XNA Seeing through heightmap problem

Question

I've recently started learning how to program in 3D with XNA and I've been trying to implement a Terrain3D class(a very simple height map). I've managed to draw a simple terrain, but I'm getting a weird bug where I can see through the terrain. This bug happens when I'm looking through a hill from the map. Here is a picture of what happens:

I was wondering if this is a common mistake for starters and if any of you ever experienced the same problem and could tell me what I'm doing wrong. If it's not such an obvious problem, here is my Draw method:

public override void Draw()
{
    Parent.Engine.SpriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.None, 
        SpriteSortMode.Immediate, SaveStateMode.SaveState);

    Camera3D cam = (Camera3D)Parent.Engine.Services.GetService(typeof(Camera3D));
    if (cam == null)
        throw new Exception("Camera3D couldn't be found. Drawing a 3D terrain requires a 3D camera.");

    float triangleCount = indices.Length / 3f;

    basicEffect.Begin();

    basicEffect.World = worldMatrix;
    basicEffect.View = cam.ViewMatrix;
    basicEffect.Projection = cam.ProjectionMatrix;
    basicEffect.VertexColorEnabled = true;

    Parent.Engine.GraphicsDevice.VertexDeclaration = new VertexDeclaration(
        Parent.Engine.GraphicsDevice,
        VertexPositionColor.VertexElements);

    foreach (EffectPass pass in basicEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes)
    {
        pass.Begin();
        Parent.Engine.GraphicsDevice.Vertices[0].SetSource(vertexBuffer, 0, 
            VertexPositionColor.SizeInBytes);
        Parent.Engine.GraphicsDevice.Indices = indexBuffer;
        Parent.Engine.GraphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList,
            0, 0, vertices.Length, 0, (int)triangleCount);
        pass.End();
    }

    basicEffect.End();

    Parent.Engine.SpriteBatch.End();
}

Parent is just a property holding the screen that the component belongs to. Engine is a property of that parent screen holding the engine that it belongs to.

If I should post more code(like the initialization code), then just leave a comment and I will.

Answer 1

Sprite batches tend to overwrite some render states. Try to set device.RenderState.DepthBufferWriteEnable = true; and device.RenderState.DepthBufferEnable; manually. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You should end your spriteBatch before doing any 3d drawing. Always keep 2d and 3d drawing separate.

By the way, why are you even beginning & ending the spritebatch if you're not drawing any 2d?

Within a spritbatch begin/end, XNA sets various renderstates for 2d drawing. Often these aren't best for 3d drawing... especially if you're using XNA 3.1. In 3.1, SpriteBatch.Begin disables the depthbuffer... which is needed for 3d drawing and could factor into your issue.

Also, if the problem turns out to be what's known as Z-fighting (it is hard to tell from the screen shot), increase your nearclip value when setting up your camera's projection matrix.