Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Riven on December 05, 2002, 12:35:39 pm

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Riven on December 05, 2002, 12:35:39 pm

Can FS2 support alpha transpareny maps on textures, and if so how?

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on December 05, 2002, 01:55:01 pm

Well, try it.

The alpha for FS is pure green I believe, so try making a ship texture solid pure green, and see if it is visible.

I'd do it myself, but I'm lazy.:D

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: EdrickV on December 05, 2002, 03:05:34 pm

Bright green on textures will be invisible when using D3D. It won't be invisible in Glide and I don't know about OpenGL. (It won't even load textures in OpenGL mode on a Voodoo 3.) I know about the D3D/Glide stuff from personal experience. :)

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on December 06, 2002, 01:35:26 pm

Hmm, so if you put a piece of purest green on one side of a ship, would you be able to see the other side?

A Nugget Of Purest Green!

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Galemp on December 06, 2002, 01:44:15 pm

You would actually be able to see right through the ship, since backfaces aren't rendered.

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on December 06, 2002, 01:46:29 pm

Ahh, I see, you could perhaps employ it for cockpits somehow.

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Corhellion on December 06, 2002, 02:48:37 pm

Would it work if you have a "checkerboard effect"?

say...green and black, with cocpit detail or see through domes on space stations(Tachyon anyone? ;) )

It would work...I think......

Cor

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: EdrickV on December 07, 2002, 02:54:18 am

The green thing AFAIK only works with D3D, and invisible means you can shoot through it but can't fly through it. Which means a cockpit wouldn't look right unless you had faces underneath/behind the invisible face that point outward. On a face by face basis, you can make a face invisible in all modes by giving it the texture "invisible" which is easily done by ModelView32/PCS. (Take a look at the Orion for an example.) I believe the bright green (0,255,0) = transparent thing is a "feature" built into D3D and not something FS2 itself does on purpose. And remember, under Glide and probably OpenGL that green will show up as green.

Edit: Glass type "windows" wouldn't look right without some sort of reflection thing, and these transparancy methods don't fit the bill.

Title: Alpha Transparency on Textures
Post by: Galemp on December 07, 2002, 11:35:52 am

Well, if you don't texture something it shows up as a kind of transparent grey that would work for glass. You would need an interior as well, though.