Forums | NoesisGUI

Semi-transparent backgrounds render darker than in Unity

Setup
Unity 6000.5.8f1, URP 17.5.0, Color Space: Linear
NoesisGUI 4.0.0 (Indie), Project Settings > NoesisGUI > Linear Rendering: Same as Unity
Noesis Studio 4.0

What we observe

We design our XAML in Studio and run it in Unity. Opaque colours match exactly
between the two. Semi-transparent ones do not: a window background at 90% opacity
looks noticeably darker in the Studio canvas than it does in the game, where the
result is the one we want.

Since opaque colours are identical and only blended ones differ, we concluded the
gap is in alpha composition — Studio compositing in gamma, Unity in linear space.

What we tried

Forcing Linear Rendering to Disabled in Unity is not a fix: our project is in Linear
colour space, so skipping the conversion shifts even opaque colours (our accent
orange visibly changes hue). Switching the whole Unity project to Gamma would match
Studio, but that would misrender the 3D scene, which is authored and tuned in Linear.

So today we tune every opacity by looking at Unity and ignoring the Studio canvas,
which defeats much of the point of designing in Studio.

Why we are asking

In viewtopic.php?t=2873 (01 Mar 2023), jsantos wrote about this exact problem:

"Unfortunately and as far as we know, there is no way to enable linear-rendering
in WPF/Blend. We are working on 'Noesis Studio', our Blend alternative, entirely
created with NoesisGUI. It will support this and much more things."

We could not find any trace of that option in Studio 4.0: nothing in the Studio
documentation, nothing in the Alpha release notes, and no such tag in the .noesis
project file format.

Questions

1. Does Studio 4.0 support linear rendering in its canvas? If so, where is the setting — application preferences, project file, or viewport bar?
2. If not, is it still planned, and is there a rough timeframe?
3. In the meantime, is there any recommended workflow for keeping opacity values consistent between Studio and a Linear-space engine?

Thanks.

Studio integrated inside Unity should render exactly the same as Unity’s Play Mode.

If you’re referring to the standalone Studio, though, then yes, it renders in sRGB by default. You can switch to linear rendering by using `--linear`, although this mode hasn’t been thoroughly tested yet.

Could you please clarify which version of Studio you’re referring to?

Hello jsantos
I was using Studio rc standalone.
Wasn't aware there was a Studio version living inside Unity.
All good now.

Great! Studio inside Unity will also show you all your extensions. Have a look inside `Runtime\API\Toolkit` for some extension samples.