I've been working with the depth buffer in OpenGL (JOGL) to ensure certain items are rendered in front of others by disabling the depth buffer (detailed in my previous question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2516086/java-opengl-saving-depth-buffer).

This works, except when I set the color of an item that is being drawn when the depth test is disabled, none of the material shininess shows up. The item is rendered as a darker version of the original color (it seems like there is no lighting effect really applied to it). Is there a reason why this would be happening? and how might I prevent this?

thanks, Jeff