Drawing order in FSX

[Guest fbnweoghnwd]

I have canvas type seats inside my chopper's cabin that use transparency mapping. They were being drawn in front of the transparent windows, rather than behind them, and I noticed that the problem went away if I made sure that the windows weren't attached to or linked below any objects. But now that I have multiple LODs in the scene, the windows are linked below the LOD nodes, and the problem is back. Some LODs work correctly and some don't...so it seems as though there are some wierd random rules determining what gets drawn in front of what. Does anyone know how drawing order is determined in FSX and if it can be controlled?

[n4gix 4,947]

Unless you are building an AI chopper, why are you even using LODs? You can't zoom far enough away to make 'em worth the trouble... ;)

[Guest fbnweoghnwd]

>Unless you are building an AI chopper, why are you even using>LODs? You can't zoom far enough away to make 'em worth the>trouble... ;)I don't want it to be a frame rate hog when it's used on multiplayer.

[n4gix 4,947]

>>Unless you are building an AI chopper, why are you even>using>>LODs? You can't zoom far enough away to make 'em worth the>>trouble... ;)>>I don't want it to be a frame rate hog when it's used on>multiplayer.Ah! OK, that's a good enough reason then...Have you tried using the ZBias sort in the FSX Material properties?

[Guest fbnweoghnwd]

>Have you tried using the ZBias sort in the FSX Material>properties?>Nope. I kind of suspected that some of the new material options might give us control over drawing order, but I wasn't sure. I guess I just never looked through Microsoft's reams of high quality documentation on the subject (he says with a sarcastic smirk!). I'll dig into it tonight.

[Guest fbnweoghnwd]

I tried a hundred different things and nothing fixes the drawing order shift when the LOD switches. Then I did some tests that showed absolutely no frame rate improvement when switching from the full res model to a test LOD consisting of nothing but a low poly cylinder. So needless to say, I'm giving LOD's the heave-ho.