Help needed with 3D GUI LayerMask & PostProcess/Camera (part2)

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It is simply the whole layerMask value displayed in hexadecimal for better visualizing. The only two things to understand with layerMask are that:

  • it can be any number from 0 to 0xFFFFFFFF (or 4294967295, but it’s easier to write 0xFFFFFFFF)
  • when computing a visibility flag, two values of layerMask are ANDed and if the result is different from 0 the flag is true

So, for eg, if camera.layerMask = 35 and mesh.layerMask = 2, 35 & 2 == 2 != 0 so the mesh is visible from this camera. We often show these numbers in hexadecimal because doing the AND is easier that way when doing a mental calculation: 35=0x23 and 2=0x02 and 35 & 2 == 0x23 & 0x02 and from this latter representation it’s easier to see that the result is 2 (well, at least when you are a bit comfortable with hexadecimal).

In Babylon, by default the layerMask properties are 0x0FFFFFFF (for Camera, Mesh, Layer, …). So, when it comes to determine a visibility (between a camera and a mesh for eg), 0x0FFFFFFF & 0x0FFFFFFF != 0 and everything is always visible (at least from the standpoint of the layerMask).

As you can see, there are 4 bits not set by default in the layerMask (the leading 0 before the first F). It’s to ease the use of layerMask, as a common usage is to make some meshes hidden from a camera. To achieve that, you need to set a layerMask on the meshes so that the AND operation with the layerMask of the camera (0x0FFFFFFF by default) is 0: you can use 0x10000000, 0x20000000, 0x40000000 or 0x80000000. Now you see why showing these numbers in hexadecimal help a lot: it’s a lot easier to see that 0x10000000 & 0x0FFFFFFF = 0 than 268435456 & 268435455!

If the default value for layerMask was 0xFFFFFFFF, you would also need to update the layerMask of your camera to have your meshes invisible from it because 0xFFFFFFFF is a all-one 32 bit value. So the 0x0FFFFFFF value is simply a default value that can help make your life a little easier, but in all generality you can put any value in the layerMask property of cameras, meshes, layers, etc (as in the 35 & 2 example above) and simply understand how it is used to compute visibility.

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