Quote: "What I need to be able to do is specifically tell db which I want to be shown in front of which. Both already have their zdepth disabled, and must be so."
[EDIT]
When you disable zdepth, there will be two levels of objects: those that have the zdepth disabled, and those that do not. The ones that have the zdepth disabled will function within their own plane with other objects that have their zdepth disabled as if they are regular objects. They will be in front of each other based on their physical relationship to each other and the camera. However, they will all appear infront of any zdepth enabled objects.
So if you had a plane and a sphere with their zdepth disabled, which ever one was closer to the camera would be in front of the other one. So you would have to manage their positions yourself. That means rotations too.
Be aware that disabling the z depth doesn't make the objects face the camera. If the objects are at an angle not facing the camera then you are liable to see areas that you did not intend. The smokey doorway in your picture seems to be a side view of a box with maybe a plane in front of it, but since they are not facing the camera, we can see through the side of the box so the portal doesn't look quite right. [/EDIT]
In regards to the material settings, I'm not addressing lighting in the scene per se, I'm addressing an object's reaction to any light in the scene. Ambient light is always present unless you color it to 0 . Emissive is the light the object generates on it's own - kinda like an LED - but the light isn't cast out to other objects.
Before abandoning the material settings idea, try this: Let's say the dark ghosted object is the one with the text. Make sure the background of the text for this object is pure white (rgb(255,255,255)). This will allow any other colors to show through the areas without text. Also, set the dark ghosted emissive setting to SET OBJECT EMISSIVE object,rgb(255,255,255). This will make sure that white is actually white and completely see through for the dark ghosted object. The regular ghosted object you can just leave as is. Of course disable the z depth on both. This combination should allow any colors to pass through both objects, and allow translucency for the regular ghosted object and any text that isn't completely black on the dark ghosted object.
So to determine which is the front object, and which is the back, based on the settings described above the dark ghosted object would be considered the front, and the regular ghosted object would be considered the back
Here's a quick example:
set display mode 800,600,32
sync on
sync rate 0
autocam off
cls rgb(255,255,255)
ink rgb(0,255,0),1
a$="Here's some text"
text 0,0,a$
get image 1,0,0,text width(a$)+1,text height(a$)+1
sync
rem make a sphere
make object sphere 1,25
ghost object on 1
disable object zdepth 1
rem make a plane with text
make object plain 2,20,20
texture object 2,1
ghost object on 2,1
disable object zdepth 2
set object emissive 2,rgb(255,255,255)
position object 1,500,20,500
position object 2,500,20,500
make matrix 1,1000,1000,25,25
for n=3 to 102
make object cube n,25
position object n,rnd(1000),13,rnd(1000)
color object n,rgb(rnd(255),rnd(255),rnd(255))
next n
position camera 500,20,450
do
turn object left 2,1
sync
loop
Enjoy your day.
