Transparency in textures - how?

[Clueless Newbie]

How does one make textures with transparency? For rails, ladders, windows, membranes, etc. Is there is postfix that will make this happen - as with the glowmasks and so on?

[tZork]

same ways as in quake3

first make a image with a alfachannel. where the alfa is white the image will be opace, black transparent. anything inbetween will be a blend. then fire yp you favorite texteditor and do something like:

Code: Select all

textures/procyon2/mfx1
{
   qer_editorimage textures/Procyon2/mfx1.tga

   {
      map textures/Procyon2/mfx1.tga
      blendfunc blend
   }

   {
      blendfunc filter
      map $lightmap
      rgbGen identity
      tcGen lightmap
   }
}


save in nexuiz/data/scripts/yourmap.shader. Now open nexuiz/data/scripts/shaderlist.txt and add youmap on a new line at the borrom. Ofc replace filenamesand paths in the shader with your own.

Alternativly, if the areas to be transparent on yer image is all black (and no ares that shoud not be arent) you can use someit like:

Code: Select all

textures/procyon2/grid1
{
   qer_editorimage textures/procyon2/grid1.tga

   surfaceparm nomarks
   surfaceparm trans
   surfaceparm alphashadow
   cull none
   nopicmip
   nomipmaps



   {
      map textures/procyon2/grid1.tga
      rgbGen identity
      alphafunc GT0
   }

   {
      map $lightmap
      rgbGen identity
      tcGen lightmap
      blendfunc filter
   }
}


(alphafunc GT0 insted of blendfunc blend)

[Clueless Newbie]

same ways as in quake3

first make a image with a alfachannel. where the alfa is white the image will be opace, black transparent. anything inbetween will be a blend. then fire yp you favorite texteditor and do something like:

Ok. Thanks. B)

[Clueless Newbie]

same ways as in quake3

first make a image with a alfachannel. where the alfa is white the image will be opace, black transparent.

Hmm.. I see I need to figure out how to make an image with an alpha channel. But I think that might be a topic for a different forum. Does radiant / nexuiz accept other formats than .tga?

Alternativly, if the areas to be transparent on yer image is all black (and no ares that shoud not be arent) you can use someit like:

Code: Select all

textures/procyon2/grid1
{
   qer_editorimage textures/procyon2/grid1.tga

   surfaceparm nomarks
   surfaceparm trans
   surfaceparm alphashadow
   cull none
   nopicmip
   nomipmaps



   {
      map textures/procyon2/grid1.tga
      rgbGen identity
      alphafunc GT0
   }

   {
      map $lightmap
      rgbGen identity
      tcGen lightmap
      blendfunc filter
   }
}


(alphafunc GT0 insted of blendfunc blend)

I tried this. Pasted it into my shader script and changed the filenames so they would fit that I'm doing. But that made the compiler quit early in the process and left me with a map with no shadow effects at all.

[KadaverJack]

Hmm.. I see I need to figure out how to make an image with an alpha channel.

With gimp: right click -> Layer -> Transparency -> Add alpha channel

But I think that might be a topic for a different forum. Does radiant / nexuiz accept other formats than .tga?

Yes, jpeg & png. However jpeg doesn't support alpha channels, so it's of no use in this case.

[Clueless Newbie]

same ways as in quake3

first make a image with a alfachannel. where the alfa is white the image will be opace, black transparent. anything inbetween will be a blend.

Are you sure it's not the other way around? Turns out PS can make files with Alpha channels (through the "save for web" option), but there the black is opaque and white is transparent.

And I can't find any way to invert the aplha layer. (not in Gimp either)

[tZork]

in ps, select the alfa (channels tab) and hit ctl+i (you can also use save as and select tga / png, no need for the save 4 web stuff)

[Clueless Newbie]

in ps, select the alfa (channels tab) and hit ctl+i (you can also use save as and select tga / png, no need for the save 4 web stuff)

I'm using PS 2 Elements, and it doesn't seem to have an alpha channels tab.

The texture I'm working on is this:



As far as I can tell the apha channel is the inverse of what it's supposed to be - according to the description tZork gave in his reply. But it seems to be transparent in the right places as it appears in my post. If the alpha is inverse, can the shaders be written to accommodate this (so black is opaque and white transparent)?