Qt & OpenGL : texture transparency - c++

I have two textures rendered in the same way. The green texture has the right transparency in the right places, but when I move the pink texture in front, it shows the background color where it should be transparent.
This is the snippet code of the paintGL method that renders the textures.
void OpenGLWidget::paintGL()
{
// ...
for (int i = 0; i < lights.size(); i++)
{
glUseProgram(lights[i].program);
setUniform3fv(program, "lightPosition", 1, &lights[i].position[0]);
glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, lights[i].texture);
lights[i].svg.setColor(toColor(lights[i].diffuse));
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, lights[i].svg.width(), lights[i].svg.height(), 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, lights[i].svg.toImage().constBits());
glGenerateMipmap(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glBindVertexArray(lights[i].vertexArray);
glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, lights[i].indices.size(), GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, nullptr);
}
update();
}
The toImage method of the svg class generates a new QImage object from the svg file, so the new texture value should be updated with each frame.
Where am I doing wrong? Thanks!

This probably happens because you have depth testing enabled. Even though parts of the texture are (partly or fully) transparent, OpenGL still writes to the depth buffer, so the pink light's quad appears to obscure the green light. It works the other way round, because the pink light is drawn first, so the green light hasn't been written to the depth buffer at that point.
The usual solution to this is to render transparent textures in back to front order.
You could also just write your fragment shader to discard fragments if they are transparent. But this results in artifacts if you have semi-transparent fragments, which you have, because of texture filtering and mipmaps.

Related

openGL Transparent pixels unexpectedly White

I noticed a big problem in my openGL texture rendering:
Assumedly transparent pixels are rendered as solid white. According to most solutions to similar issues discussed on StackOverflow, I need to set glBlend / the proper functions, but I have already set the necessary gl state and am positive that textures are loaded correctly as far as I can tell. My texture load function is below:
GLboolean GL_texture_load(Texture* texture_id, const char* const path, const GLboolean alpha, const GLint param_edge_x, const GLint param_edge_y)
{
// load image
SDL_Surface* img = nullptr;
if (!(img = IMG_Load(path))) {
fprintf(stderr, "SDL_image could not be loaded %s, SDL_image Error: %s\n",
path, IMG_GetError());
return GL_FALSE;
}
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, *texture_id);
// image assignment
GLuint format = (alpha) ? GL_RGBA : GL_RGB;
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, format, img->w, img->h, 0, format, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, img->pixels);
// wrapping behavior
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, param_edge_x);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, param_edge_y);
// texture filtering
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0);
// free the surface
SDL_FreeSurface(img);
return GL_TRUE;
}
I use Adobe Photoshop to export "for the web" 24-bit + transparency .png files -- 72 pixels/inch, 6400 x 720. I am not sure how to set the color mode (8, 16, 32), but this might have something to do with the issue. I also use the default sRGB color profile, but I thought to remove the color profile at one point. This didn't do anything.
No matter what, a png exported from Photoshop displays as solid white over transparent pixels.
If I create an image in e.g. Gimp, I have correct transparency. Importing the Adobe .psd or .png does not seem to work, and in any case I prefer to use Photoshop for editing purposes.
Has anyone experienced this issue? I imagine that Photoshop must add some strange metadata or I am not using the correct color modes--or both.
(I am concerned that this goes beyond the scope of Stack Overflow, but my issue intersects image editing and programming. Regardless, please let me know if this is not the right place.)
EDIT:
In both Photoshop and Gimp I created a test case-- 8 pixels (red, green, transparent, blue) clockwise.
In Photoshop, the transparent square is read as 1, 1, 1, 0 and displays as white.
In Gimp, the transparent square is 0, 0, 0, 0.
I also checked my fragment shader to see whether transparency works at all. Varying the alpha over time does increase transparency, so the alpha isn't outright ignored. For some reason 1, 1, 1, 0 counts as solid.
In addition, setting the background color to black with glClearColor seems to prevent the alpha from increasing transparency.
I don't know how to explain some of these behaviors, but something seems off. 0 alpha should be the same regardless of color, shouldn't it?
(Note that I render a few shapes on top of each other, but I've tried just rendering one for testing purposes.)
The best I can do is post more of my setup code (with bits omitted):
// vertex array and buffers setup
glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glViewport(0, 0, SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT);
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glEnable(GL_BLEND);
// I think that the blend function may be wrong (GL_ONE that is).
glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
glDepthRange(0, 1);
glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL);
Texture tex0;
// same function as above, but generates one texture id for me
if (GL_texture_gen_and_load_1(&tex0, "./textures/sq2.png", GL_TRUE, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE) == GL_FALSE) {
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
glUseProgram(shader_2d);
glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, tex0);
glUniform1i(glGetUniformLocation(shader_2d, "tex0"), 0);
bool active = true;
while (active) {
glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
// uniforms, game logic, etc.
glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, tri_data.i_count, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, (void*)0);
}
I don't know how to explain some of these behaviors, but something seems off. 0 alpha should be the same regardless of color, shouldn't it?
If you want to get an identical result for an alpha channel of 0.0, independent on the red, green and blue channels, the you have to change the blend function. See glBlendFunc.
Use:
glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
This cause tha the the red, green and blue channel are multiplied by the alpha channel.
If the alpha channel is 0.0, the resulting RGB color is (0, 0, 0).
If the alpha channel is 1.0, the RGB color channels keep unchanged.
See further Alpha Compositing, OpenGL Blending and Premultiplied Alpha

How to draw to offscreen color buffer in OpenGL and then draw the result to a sprite surface?

Here is a description of the problem:
I want to render some VBO shapes (rectangles, circles, etc) to an off screen framebuffer object. This could be any arbitrary shape.
Then I want to draw the result on a simple sprite surface as a texture, but not on the entire screen itself.
I can't seem to get this to work correctly.
When I run the code, I see the shapes being drawn all over the screen, but not in the sprite in the middle. It remains blank. Even though it seems like I set up the FBO with 1 color texture, it still only renders to screen even if I select the FBO object into context.
What I want to achieve is these shapes being drawn to an off screen texture (using an FBO, obviously) and then render it on the surface of a sprite (or a cube, or we) drawn somewhere on the screen. Yet, whatever I draw, appears to be drawn in the screen itself.
The tex(tex_object_ID); function is just a short-hand wrapper for OpenGL's standard texture bind. It selects a texture into current rendering context.
No matter what I try I get this result: The sprite is blank, but all these shapes should appear there, not on the main screen. (Didn't I bind rendering to FBO? Why is it still rendering on screen?)
I think it is just a logistics of setting up FBO in the right order that I am missing. Can anyone tell what's wrong with my code?
Not sure why the background is red, as I clear it after I select the FBO. It is the sprite that should get the red background & shapes drawn on it.
/*-- Initialization -- */
GLuint texture = 0;
GLuint Framebuffer = 0;
GLuint GenerateFrameBuffer(int dimension)
{
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glGenTextures(1, &texture);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA8, dimension, dimension, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, nullptr);
glGenFramebuffers(1, &Framebuffer);
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, Framebuffer);
glFramebufferTexture2D(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0, GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture, 0);
glDrawBuffer(GL_COLOR);
glReadBuffer(GL_COLOR);
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
if (glCheckFramebufferStatus(GL_FRAMEBUFFER) != GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE)
console_log("GL_FRAMEBUFFER != GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE\n");
return texture;
}
// Store framebuffer texture (should I store texture here or Framebuffer object?)
GLuint FramebufferHandle = GenerateFrameBuffer( 256 );
Standard OpenGL initialization code follows, memory is allocated, VBO's are created and bound, etc. This works correctly and there aren't errors in initialization. I can render VBOs, polygons, textured polygons, lines, etc, on standard double buffer with success.
Next, in my render loop I do the following:
// Possible problem?
// Should FramebufferHandle be passed here?
// I tried "texture" and "Framebuffer " as well, to no effect:
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, FramebufferHandle);
// Correct projection, just calculates the view based on current zoom
Projection = setOrthoFrustum(-config.zoomed_width/2, config.zoomed_width/2, -config.zoomed_height/2, config.zoomed_height/2, 0, 100);
View.identity();
Model.identity();
// Mini shader, 100% *guaranteed* to work, there are no errors in it (works normally on the screen)
shaderProgramMini.use();
//Clear frame buffer with blue color
glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);// | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
// Set yellow to draw different shapes on the framebuffer
color = {1.0f,1.0f,0.0f};
// Draw several shapes (already correctly stored in VBO objects)
Memory.select(VBO_RECTANGLES); // updates uniforms
glDrawArrays(GL_QUADS, 0, Memory.renderable[VBO_RECTANGLES].indexIndex);
Memory.select(VBO_CIRCLES); // updates uniforms
glDrawArrays(GL_LINES, 0, Memory.renderable[VBO_CIRCLES].indexIndex);
Memory.select(VBO_2D_LIGHT); // updates uniforms
glDrawArrays(GL_LINES, 0, Memory.renderable[VBO_2D_LIGHT].indexIndex);
// Done writing to framebuffer
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
// Correct projection, just calculates the view based on current zoom
Projection = setOrthoFrustum(-config.zoomed_width/2, config.zoomed_width/2, -config.zoomed_height/2, config.zoomed_height/2, 0, 100);
View.identity();
Model.identity();
Model.scale(10.0);
// Select texture shader to draw what was drawn on offscreen Framebuffer / texture
// Standard texture shader, 100% *guaranteed* to work, there are no errors in it (works normally on the screen)
shaderProgramTexture.use();
// This is a wrapper for bind texture to ID, just shorthand function name
tex(texture); // FramebufferHandle; // ? // maybe the mistake in binding to the wrong target object?
color = {0.5f,0.2f,0.0f};
Memory.select(VBO_SPRITE); Select a square VBO for rendering sprites (works if any other texture is assigned to it)
// finally draw the sprite with Framebuffer's texture:
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, Memory.renderable[VBO_SPRITE].indexIndex);
I may have gotten the order of something completely wrong. Or FramebufferHandle/Framebuffer/texture object is not passed to something correctly. But I spent all day, and hope someone more experienced than me can see the mistake.
GL_COLOR is not an accepted value for glDrawBuffer
See OpenGL 4.6 API Compatibility Profile Specification, 17.4.1 Selecting Buffers for Writing, Table 17.4 and Table 17.5, page 628
NONE, FRONT_LEFT, FRONT_RIGHT, BACK_LEFT, BACK_RIGHT, FRONT, BACK, LEFT, RIGHT, FRONT_AND_BACK, AUXi.
Arguments to DrawBuffer when the context is bound to a default framebuffer, and the buffers they indicate. The same arguments are valid for ReadBuffer, but only a single buffer is selected as discussed in section.
COLOR_ATTACHMENTi
Arguments to DrawBuffer(s) and ReadBuffer when the context is bound to a framebuffer object, and the buffers they indicate. i in COLOR_ATTACHMENTi may range from zero to the value of MAX_COLOR_ATTACHMENTS minus one.
Thsi means that glDrawBuffer(GL_COLOR); and glReadBuffer(GL_COLOR); will generate a GL_INVALID_ENUM error.
Try to use COLOR_ATTACHMENT0 instead.
Furthermore, glCheckFramebufferStatus(GL_FRAMEBUFFER), checkes the completeness of the framebuffer object which is bound to the target.
This means that
glCheckFramebufferStatus(GL_FRAMEBUFFER) != GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE
has to be done before
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
Or you have to use:
glNamedFramebufferReadBuffer(Framebuffer, GL_FRAMEBUFFER);

glDrawPixel GL_RGBA pixel buffer object

I'm currently drawing a image from a pixel buffer object like this.
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glBindBufferARB(GL_PIXEL_UNPACK_BUFFER_ARB, gl_pbo);
glDrawPixels(glDisplayWidth, glDisplayHeight, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0);
glBindBufferARB(GL_PIXEL_UNPACK_BUFFER_ARB, 0);
glutSwapBuffers();
glutReportErrors();
glutPostRedisplay();
This is my display loop. It produces a red-scale image from the pixel buffer object gl_pbo.
My question is, how do I change the color of the image to say, grayscale?
Copy the PBO contents to a texture (of the same size) and then draw the texture to the full screen quad using a fragment shader that uses outputs a grayscale color based on the textures red channel input.

Read back texture coordinates from rendered image in OpenGL?

If I render a scene in openGL, is it possible to get back the texture coordinates that were used to paint that pixel?
For example, if I render a triangle that has 3 vertices (x,y,z) and 3 tex coords (u,v), and then I select a pixel on the triangle, I can get the color of the triangle and the depth using opengl calls, but is it possible to also get the interpolated texture coordinate?
Basically, I want to get the image point on the texture that was used to paint the triangle at a particular pixel.
I am guessing the only real way to do this is by reconstructing the ray that goes from the camera center through the pixel on the image plane, and then do a ray-triangle intersection to figure out which triangle it was, and then I can do a lookup into my texture array to get the texture coordinates of the triangle, and then do my own barycentric interpolation, but I would like to avoid having to do all that if possible.
Edit: The code I currently have didn't appear properly formatted in the bounty request below, so I've put it here. This is what I have right now, I would like to add reading texture coordinates u,v to it, ideally without a shader program if possible.
// First initialize the FBO, I am interested in depth and color
// create a framebuffer object
glGenFramebuffers(1, &id);
glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, id);
// Create texture to store color info
glGenTextures(1, &color);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, color);
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, width, height, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, NULL);
glFramebufferTexture2DEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0_EXT, GL_TEXTURE_2D, color, 0);
glBindRenderbufferEXT(GL_RENDERBUFFER_EXT, 0);
// Create render buffer to store depth info
glGenRenderbuffers(1, &depth);
glBindRenderbufferEXT(GL_RENDERBUFFER_EXT, depth);
glRenderbufferStorageEXT(GL_RENDERBUFFER_EXT, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, width, height);
glBindRenderbufferEXT(GL_RENDERBUFFER_EXT, 0);
// Attach the renderbuffer to depth attachment point
glFramebufferRenderbufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, GL_DEPTH_ATTACHMENT_EXT, GL_RENDERBUFFER_EXT, depth);
glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, 0);
// Then later in the code, I use the actual buffer:
glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, fboId);
...
//draw model
...
//read color and depth values (want to also read texture coordinate values u and v here too)
...
glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, 0);
If you are determined to do this without using shaders, you could render your scene without lighting and using a single texture for every object. This texture would be filled with two gradients. The red channel would go from 0 to 255 horizontally and the green channel would go from 0 to 255 vertically. Now you have effectively painted the scene using the texture coordinates (assuming they are in the range 0-1). You can use glReadPixels to read back the buffer (or part of the buffer) you have just rendered to and use the red channel to retrieve u and the green channel to retrieve v.
Render your scene to a FBO with a 2-channel floating-point color attachment (GL_RG32F or similar) and output the u/v coordinates to that attachment in the fragment shader.

Creating and blending a dynamic texture in OpenGL

I need to render a sphere to a texture (done using a Framebuffer Object (FBO)), and then alpha blend that texture with the back buffer. So far I'm not doing any processing with the texture except clearing it at the beginning of every frame.
I should say that my scene consists of nothing but a planet in empty space, the sphere should appear next to or around the planet (kind of like a moon for now). When I render the sphere directly to the back buffer, it displays correctly; but when I do the intermediary step of rendering it to a texture and then blending that texture with the back buffer, the sphere only shows up when it is in front of the planet, the part that isn't in front is just "cut off":
I render the sphere using glutSolidSphere to a RGBA8 fullscreen texture that's bound to an FBO, making sure that every sphere pixel receives an alpha value of 1.0. I then pass the texture to a fragment shader program, and use this code to render a fullscreen quad - with the texture mapped onto it - to the backbuffer while alpha blending:
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA,GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glPushMatrix();
glLoadIdentity();
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glPushMatrix();
glLoadIdentity();
glBegin(GL_QUADS);
glTexCoord2i(0, 1);
glVertex3i(-1, 1, -1); // TOP LEFT
glTexCoord2i(0, 0);
glVertex3i(-1, -1, -1); // BOTTOM LEFT
glTexCoord2i(1, 0);
glVertex3i( 1, -1, -1); // BOTTOM RIGHT
glTexCoord2i(1, 1);
glVertex3i( 1, 1, -1); // TOP RIGHT
glEnd();
glPopMatrix();
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glPopMatrix();
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glDisable(GL_BLEND);
This is the shader code (taken from an FX file written in Cg):
sampler2D BlitSamp = sampler_state
{
MinFilter = LINEAR;
MagFilter = LINEAR;
MipFilter = LINEAR;
AddressU = Clamp;
AddressV = Clamp;
};
float4 blendPS(float2 texcoords : TEXCOORD0) : COLOR
{
float4 outColor = tex2D(BlitSamp, texcoords);
return outColor;
}
I don't even know whether this is a problem with the depth buffer or with alpha blending, I've tried a lot of combinations of enabling and disabling depth testing (with a depth buffer attached to the FBO) and alpha blending.
EDIT: I tried just rendering a blank fullscreen quad straight to the back buffer and even that was cropped around the planet's edges. For some reason, enabling depth testing for rendering the quad (that is, removing the lines glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST) and glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST) in the code above) got rid of the problem, but now everything but the planet and the sphere appears white:
I made sure (and could confirm) that the alpha channel of the texture is 0 at every pixel but the sphere's, so I don't understand where the whiteness could be introduced. (Would also still be interested in an explanation why enabling depth testing has this effect.)
I see two possible sources of error here:
1. Rendering to the FBO
If the missing pixels are not even present in the FBO after rendering, there must be some mechanism which discarded the corresponding fragments. The OpenGL pipeline includes four different types of fragment tests which can lead to fragments being discarded:
Scissor Test: Unlikely to be the cause, as the scissor test only affects a rectangular portion of the screen.
Alpha Test: Equally unlikely, as your fragments should all have the same alpha value.
Stencil Test: Also unlikely, unless you use stencil operations when drawing the background planet and copy over the stencil buffer from the back buffer to the FBO.
Depth Test: Same as for stencil test.
So there's a good chance that rendering into FBO is not the issue here. But just to be absolutely sure, you should read back your color attachment texture and dump it into a file for inspection. You can use the following function for that:
void TextureToFile(GLuint texture, const char* filename) {
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture);
GLint width, height;
glGetTexLevelParameteriv(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_TEXTURE_WIDTH, &width);
glGetTexLevelParameteriv(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_TEXTURE_HEIGHT, &height);
std::vector<GLubyte> pixels(3 * width * height);
glGetTexImage(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGB, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, &pixels[0]);
std::ofstream out(filename, std::ios::out | std::ios::binary);
out << "P6\n"
<< width << '\n'
<< height << '\n'
<< 255 << '\n';
out.write(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(&pixels[0]), pixels.size());
}
The resulting file is a portable pixmap (.ppm). Be sure to unbind the FBO before reading back the texture.
2. Texture mapping
Assuming rendering into the FBO works as expected, the only other source of error is blending the texture over the previously rendered scene. There are two scenarios:
a) Fragments get discarded
The possible reasons for fragments to get discarded are the same as in 1.:
Scissor Test: Nope, affects rectangular areas only.
Alpha Test: Probably not, the texels covered sphere should all have the same alpha value.
Stencil Test: Might be the cause if you use stencil operations/stencil testing when drawing the background planet and the old stencil state is still active.
Depth Test: Might be the cause, but as you already disable it, it really shouldn't have any effect.
So you should make sure that all of these tests are disabled, especially the stencil test.
b) Wrong results from blending
Assuming all fragments reach the back buffer, blending is the only thing which could still cause the wrong result. With your blending function (GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA) the values in the back buffer are irrelevant for blending, and we assume that the alpha values in the texture are correct. So I see no reason for why blending should be the root cause here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the only sensible cause for the observed result seems to be stencil testing. If it's not, I'm out of options :)
I solved it or at least came up with a work around.
First off, the whiteness stems from the fact that glClearColor had been set to glClearColor(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1000.0f), so everything but the planet wasn't even written to in the end. I now copy the contents of the back buffer (which is the planet, the atmosphere, and the space around it) to the texture before rendering the sphere, and I render the atmosphere and space before that copy/blit operation, so they are included in it. Previously, everything but the planet itself was rendered after my quad, which - when using depth testing - apparently placed everything behind the quad, making it invisible.
The reference implementation of the effect I'm trying to achieve has always used this kind of blit operation in its code but I didn't think it was necessary for the effect. Now I feel like there might be no other way...