They work similarly to the blocks in MC in the sense that they get drawn to the screen by a bunch of OpenGL calls. The only difference between transparent and opaque blocks in MC is an extra call to turn on alpha blending.
The big difference is depth sorting (and related to that, two separate render phases). In a classic 3D engine that can handle layered transparency, a static scene would have a preprocessor split all the meshes into convex parts, and build some kind of space partitioning scheme to determine the z-order quickly at runtime. But that's for static meshes that are known beforehand.
Dynamic objects are harder, because you can't precalculate anything. The time required to z-sort them becomes related to the number of objects. The more you have, the slower it gets. This is probably why Dorrax attributed the fps drop to the visibility of the glass blocks -- and since the game world is completely generated and dynamic, that's a reasonable assumption.
But dynamic or not, a blocky world has a couple of nice geometric properties that, say, a TF2 map does not have. They allow you to make assumptions about visibility and draw order, and take a couple of shortcuts while sorting. So the number of transparent blocks doesn't make a difference, but only because it is quite unlike Minecraft.
Interesting so would you say that your engine is perhaps more efficient than minecraft?
Also, though I have mentioned that I am a game developer, I typically stick to the art side of things...obviously . I have had a lot of experience with the technicals that go into a video game considering I work very closely to the programmers of our team so however I am still no programmer. I can answer some of the general questions when it comes to the logic behind how something would ideally work in a game or C++ vs java etc but some of the things you guys have been discussing lately have been focusing on the code itself. I understand what you are saying but I wouldn't have been able to provide that information myself.
Perhaps if you wanted to, you could help me a little with the OP and put together the more technical questions? The stuff I deleted was outdated and I'm sure you can agree; incorrect for the current version of Minecraft. I would really appreciate the help if you could answer those basic questions with more expertise and accuracy than I.
Again, it's up to you; i'll just leave them out otherwise.
Whoa! Genius! But with Vanilla Minecraft having performance issues with older computers already, it'd be best to leave out the colored lighting, and replace it with colored glass+glowstone=colored glowstone, which produces light of a certain color. And with how Vanilla suggestions usually end up, it may be a good idea to make this a mod. Anyway, I do support the idea. We'll see what Jeb says when he sees his.
would be a nice addition to castles/chapels also what about a craftable colored glass tip for torches which when combined with a torch makes a colored torch (in the same way that christmas lights work) also a small hole to let oxygen in (so the torch wouldnt go out due to oxygen deprivation) also one for glow stone. Full suport
Whoa! Genius! But with Vanilla Minecraft having performance issues with older computers already, it'd be best to leave out the colored lighting, and replace it with colored glass+glowstone=colored glowstone, which produces light of a certain color. And with how Vanilla suggestions usually end up, it may be a good idea to make this a mod. Anyway, I do support the idea. We'll see what Jeb says when he sees his.
I don't think so. They're already doing something with furnaces where the front is lit more than the rest. Which is pretty similair to what the suggestion is asking. They're also working on making MC run better.
It'll probably act like beds where it doesn't matter what color you have.
Yea thats how I always pictured it. I just feel that's simpler all around for both the the developers and users. There is no real reason to have multi colored glass bottles anyway. For somethings, veriety is essential but not for everything. -_^
*Giving a 5 stars rating in your profile*, this is a good idea, I always wanted to build a room with colorlights + using redstone stuff, where I'll do the gangnem style listening to the juke box in private XD. Better yet, having friends in my LAN server doing it with me, if this idea were to be added in the next update.
YES YES YES *sobs in joy* YEEEEEES!!! I want this so much, It would be perfect for redstoning! Maybe even add a special kind of glass who's color can be toggled with redstone?
Also, though I have mentioned that I am a game developer, I typically stick to the art side of things...obviously
Perhaps if you wanted to, you could help me a little with the OP and put together the more technical questions? The stuff I deleted was outdated and I'm sure you can agree; incorrect for the current version of Minecraft. I would really appreciate the help if you could answer those basic questions with more expertise and accuracy than I.
Again, it's up to you; i'll just leave them out otherwise.
~Epic Space Milk Muffin
^ This.
http://www.youtube.com/dozacraft
Hopefully this gets added to the vanilla version!
Looking forward to this...
I don't think so. They're already doing something with furnaces where the front is lit more than the rest. Which is pretty similair to what the suggestion is asking. They're also working on making MC run better.
It'll probably act like beds where it doesn't matter what color you have.
~Epic Space Milk Muffin
you should read the rest of the OP
~Epic Space Milk Muffin
~Epic Space Milk Muffin
it is not... Nvrmnd :/
~Epic Space Milk Muffin