Problem with texture staff

[Legacy_Balantur]

               Hi.
I'm a newbie trying to create a new weapon, a staff to be more specific. The question all is well except I can not get a texturice transparency. The texture has its alpha channel but I have not managed to implement it well.



If anyone knows a link or post where you address this issue, please tell me thank you very much.
Thanks.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Balantur, 13 décembre 2012 - 11:46 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Well, what's going on with your weapon is that your alpha channel is picking up the environment map instead of being used for transparency.  The alpha channel on a texture does double duty in NWN, representing either one.

Now, there are references to envmaps in the baseitems.2da for each base item but what I found was if a player character has an envmap (which all the base races do), the nature of the alpha channel (to pick up the envmap) will be transferred down to the weapon they're holding.

And so your only hope for transparent aspects of a weapon model (to be used by players, anyway) would be to have no envmap on the player's race.  Which...will affect all sorts of other stuff, like armor, in a way you probably don't want.

I want to be so wrong about this, but I don't think so.  I can't explain just how much I'd love to be wrong about it.  If anyone has a trick around it or can point out where I'm wrong, I would literally be jumping for joy on this end.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pearls]

               i cant help with the texture or model itself but emitters with -1 duration would accomplish what you want i think
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <alarmed...>

OldTimeRadio wrote...
...
Now, there are references to envmaps in the baseitems.2da for each base item but what I found was if a player character has an envmap (which all the base races do), the nature of the alpha channel (to pick up the envmap) will be transferred down to the weapon they're holding.
...

Hmmm... I thought some weapons had transparency, for chains and whatnot...
I really need to investigate this.
Have you tested it with .txi, too?

Edit: Bal, put up your model on a project page and I'll play with it.

<...and intrigued>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 13 décembre 2012 - 05:26 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               @Pearls - Good idea!  It's still gotta be 2D, but it looks like it would be small enough to work.  Using an emitter chunk might also work too.  The thing that always drove me insane with that sort of thing was getting the inheritence right.

@Rolo - Yeah I did try with TXI's but this was such a show-stopper for me I don't want to discourage anybody from trying anything.  I also want to include the possiblity that it's the envmap from the tileset which could also be causing problems.  AFAIK, the closest you get with transparent weapons are the chains on default Bioware flails.  And those are just colored black where the holes should be.  Basically, the general rule I've found (but, again, would love to be wrong about) is that if an environment map is applied somewhere up the chain, everything below it is affected and you can't "remove" the effect once it's been introduced.  I have a spear from Titan Quest (which has straw fringe that looks almost exactly like what you see in the OP's screenshot) and I spent evening after evening trying to get it to work as transparent, to no avail.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pearls]

               ill check on some of our models now i can finally import models in gmax (lol) to see how we accomplished it, i think it was with emitters though

edit aye, it was emitters on them, some with -1 duration and some with 1.1 second duration which i dont quite understand yet
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Pearls, 13 décembre 2012 - 10:31 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Balantur]

               ...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Balantur, 14 décembre 2012 - 08:46 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Balantur]

               Hi

Thanks for answering all. Sorry to hear that my problem does not have a possible solution for now (hope is the last thing to go).

Rolo Kipp wrote...

Edit: Bal, put up your model on a project page and I'll play with it.

<...and intrigued>

The staff is a model for a persistent world of a friend, of course that if I get a decent finish I'll upload it to the community to enjoy it.

A friend told me to fill in the gaps where was the transparency with the color mirror, with some layers or creatures. But the problem is how you implement that color in photoshop for example.
Anyway many thanks to all.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Balantur, 14 décembre 2012 - 08:40 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Balantur]

               
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               Why wouldn't an emitter solve this? Is it that a billboard is innappropriate for what you are trying to achieve?

I think the magic staves that have swirly galaxies in the crook use emitters yes?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pearls]

               

Balantur wrote...
Thanks for answering all. Sorry to hear that my problem does not have a possible solution for now (hope is the last thing to go).

but i just provided a solution a few posts up, an emitter aligned to the staff
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Balantur]

               

Pearls wrote...

but i just provided a solution a few posts up, an emitter aligned to the staff

Hi.
Could you tell me which model is used, so I can see how they do.
Thanks