Transparent FrameBuffer background in OpenGL

Question

I want to use glClear and glClearColor to fill a frame buffer with a colour including alpha transparency. However the framebuffer always renders as opaque when binded to a texture which is rendered to the screen.

I want everything which is rendered to the framebuffer to kept their transparency. I just want to change the background.

See the following code:

def create_texture(surface):
surface.texture = glGenTextures(1)
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW)
glLoadIdentity() #Loads model matrix
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, surface.texture) #Binds the current 2D texture to the texture to be drawn
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR) #Required to be set for maping the pixel data
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR) #Similar as above
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, surface.surface_size[0], surface.surface_size[1], 0, GL_RGBA,GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, surface.data) #Put surface pixel data into texture
if surface.data == None:
    setup_framebuffer(surface)
    c = [float(sc)/255.0 for sc in surface.colour] #Divide colours by 255 because OpenGL uses 0-1
    if surface.background_alpha:
        c[3] = float(surface.background_alpha)/255.0
    glClearColor(*c)
    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT)
    end_framebuffer()
Surface.texture_ready.append(surface)
def setup_framebuffer(surface):
#Create texture if not done already
if surface.texture == None:
    create_texture(surface)
#Render child to parent
if surface.frame_buffer == None:
    surface.frame_buffer =  glGenFramebuffersEXT(1)
glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, surface.frame_buffer)
glFramebufferTexture2DEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0_EXT, GL_TEXTURE_2D, surface.texture, 0)
glPushAttrib(GL_VIEWPORT_BIT)
glViewport(0,0,surface._scale[0],surface._scale[1])
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION)
glLoadIdentity() #Load the projection matrix
gluOrtho2D(0,surface._scale[0],0,surface._scale[1])
def end_framebuffer():
    glPopAttrib()
    glBindFramebufferEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, 0)
    glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION)
    glLoadIdentity() #Load the projection matrix
    gluOrtho2D(0,1280,720,0) #Set an orthorgraphic view

surface.background_alpha should be the transparency for the framebuffer background. Here is my initialization code:

def __init__(self,title,game_size,on_exit = sys.exit):
        self.keys = [False] * 323
        self.events = []
        pygame.font.init()
        pygame.mixer.init()
        self.title = title
        self.game_size = game_size
        self.first_screen = (1280,720) #Take 120 pixels from the height because the menu bar, window bar and dock takes space
        glutInit(sys.argv)
        glutInitWindowPosition(0,0)
        glutInitWindowSize(*game_size)
        glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGBA)
        glutGameModeString("1280x720:32@60") #720 HD
        glutCreateWindow(title)
        glutSetIconTitle(title)
        self.callbacks()
        self.game_gap = (0,0)
        self.on_exit = on_exit
        self.mod_key = 1024 if sys.platform == "darwin" else 64
        Surface.__init__(self,game_size)
        self.screen_change = True
        self.frames = [time.time()]
        self.fps = 60
        self.last_time = 0
        self.fade_surface = Surface([1280,720])
    def callbacks(self):
        glutReshapeFunc(self.reshaped)
        glutKeyboardFunc(self.keydown)
        glutKeyboardUpFunc(self.keyup)
        glutSpecialFunc(self.specialdown)
        glutSpecialUpFunc(self.specialup)
        glutDisplayFunc(self.game_loop)
        glutIdleFunc(self.game_loop)
        glutMouseFunc(self.mouse_func)
        glutPassiveMotionFunc(self.mouse_move)
        glViewport(0,0,self.first_screen[0],self.first_screen[1]) #Creates the viewport which is mapped to the window
        glEnable(GL_BLEND) #Enable alpha blending
        glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D) #Enable 2D Textures
        glEnable(GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH) #Enable antialiased polygons
        glHint(GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_NICEST)
        glHint(GL_LINE_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_NICEST)
        glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA)
        glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION)
        glLoadIdentity() #Load the projection matrix
        gluOrtho2D(0,1280,720,0) #Set an orthorgraphic view

The code is a little messy because I have made lots of adjustments to get things to work and I haven't properly tidied everything up.

If anyone can help me, I thank you greatly.

Answer 1

I think there's a basic misunderstanding of the framebuffer here. The framebuffer is not really a buffer of data in itself, it does not hold any data. You attach buffers TO it (like a texture) so that you can render to offscreen buffers in the same manner you draw to the screen. So when you say you want to "glClear and glClearColor to fill a frame buffer with a colour including alpha transparency", it doesn't quite make sense because the framebuffer does not hold any color data itself.

When you attach the texture to the framebuffer with this call:

glFramebufferTexture2DEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0_EXT, GL_TEXTURE_2D, surface.texture, 0)

You're making the "surface.texture" the rendering destination of the framebuffer. In other words, you're essentially saying "When I draw to this framebuffer, draw into this texture.".