I have several sprite entities that exist in the same plane in 3d space. Example:

Is there some way I can set the priority of which entity should be rendered in front without altering the Z-value? I basically need the functionality of the layer flag except for entities.

ent->emask |= ZNEAR; sets an ent to the top of the rendering order

I don't think that will work in this case, because I could have more than two entities that I need to sort. So assuming a case with 3, I need to have a way to say "render this one, THEN this one, THEN this one".

I'm not entirely opposed to using the z-coordinate for this sorting, but the problem is that I am using transparent sprites and the engine seems to get confused unless the difference in z-coordinates between entities is at least 3 pixels. I need it to correctly render these three entities:


Any help is very much appreciated.

Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to approach this? I can give more clarification if needed.

It seems like the problem I faced when I was trying to make a 2d sidescroller...If you aren't opposed to using z coordinates,then try
also adding an alpha material..meaning this material to your sprites :-

material mat_alphatest
{
effect =
"
technique alpha_test
{
pass p0
{
zWriteEnable = true;
alphaTestEnable = true;
}
}
";
}

regards
zazang