Fade Material's Transparency Based on Distance

Question

Okay, so I've been at this for hours now and still no luck. Thought I'd see if the pros here could help me out :)

So I have everything working correctly except it's opposite:

 dist = Vector3.Distance(transform.position, other.position);
     renderer.material.color.a = dist * .02;

It fades the material when I get closer and then unfades it as I get further away (opposite effect).

How can I fix this? I tried using -Vectot3.Distance and I get some crazy distance number. This is tough because Unity is limited with their scripting references and all they have is Vector3.Distance. Is there another way I can do this? Any help or guidance would be much appreciated and I'll be sure to give an answered question if you can help me get this working. Thanks

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by aldonaletto · Apr 20, 2012 at 12:52 AM

Alpha = 0 means transparent, while alpha = 1 means solid. You could use something like this:

var solidDistance: float = 5.0; // max distance to be 100% solid
...
dist = Vector3.Distance(transform.position, other.position);
if (dist < solidDistance) dist = solidDistance;
renderer.material.color.a = solidDistance / dist;

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BHS · Apr 20, 2012 at 01:14 AM 0

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aldonaletto · Apr 20, 2012 at 01:21 AM 0

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BHS · Apr 20, 2012 at 01:33 AM 0

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BHS · Apr 20, 2012 at 02:29 AM 0

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aldonaletto · Apr 20, 2012 at 10:55 AM 0

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Answer 2

Answer by wolvtodd · Apr 20, 2012 at 01:13 AM

I think renderer.material.color can only return a new color, and can not just set a new single alpha value. how about trying this:

renderer.material.color = new Color(renderer.material.color.r, renderer.material.color.g, renderer.material.color.b, solidDistance / dist);

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BHS · Apr 20, 2012 at 01:22 AM 0

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Answer 3

create shader and copy and paste then add this to your object

 Shader "Kamaly/FarAlpha"
 {
     Properties
     {
         _MainTex ("Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
         _MinVisDistance("MinDistance",Float) = 0
         _MaxVisDistance("MaxDistance",Float) = 20
             _Color("Color",Color) = (0,0,0,1)
     }
     SubShader
     {
             ZWrite Off
             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
         Tags { "RenderType"="Transparent" }
         LOD 100
 
         Pass
         {
             CGPROGRAM
             #pragma vertex vert
             #pragma fragment frag 
             // make fog work
             #pragma multi_compile_fog
             
             #include "UnityCG.cginc"
 
         struct v2f
     {
         half4 pos       : POSITION;
         fixed4 color : COLOR0;
         half2 uv        : TEXCOORD0;
     };
 
 
 
     sampler2D   _MainTex;
     half        _MinVisDistance;
     half        _MaxVisDistance;
 
 
 
     v2f vert(appdata_full v)
     {
         v2f o;
 
         o.pos = mul((half4x4)UNITY_MATRIX_MVP, v.vertex);
         o.uv = v.texcoord.xy;
         o.color = v.color;
 
         half3 viewDirW = _WorldSpaceCameraPos - mul((half4x4)unity_ObjectToWorld, v.vertex);
         half viewDist = length(viewDirW);
         half falloff = saturate((viewDist - _MinVisDistance) / (_MaxVisDistance - _MinVisDistance));
         o.color.a *= (1.0f - falloff);
         return o;
     }
 
 
     fixed4 frag(v2f i) : COLOR
     {
         fixed4 color = tex2D(_MainTex, i.uv) * i.color;
     return color;
     }
             ENDCG
         }
     }
 }

Fade Material's Transparency Based on Distance

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