Wanted: fixed rotating airport beacon for DX10

[Soulflight 97]

here is why:



The light beam in DX10 keeps being "obstructed" by objects like clouds, trees and buildings that are actually behind it. Sorry for the quality 😉

Edited January 14, 2020 by Soulflight

[Jim Young 2,356]

That's a building in front of the beam.  You want the beam to go through buildings?  And, only DX10 does this?  How is that possible?

[Soulflight 97]

No, its not. The building is actually behind the building that has the light installed on top of it. I just put that up for demonstration. In general, Objects like buildings and trees are shown as "in front" the beam effect when they actually are not.
I remember legacy aircraft having that problem with prop effects, as well as some landing lights before they were converted in the fixer.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Soulflight

[Jim Young 2,356]

If this is a "Steve's DX10 Fixer" issue, you probably should post in the official DX10 Fixer Forum hosted here at AVSIM.  I still disagree with your assessment as I think it is impossible for DirectX to cause this anomaly with FSX Effects.

Here a discussions regarding this potential issue I found - https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=35439. 

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/411452-semi-transparent-cone-extending-from-airport-beacon/.

 

[Reader 2,021]

This is a link to a beacon in FSX Preview Direct X 10 mode and fixed by the Direct X 10 Fixer.

To me it seems to be working as realistically as the simulator will allow.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Reader

[Soulflight 97]

Ok thanks for your responses. Meanwhile I found out that the problem only exists in orbx airports, since they use their own rotating beacon effect. The stock FSX one in others is displayed fine.

And before someone passive-aggressively flames me again why I am not posting that in ORBX-forums: I didnt know that. 😉

[Reader 2,021]

Thanks, the airport in the video is an Orbx regional airport in PNW.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Reader

[SteveFx 258]

I think that you are seeing behind the mask. 

This has nothing I think to do with DX10 or DX9. (though I haven't looked at the exact location as it isn't said where it is)

Graphics Cards are great at sorting solid objects and games can draw them in any order which is a huge CPU saver.  The GPU simply records the last depth (distance away) drawn at every pixel. 

So if e.g I draw a church in the middle distance at 2km and then draw a barn at 3km it can work out that at each pixel that they both occupy that there is something there already and discard the barn pixel leaving the the church pixel.  Similarly if I draw a car in the foreground at 300m  it can work out by pixel that the car is nearer than the last thing drawn (the church) and replace the church pixel with a car pixel.  If I draw those three items in any order I will get the same result.

This doesn't work with transparent things as they are  blended with the background and if you record their depth then they will block something being drawn behind them. So for transparent things you need to sort them carefully or oddities will occur - and that is challenging.

Looking at the picture I would guess that the light was drawn first and then the building in the background was drawn later replacing all the light pixels as the recorded depth for each was that of something further in the background.

An airport developer has no control over the drawing sequence - therefore transparent objects can sometimes  be subject to anomalies.

Observe some PAPI lights on the ground with some trees or buildings behind - you will find that the distant  trees/buildings  obscure the lights(!) - this is because PAPI light are drawn relatively early.

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by SteveFx