From 7a4142c62ad008d4f952f669e65b3dd82687ec21 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andreas Sundquist <asundqui@worldlabs.ai>
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 12:53:19 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Lower MIN_ALPHA from 0.01 to 0.5/255, the lowest conceivable
 value that could be encoded in a Uint8, allowing highly transparent objects
 to render better. (#37)

Add "sortRadial" option to Editor to allow toggling between radial and Z-depth sorting.
---
 examples/editor/index.html    | 3 ++-
 src/shaders/splatDefines.glsl | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/examples/editor/index.html b/examples/editor/index.html
index e41c41d..304973c 100644
--- a/examples/editor/index.html
+++ b/examples/editor/index.html
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
     import { getAssetFileURL } from "/examples/js/get-asset-url.js";
 
     const scene = new THREE.Scene();
-    const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000);
+    const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.01, 1000);
     camera.position.set(0, 0, 1);
 
     const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
@@ -463,6 +463,7 @@
     gui.add(guiOptions, "stats").name("Show frame stats").onChange((value) => {
       stats.dom.style.display = value ? "block" : "none";
     });
+    gui.add(forge.defaultView, "sortRadial").name("Radial sort").listen();
     gui.add(grid, "opacity", 0, 1, 0.01).name("Grid opacity").listen();
 
     const normalColor = dyno.dynoBool(false);
diff --git a/src/shaders/splatDefines.glsl b/src/shaders/splatDefines.glsl
index 035993a..b56f6a4 100644
--- a/src/shaders/splatDefines.glsl
+++ b/src/shaders/splatDefines.glsl
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ const float INFINITY = 1.0 / 0.0;
 const float NEG_INFINITY = -INFINITY;
 
 const float MAX_PIXEL_RADIUS = 512.0;
-const float MIN_ALPHA = 0.01;
+const float MIN_ALPHA = 0.5 * (1.0 / 255.0); // 0.00196
 const float MAX_STDDEV = sqrt(8.0);
 
 float sqr(float x) {