Making Semi-transparent textures: Difference between revisions
m re-org: textures |
Springheel (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
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{ | { | ||
glass | glass | ||
translucent // avoids implicit opaque black stage used for filling the depth buffer | |||
{ | { | ||
blend add | blend add | ||
map models/darkmod/props/textures/lamp_glass_lit | map models/darkmod/props/textures/lamp_glass_lit | ||
} | } | ||
} | } | ||
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You can clearly see the texture, but you can also nicely see through it. Imagine this as a window. And no vertex shaders necessary, so it shouldn't have conflicts with water (though I haven't tested it). | You can clearly see the texture, but you can also nicely see through it. Imagine this as a window. And no vertex shaders necessary, so it shouldn't have conflicts with water (though I haven't tested it). With the "translucent" keyword, you can also add a specular and bumpmap to the texture if you wish. I think this might be a cool way to provide transparent windows but still keep the warm glowy effect. You wouldn't be able to use it for all window textures (since any frame or crosspiece in the texture would also become transparent unless they were straight black) but it will be very effective for some models, and might be useful in other places I haven't thought of yet (an underwater overlay comes to mind). | ||
An example of it in models (the two outside ones). | An example of it in models (the two outside ones). |
Revision as of 23:37, 5 March 2008
written by Springheel
I don't know if people already know about this, but it's news to me.
When I was working on the lantern textures, I noticed that if I used the following shader the texture turned out to be transparent.
textures/darkmod/metal/flat/lamp_glass_lit_transparent //glass is partially transparent { glass translucent // avoids implicit opaque black stage used for filling the depth buffer { blend add map models/darkmod/props/textures/lamp_glass_lit } }
Better yet, it wasn't totally transparent--you could still see the texture itself, but you could see through it. The effect was pretty neat, so I tried it on a simple brush in a map. Here's the result.
You can clearly see the texture, but you can also nicely see through it. Imagine this as a window. And no vertex shaders necessary, so it shouldn't have conflicts with water (though I haven't tested it). With the "translucent" keyword, you can also add a specular and bumpmap to the texture if you wish. I think this might be a cool way to provide transparent windows but still keep the warm glowy effect. You wouldn't be able to use it for all window textures (since any frame or crosspiece in the texture would also become transparent unless they were straight black) but it will be very effective for some models, and might be useful in other places I haven't thought of yet (an underwater overlay comes to mind).
An example of it in models (the two outside ones).
Pinkdot pointed out that the "blend add" effect will brighten whatever the player sees through the texture. This would work well for looking into well-lit homes or for stained glass. By using the same technique, but replacing "add" with "filter" you can get semi-transparent textures that darken what you see through them, perfect for looking outside or into unlit homes.
It's possible to put the lit texture on one side of a brush and the unlit on the other and have both work, so windows could have the proper appearance depending on whether you are looking inside or outside.