See-through
A soft hole in whatever's between the camera and your character, so a pillar, a wall or a tree never hides them. On by default, it touches nothing until a material carries Blendable's See-Through function, and it only opens the meshes actually in the way.
Collision moves the camera to keep your character in sight. See-through doesn't move it at all: it opens a soft, dithered hole in whatever's in the way, round your character and whoever you're locked on to, and closes it again once the camera's past. The camera stays where the shot wants it, and the pillar stays a pillar for everyone else.
Setting it up#
- 1
Give your materials the function.
Right-click one or more materials or material instances in the Content Browser and choose Add Blendable See-Through. An opaque material becomes Masked, with Blendable's See-Through function in its mask; an instance changes its parent. Remove Blendable See-Through takes it out again and puts the mask back as it was.
- 2
That's it.
See Through is on in every rig by default. A mesh whose material doesn't carry the function is skipped, so turning it on changes nothing until you've chosen what can open.
Only meshes actually between the camera and the people it keeps in view open, each on its own: the wall in front of you opens, and the identical wall beside it stays shut. Each mesh is told how open to be through its own custom primitive data, so there are no material parameter collections to manage and no other mesh is affected.
Settings#
Under Collision › See Through on any rig:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| See Through | on by default. Opens holes only in materials that carry the function |
| Your Character | keeps your character in view |
| Your Target | keeps whoever you're locked on to in view too |
| Hole Size | how big the hole is round each of them, as a share of their size: 1 is just round them, 1.25 by default |
| Opens In | how long something takes to open once it's in the way: 0.15 seconds |
| Closes In | how long it takes to close again: 0.4 seconds |
| Never Through Actors Tagged | actors with any of these tags never open, however much they're in the way |
| Open Skins Too | also opens what's laid over the thing in the way with no collision of its own: the paint, panelling and trims on a plain wall. On by default; Skin Reach (under More, 50 cm) is how near to where the view meets the wall they must be |
| Silhouette | also shows the parts of them hidden by anything at all, as a coloured outline and fill. Needs no material changes. Off by default |
| Silhouette Colour and Silhouette Fill | its colour (alpha is how much shows) and how much it fills them in: 0 the outline only, 1 solid |
With collision#
See-through pairs with Keep Out Of: Only When Inside under Collision. With it, the camera only comes in when it's actually inside a wall; anything else between you and the camera stays where it is, to be seen through. Without it, the camera pulls in for every pillar it passes and the hole never gets a chance.
Or keep Nothing Between and turn on Thin Things Don't Block on the Occlusion line: the camera passes through posts, poles, railings and lamp posts (anything whose two narrowest sides are under Thinner Than, 30 cm) and see-through opens them, while walls still bring it in. Each mesh is measured whole, so a frame or a shelf made as one piece still counts as solid.
In finishers and kill cams#
A Blendshot shot keeps who it's on in view the same way, with See Through To Them on the finisher or kill cam, using your rig's See Through settings. A shot whose camera would otherwise be blocked by a pillar counts as clear, because the pillar will open.