Textures and decals Z fight despite being several studs apart

[DanBuildsTrains (Dan)]

• Using a PNG decal for the foreground image applied to an intersect object
• Using a PNG surface texture as the background image applied to a union object
• In studio or in play test, decals and textures sometimes clip (on all base part types)
• Only occurs when the base part is not completely opaque

Expected behavior

The decals and textures to better interact with each other, and not cause Z fighting when using overlapping parts

[neutrinostack]

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. It’s not z-fighting issue, but the rendering order issue.
The rendering order on the transparent parts depends on the distance to the camera, which changes based on the camera angle. We’ve been discussing possible solutions to this problem, but unfortunately, it’s not something we are prioritizing at the moment.

[DanBuildsTrains (Dan)]

It is interesting because a transparent overlay setting on surface appearance fixes the issue, however it only is available for mesh parts. Would be nice for an option to incorporate a similar technology into a more advanced surface textures and decals for normal parts (such as pbr layers and alpha mode as well) so we can still tile the images without having to make everything a uv mapped mesh.

[neutrinostack]

Correct, SA’s Transparency mode works differently and doesn’t have the order issue.

Unifying the materials, textures and decals is something we have been discussing but it’s not currently prioritized, unfortunately.