Transparent Planets

from Sins Forums
It's pretty self explainatory, the planets in-game are partially transparent. By like, 50%

I see no setting to change this, my settings are at thier highest, I have an ATI Radeon 9250 250mb, so I don't THINK there would be a bad problem with it hardware wise.

Any Help?
technical
12,234 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Update your video drivers.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
My drivers are up to date, and by complete chance, I have the exact same video card
that Theyus does. I have the same problem as he does. It is some kind of Pixel Shader
version that it supports? Is there some way to make planets solid?

Aside from this glitch, I can otherwise run the game perfectly under normal
circumstances. I just would like to see solid planets, instead of this:

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
lol ur fleet is massively suronding the planet, y don't u put ur ships on stack? lol
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
My drivers are up to date
End of quote


Which drivers, exactly? Windows Update and OEM websites don't generally have the latest. Then again, ATI discontinued support for the 9250 after Catalyst 6.5 IIRC, so that's the driver you need to have.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Same problem for me. All planet objects except asteroids and suns are partially transparent. So, it looks like the problem is the atmosphere layer. Radeon 9200 graphics card here. It does have minor transparency problems with some games, yes my driver is up to date, unless some 3rd party has a driver that fixes this problem.

I'm quite sure the problem is the glowy atmosphere layer over the planet. My card decides that the solid planet underneath should be as transparent as the air.


Short fix idea: Does anyone know how to turn off the atmosphere layer? Just change the file name/delete the file/null it out?

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Same problem here with a 7900GS and the unofficial 174.70 drivers. I'll try updating to the official 174.74 betas. If that doesn't do anything, I'll bookmark this page and update when I get my 9800GTX back from step-up (sent in an 8800 GTS 512, not the 7900).

PS: This started with the 1.04 patch, my 7900GS and 8800GTS worked fine in 1.03.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Had these as well after playing with "effects" settings. 9600GT, drivers version - 174.74. After restarting game - all went to normal again. But unfortunatly thats the less significant of video issues I have with this game.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, before I reinstalled the drivers I restarted the game to see if it was just a fluke and it looks like it was. I reinstalled the drivers anyway and it still works fine. Looks like it was a one time "deal." Good luck to you guys who still are looking for solutions.

What kind of video problems do you have, unit? A 9600GT should be able to play Sins pretty well if a 7900GS (albeit, voltmodded) can.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
This is the thread for unit's issue :P
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Reclaimer, Annatar11

and most terrible, this one
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/307465/#1688188

A 9600GT should be able to play Sins pretty well if a 7900GS (albeit, voltmodded) can.
End of quote


SoaSE is a great game, but honestly that level of graphics could be handled by Geforce2Ti. Check Hegemonia if you dont belive me :) I dont know how Ironclad guys did optimizing, but it seams not very well.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I think the graphics in Sins are amazing for how well it runs. I was expecting to be watching a slide show on my 7900GS while I waited for my step-up, but I'm staying above 50fps all of the time, unless I'm running at 8x or 6x on a big map with lots of AI. And then it's the single core usage that's holding me back, not the GPU. All while keeping a beautiful look. For how it performs, Sins looks amazing.

Oh, you mean the graphics that you're having trouble with. Sorry, I thought you were saying that all of Sins was outdated and unoptimized.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
@Theyus: I was having the same problem after I updated via SDC, and was also seeing old market prices, but after I reupdated via the download link on the Sins website, it fixed both problems. I'm using a GeForce 8600 GTS, so your millage may vary.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Oh, you mean the graphics that you're having trouble with. Sorry, I thought you were saying that all of Sins was outdated and unoptimized.
End of quote


No, I dont mean my case. I mean Sins graphics in general. And I dont use word "outdated" at all. I think graphics in Sins is nice, but unoptimized - yes thats for sure.
Because I remember playing Hegemonia like 5 years ago on my Geforce2Ti, and it handled it pretty well. And Hegemonia, I think had better graphics. While Sins requires:

(Radeon X1600 / GeForce 7600 and above)
End of quote
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
Planets were transparent on my computer too when i still had a Radeon 9250. After i "upgraded" to Radeon 9600, everything has shown ok. As for drivers i've always used the Omega divers: http://www.omegadrivers.net

They may give a little boost.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
I was having the same "Transparent Planet" problem and poked around at some of the files. After an hour and a half of tedious trial and error, I seem to have opaque planets! In GS_Planet.fx, I copied some lines to do with AlphaBlend from RenderWithPixelShader to RenderWithoutPixelShader. I'm not sure if I'm truncating some other visual effect by doing this, but everything looks nice to my virgin eyes!

C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\PipelineEffect\GS_Planet.fx

BEFORE:
Code: c++
  2. technique RenderWithoutPixelShader
  3. {
  4. pass Pass0
  5. {
  6. VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 RenderSceneVSSimple();
  7. PixelShader = NULL;
  8. Texture[0] = <g_TextureDiffuse0>;
  10. // copied from Pass0 of RenderWithPixelShader, it seems to make the planets opaque for my crappy video card!
  11. AlphaTestEnable = FALSE;
  12. AlphaBlendEnable = TRUE;
  13. SrcBlend = ONE;
  14. DestBlend = ZERO;
  15. }
  16. }


AFTER:
Code: c++
  2. technique RenderWithoutPixelShader
  3. {
  4. pass Pass0
  5. {
  6. VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 RenderSceneVSSimple();
  7. PixelShader = NULL;
  8. Texture[0] = <g_TextureDiffuse0>;
  10. // copied from Pass0 of RenderWithPixelShader, it seems to make the planets opaque for my crappy video card!
  11. AlphaTestEnable = FALSE;
  12. AlphaBlendEnable = TRUE;
  13. SrcBlend = ONE;
  14. DestBlend = ZERO;
  15. }
  16. }


Hope this helps someone else with archaic hardware!

P.S. NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
This is funny. I thought I was the only one. I use Google Desktop and I've noticed that if it's on when I'm playing sins, the planets are all transparent (it looks kind of cool, actually.) I closed Sins, closed GD, restarted sins and everything's back to normal. I also saved a gave with the transparent planets, just to see what would happen. It turns out that when you load it, it looks completely normal. Basically, this has no effect on the game, save the transparent planets part...

By the way, I have an nVidia 7600 GT video card.
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
ive had this problem once. just started a random map with 4 peeps, as soon as the planet showed up they were all transparent, not liek the pictures above.... just like being able 2 see through the terran planet (could see all 3 asteroids through the terran)


never had any more issues after, but still = weird
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
for people who have a radeon 9250 I found the solution.

go to C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\PipelineEffect\GS_Planet.fx

and you will find something like this at the end, just erase the bad section and copy past the good section (this).



technique RenderWithoutPixelShader
{
pass Pass0
{
VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 RenderSceneVSSimple();
PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 RenderScenePS();
Texture[0] =