Using texture with an Alpha channel

[VicToMeyeZR]

I am curious.

 

I have a texture with an Alpha channel applied.

 

How do I get the material to render correctly with that channel?

 

or another option. set 2 textures in the MAT, and assign one as an alpha?

 

Which is better?

[macklebee]

I am curious.

 

I have a texture with an Alpha channel applied.

 

How do I get the material to render correctly with that channel?

 

or another option. set 2 textures in the MAT, and assign one as an alpha?

 

Which is better?

 

are you referring to taking advantage of the transparency or setting the specular from a bumpmap?

[VicToMeyeZR]

well, I have a texture on one of my models, the RGB channel is a solid color, and it has an alpha channel to make it look like rust/dirt.

 

So I really have no idea.

 

I can assign the opacity texture in UU3D, but I don't know how to translate that to LE.

[VicToMeyeZR]

the first is the regular texture. with UU3D, I can set another texture to the opacity, and get the effect.

 

But I don't know how to get that to work in LE.

 

I don't know if you can assign an opacity texture, or if you have to use the alpha blend, either of which I don't know how to accomplish

[macklebee]

ok i see what you are saying... that looks like another surface ontop of the wall surface... so i assume you could do just like the hydro scene does... it has a number two laying ontop of the concrete wall... the number two material has this:

 

texture0="abstract::lettering02.dds"
texture1="abstract::lettering02dot3.dds"
blend=alpha
depthmask=0
zsort=1
overlay=1

 

where its blending and doing the overlay... im not sure about what you want to use on the mapping in your app tho... i would assume that you would just map that texture just like a normal diffuse and not as a opacity map.

[VicToMeyeZR]

yes. the bottom texture is a normal difuse. teh second texture is an alpha map, that should make it "look through" to the bottom layer.

 

Its not working

[macklebee]

 

works for me...

 

the dirt_decals are setup as diffuse bitmaps in uu3d and my dirt_decals are set just like i showed above...

[VicToMeyeZR]

thats weird.

 

I did just like you said.

[macklebee]

does your dirt_decals still have shader info? if so, remove it.

[VicToMeyeZR]

can you post the whole MAT file u use?

 

bahh... freaking shaders.

[macklebee]

texture0="abstract::dirt_decal_001_c.dds"
blend=alpha
depthmask=0
zsort=1
overlay=1

 

this is the entire mat file just like i posted above... i assume you still had a shader reference?

[VicToMeyeZR]

yeah... I did. I thought I had to have the Alpha shader.

 

Also, setting this line

blend=alpha

is that the same as setting

blend=1

?

 

btw, thank you Mac

[macklebee]

yeah... I did. I thought I had to have the Alpha shader.

 

Also, setting this line

blend=alpha

is that the same as setting

blend=1

?

 

btw, thank you Mac

 

i dunno about what the numerical equivalent of alpha would be... does it give the same result?

[Marleys Ghost]

0 - solid (default)
1 - alpha
2 - light
3 - shade
4 - mod2x

[VicToMeyeZR]

kk, just making sure. I had use alpha before, but I also had the alpha shader on it also. That was what was messing with me.

 

Thanks all.