5-2500 CPU

16gb DDR3 RAM

GeForce GTX550TI Graphics Card

 

Thanks in advance everyone!  :-)

 

[Rolig Loon]

The issue in both cases is alpha sorting, a very common problem in SL. Applications like SL that use OpenGL cannot easily tell which one of two textures is meant to be "in front" if they are both 32- bit images and are too close together. It's sort of like the problem you have in RL when you can't decide whether a dirty spot is on the inside of a window or the outside. In SL, it's your graphics card that can't decide, so it tries to show you both images at once. Good graphic designers, like the professionals who work on many on- line games, know how to avoid putting alpha textures where they will create sorting problems. Most of the work in SL is done by amateurs, however, so you'll find this issue almost everywhere you go.

[joeyblueyes]

Ok, thanks Rolig!  I had hoped that it was a simple viewer setting, but I guess when I think about it, I have seen the 2nd issue before in different places, but just haven't seen the one with the disappearing act though!

 

I suppose I could solve the 1st issue by making the smaller oven as part of the lower cabinet texture!  The other I just have to live with.....  Thanks again!  :-)

[Rolig Loon]

Since you're the one who's creating the kitchen, the easiest solution is to avoid using 32-bit textures unless you truly need them.  There's no reason for alpha on your oven texture or your cabinets, so get rid of it. Save your texture as 24-bit before you upload.

[joeyblueyes]

Thanks Rolig!  I'm sure glad you made that last post....  When I saw it I started to reply that I already had discarded the layers, as I'm usually in the habit of doing that if they are not needed and also to make a bit of a smaller file size.  I then second-guessed myself whether I did or not, and sure enough, I had Not!

 

Flattened out both of my textures, uploaded the new images, and "both issues SOLVED"....  Awesome.....!!

 

Thank you yet once again for your help!  ;-)