Request: functional "playerportrait_mask_linemeup"
It seems as if this texture is only included as a visual guide for designers to reserve an area for the 3-D player and opponent portaits to be rendered on top of.
Changing this texture appears to have no visible effect anywhere in either the player or opponent vitals panels. It doesn't seem to be used to mask clicks, nor to mask the rendered texture that's being splatted on top of the artwork.
Would it be possible to have the renderer actually use this mask? If so, would you consider using separate textures to mask player and opponent portrait models?
Also, just out of curiosity, why are the graphics engine settings not respected for rendering these particular models? For example, they always appear aliased, regardless of user settings. Perhaps performance is an issue here, since the models have to be rendered separately and then masked and splatted in a sort of cel-based animation. But if performance is a problem, users can already disable 3-D portraits completely.
Edit: After further experimentation, it seems that the texture file used to mask the 3-D portraits has several mipmap levels included in it. This has the unfortunate effect of making the portrait overlay very fuzzy if the player has chosen any of the lowest texture detail settings. (For example, I always lower my texture detail setting in Monster Play.)
While it is appropriate to use the smaller mipmap levels in rendering the model itself, it looks very sloppy to do so with the masking texture. If we don't get the ability to specify our own masks, I'd highly recommend that your artists only include a single mipmap level in the masking texture. (And make that level 64x64 pixels in size to match the frame being used.)
Last edited by Fredelas : 11-10-2009 at 10:58 AM.
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