Transparency When Compiled?

[Stoned]

I have been screwing around with the transparency settings on the texture while in Milkshape and can't seem to retain the same opacity in Milkshape when it's compiled. To the extent of my knowledge, I dunno how to achieve such a feet. Any help?

 

[Thothie]

There's only two sorts of transparency in Half-Life1 textures: additive and masked.

You have to edit the QC to activate these features. Somewhere just after the SMD is loaded, add:

$texrendermode <texture_name> <additive|masked>

eg.

$texrendermode "acid_bomb_mesh.bmp" "masked"

Any texture can be rendered additive (which will make it glow, and the darker bits more transparent). Masked textures work like {solid render map textures, in that the last color of the palette is see-through, while the rest render normally.

Chrome is not a texrendermode option, sadly. But any texture with the word "chrome", anywhere within its filename, will automatically be marked chrome render by the compiler. Alternatively, you can set it up in JHLMV.

 

[FER]

Alternatively, you can set it up in JHLMV.

Was it so hard to summarize into this?

 

[Thothie]

Well, ya don't wanna do it in JHLMV, as it has a habbit of fuxing up the model sometimes... Plus it means adding a step to your compiling... I suppose that last bit isn't a big deal, when yer just dealing with one model once in a blue moon, but when you're managing a whole mess of models all the time, like I am, it ain't worth the trouble - much better to have it in the QC.

Plus if you give me a model, and don't make QC entries for it, I'll likely lose the texture mods, and not notice, as has happened several times - such as with the Wintercleaver.

That, and I kinda got the impression that he was thinking he could use MS3D's translucency features in Half-Life1 models, which ye cannot.

 

[FER]

Well, ya don't wanna do it in JHLMV, as it has a habbit of fuxing up the model sometimes

Never happened to me... and its was my main way of adding transparency on models....

suppose that last bit isn't a big deal, when yer just dealing with one model once in a blue moon, but when you're managing a whole mess of models all the time, like I am, it ain't worth the trouble - much better to have it in the QC.

If you put additive in JHLMV and save the file it gets added on the qc file, It would be silly to think that wouldnt happen.

However it happened that I had to delete the line in the qc file that makes certain texture transparent because it wouldnt let me compile otherwise

 

[Thothie]

If you put additive in JHLMV and save the file it gets added on the qc file, It would be silly to think that wouldnt happen.

Nah, I mean if you send me the model source, and it's not in the QC, it won't be in the model when I compile it.

Sending me a model with no source is a sure fire way of having the model fuxed up when I decompile it.

But I've had the JHLMV fudge models quite often. Usually results in skewed textures. Granted, it's usually so slight that only Gaz or Orochi would catch me on it, but it does result in "broken noses" or slight slits at the seams.

However it happened that I had to delete the line in the qc file that makes certain texture transparent because it wouldnt let me compile otherwise

Musta messed up the syntax. If the textures have spaces in their names they gotta be in quotes. Extended ascii characters might send it for a loop too, never noticed.