A problem with transparent objects

[andylegate]

ENV layer - is that the thing Andylegate described in this tutorial?

Thanks for your answers, I´m still learning

Actually, that thread you pointed to was based on 3ds Max. For Blender and PyPRP, and making reflective surfaces, take a look at this tutorial here on the GoW Wiki:

Reflective Surfaces

As for making an object transparent, as Lontahv said, it's MUCH better to control that with a texture, than to try and control the object's Opacity value. If your texture is transparent, but not appearing so when you export from Blender, it sounds like you do not have the Material set up correctly.
Select the object, and go to the Material Editor, then Textures. You have several buttons here that will need to be enable, pertaining to Alpha (Alpha = Transparency):



Click on the "Alpha" button on the left of my picture above. You should see your texture go transparent, and it should also render that way after you export to Uru.

[Rabenschwinge]

Ok, in photoshop , did you do the next?

1) duplicate the layers that formed the texture and merge to visible so it is only one layer( this is just to be sure, so only if needed)
2) Right click on the new layer, choose blending options.
3) choose blending option "normal"( default)
4) change the opacity slider to 50 %
5) save this new layer as png.

When it is still not enough transparent then bring the slider even lower.
I do not expect that, i think 80% is about right, though even a bit higher.

I thought I did this - I restarted with a new material, followed the steps you wrote, and it worked just fine now.

No. An image is converted to a DDS format for Plasma on export, no matter what format (TIF or PNG) you used as source. JPG of course does not work, because JPEGs do not contain an alpha channel.

If you like, you could post (or PM me) the image you used, I will have a look at it to see what's wrong.

Okay, I see - so it doesn´t really matter, which format I use for texturing at all? (unless of course a file format doesn´t support transparency.)

Thanks for the offer, but it seems, I did it right this time (I hope so at least )

As a little aside; It may be worth noting that, as far as I can tell, PyPRP will always use the alpha channel of a PNG file, whether you want it to or not. Unticking the "UseAlpha" button does nothing.

This is one of those little automagic things, which are helpful and work-saving, but confuses the heek out of somebody like me.


Anyway; you can tick the little "hourglass" button, in the Blender image/UV-editor, to view the picture with alpha.

I have to confess, all these redundant (?) buttons inside Blender confuse me - there are so many "Alpha"-settings, that I´m not sure, which of them are important for PyPRP and which aren´t.

ENV layer - is that the thing Andylegate described in this tutorial?

Thanks for your answers, I´m still learning

Actually, that thread you pointed to was based on 3ds Max. For Blender and PyPRP, and making reflective surfaces, take a look at this tutorial here on the GoW Wiki:

Reflective Surfaces

As for making an object transparent, as Lontahv said, it's MUCH better to control that with a texture, than to try and control the object's Opacity value. If your texture is transparent, but not appearing so when you export from Blender, it sounds like you do not have the Material set up correctly.
Select the object, and go to the Material Editor, then Textures. You have several buttons here that will need to be enable, pertaining to Alpha (Alpha = Transparency):



Click on the "Alpha" button on the left of my picture above. You should see your texture go transparent, and it should also render that way after you export to Uru.

Thank you for clearing this up for me, I´m not sure I understand HOW it works, but it did work fine for me. Now I have exactly the transparency I want.


Thank you to everyone who answered to my question, it´s nice to see how helpful the community is
I hope to be able to show you my first age soon, so everyone sees how bad I am in age building

[andylegate]

Glad you got it working correctly.

The "Which Alpha Button?" is a good example of trying to figure things out. Keep in mind when the Dev's from the GoW made PyPRP, they had to "wire" things for the plugin with the 2.4x Blender version with what Blender's GUI had to offer. PyPRP 2.0 for the next generation of Blender will have a GUI for the plugin that will be easier to follow from what I understand.

I made a LOT of tutorials on how to use textures and materials in Blender with the PyPRP 1.6.x and even cover things like Transparent textures (there are times when you will use the other buttons). I would link each tutorial for you, but I'm afraid their are some people here that do not want me to post links to that paticular Wiki. However, there is a LOT of information for users of PyPRP 1.6.x and Blender 2.4x located there.

Instead, just look at my signature, and click on the link that says "Blender Age Creation Tutorials" and you'll find a wealth of information for Age Creation in Blender.

[bnewton81]

If I were going to do a fish tank, I would just bake the textures on as if I were doing a skybox. First create the scene you want to use inside the fish tank then put a box around it and bake. Sorta like hambgerhelper only completely different. This will also have the wonderful side effect of less strain on your gpu/processor in uru.

Do you mean baking the texture with all the fish, water plants and stuff? So that everything is 2D in the texture?

I`m not sure what hambgerhelper is - the only thing I found when googling was this- I´m not american, so it might be a cultural reference I don´t get ^^

Yes. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I have never attempted this, but the idea is to create a cube and have fish swim around it and the bake that to the cube, so it all happens on the material and isn't actually happening in 3d, but will still appear to be. then add IOR and what have you. hamburger helper is easy meals that advertised that kids helped their parents make it. lol

[tachzusamm]

I would link each tutorial for you, but I'm afraid their are some people here that do not want me to post links to that paticular Wiki.

I remember what thread you are referring to (this one), but assumed I get Branan's reasoning correctly, the problem was not to put links to "that site" just because it's that site, but that it's preferable to link to a wiki which we can presume to be available a long time (hopefully forever).
So, putting links to the GoW Wiki is just the preferred scheme, which does not mean that any other links are not welcomed, because everything which shares knowledge is appreciated (as far as it's legal).
Because noone here gets paid for his work and everything is on a voluntary basis, it's fully understandable that the process of "copying a knowledgebase from one wiki to another" did not already happen because it's so much work, and that's okay. (Note that I tried to avoid to say "you didn't do it already", because that's something that happens to us all. We all have so great plans in mind, but don't find time to manage them all.) Having a central place to store all the knowledge about age writing would be really great, in a single wiki that is, because it would make it easier to find information about everything in a single place, but I guess this is only wishful thinking.
This said without a hat on, because I don't have one.

[Rabenschwinge]

Glad you got it working correctly.

The "Which Alpha Button?" is a good example of trying to figure things out. Keep in mind when the Dev's from the GoW made PyPRP, they had to "wire" things for the plugin with the 2.4x Blender version with what Blender's GUI had to offer. PyPRP 2.0 for the next generation of Blender will have a GUI for the plugin that will be easier to follow from what I understand.

I made a LOT of tutorials on how to use textures and materials in Blender with the PyPRP 1.6.x and even cover things like Transparent textures (there are times when you will use the other buttons). I would link each tutorial for you, but I'm afraid their are some people here that do not want me to post links to that paticular Wiki. However, there is a LOT of information for users of PyPRP 1.6.x and Blender 2.4x located there.

Instead, just look at my signature, and click on the link that says "Blender Age Creation Tutorials" and you'll find a wealth of information for Age Creation in Blender.

Yes, I did recognize that not every button in Blender does something in Plasma.
The new GUI is one of the reasons I´m looking forward to PyPRP 2.0 so happily, I think it will make things a lot easier and more logical.

I had read some of your tutorials before, and then somehow forgot that they were around ... I´ll start to read them again, I´ve already found a lot of useful information, thanks for pointing me to them again!

Do you mean baking the texture with all the fish, water plants and stuff? So that everything is 2D in the texture?

I`m not sure what hambgerhelper is - the only thing I found when googling was this- I´m not american, so it might be a cultural reference I don´t get ^^

Yes. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I have never attempted this, but the idea is to create a cube and have fish swim around it and the bake that to the cube, so it all happens on the material and isn't actually happening in 3d, but will still appear to be. then add IOR and what have you. hamburger helper is easy meals that advertised that kids helped their parents make it. lol

I see I think, this is an interesting idea, although I have no idea how to do it. And I do not have any clue, what "IOR" is. ^^

[andylegate]

@Tachzusamm:

Having all the information on something in one place would be ideal as far as users of that something are concerned. However, that is rarely the case with many, many things. Other SDK's like Unreal, CryEngine and Unity have tutorials spread out all over the internet. Including videos hosted on YouTube. Blender, Max, Maya and other modeling programs are the same.
There are many times that I go to what is the "Official" site to learn how to do something with one of these, only to find the information rather lacking, or assuming you know other things that you may not know. Doing a search sometimes reveals tutorials on the same subject that provide much more information, and easier way to do something, or does not assume things, yet those tutorials were not located at the "official" sites.

Google Is Your Friend, as they say.

I was going to copy over all my tutorials to the GoW Wiki, yes, and if that is all that I needed to do (a straight copy, with just having to modify some wiki syntax and links) I would of had it all done by now. However, those that maintain the wiki wanted the tutorials to be re-written (shortened, information considered redundant or irrelevant taken out, etc), and while I understood that (it is after all their wiki, their rules and their home with their rules and I respect that), I did not have the time to do that. It took me a long time to write the tutorials in the first place. That coupled with pretty much leaving Plasma and moving on to other game engines, I lost interest in it (except to help out with testing or answer someones questions).

As for how long a web site is going to be around, :shrug:, who knows? But I do know having everything in one place may not be good for just that reason. The GoMa server crashed caused me to loose a bunch of tutorials that I had to write all over again, and that information was not anywhere else (backups are great, but only if they are up to date). Hence why my tutorials for Blender are located at the GoMa and the UAM wiki, and why my Max tutorials are located in those 2 places, plus the OpenUru wiki (that was a straight copy job and was done in about a week).

However, I stand by that saying: Google Is Your Friend, heheheheh

[tachzusamm]

Andy, I totally understand, and fully agree to what you said.
What I wrote was only an attempt to make you feel less uncomfortable when you post links to outside resources, whereever they may link to.

And I do not have any clue, what "IOR" is. ^^

I think he means "Index of Refraction" (zu Deutsch: Brechungsindex).
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:M ... _Materials

[Tsar Hoikas]

TherI was going to copy over all my tutorials to the GoW Wiki, yes, and if that is all that I needed to do (a straight copy, with just having to modify some wiki syntax and links) I would of had it all done by now. However, those that maintain the wiki wanted the tutorials to be re-written (shortened, information considered redundant or irrelevant taken out, etc), and while I understood that (it is after all their wiki, their rules and their home with their rules and I respect that), I did not have the time to do that. It took me a long time to write the tutorials in the first place.

You're welcome to do a quick drop in copy and paste as long as you prefix the page with "{{Wikify}}" (this tag helps me keep track of what needs to be streamlined). I would prefer all the pages on the wiki to be streamlined... But realistically, there's only one of me and not many people like dealing with wikis. Having centralized information is the most important at this point--I can nitpick later.

[andylegate]

I'll see what I can do, but no promises, as this is the time of year where I get very busy (holidays, family, scouts), my father's health is dwindling and I'm having to help my step mother out more and more, and I now have several projects going on