Ordering translucent quadrilaterals (quads) by descending depth produces a correct image with alpha-blended translucency. Generating such an order efficiently with a moving camera is challenging in general. Since translucency is common in computer graphics, a multitude of techniques have been developed for it, but none is universally optimal. This work implements quad-based translucency sorting in Sodium, a Minecraft modification focused on rendering performance. A sort order is obtained by topologically sorting a visibility graph over the quads with respect to a polytope of view points. However, this algorithm's quadratic runtime and potential for sort failure when being approximated limit its suitability to static sorting. Axis-aligned multi-partition trees without quad fragmentation can be used instead. They are efficiently built with a projected interval scanning algorithm and generate dynamic sort orders 60 percent faster than sorting quads by distance. Together, these techniques improve visual correctness and provide a performant translucency sorting system. Unaligned partitioning, although not necessary for Minecraft, fully exploits partitionable geometry and lends itself to interpretation in parameter space. It is given a polynomial upper bound and options for transferring a lower bound from linear constraint solving.
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