Order of 3D projection of projected meshes

Hi everyone, While working on projected meshes for my scenery I created a
single texture sheet. Instead of using the priority layers I was wondering how
MSFS determines the order of projecting the meshes when they aren’t simple
flat polygons. In my mind object with a higher z value (in this case the gate
numbers in the first picture are 1 metre higher than the rectangles) would
appear on top of lower z values.


However, when exporting this only holds sometimes and it’s inconsistent with
how it actually displays in the simulator. The picture below shows the same
mesh in the simulator at the same location. Now the smaller numbers are
actually appearing over the background while the large 3 is not visible. The
normals are all facing outward so that’s not the cause.
So how does MSFS determine the
order a 3D mesh as opposed to a simple 2D mesh? Do I actually need to export
different models instead even though I want to use the same material and
textures thus (presumably?) resulting in a higher drawcall count? Thanks in
advance!

In the MSFS Material Parameters in blender, there’s a draw order number. The
other way I’ve done it is creating different meshes for different layers. For
example, the black squares go in a layer, and the yellow numbers in another
with a higher priority in the SDK. The first method is easier for me