Alpha Map Error / Question

jakelear

Hi all,
I'm attempting to use Alpha transparency to make some simple hanging cloth. It's not partial transparency or anything like that.

I'm using a .dds for the texture, and I've tried each of its different alpha options. All parts of the mesh are using one texture file, so it doesn't make sense that it would show through the hair but not show through the head.

What's happening in these pictures is the alpha mapped cloth is making part of the hair transparent. What is curious to me is that it isn't making the entire mesh transparent, it's just affecting the hair mesh (left), leaving the head visible. It also effects the support bar (right).


Here's the wires for the mapped part. (yes I know, I could probably use just 1 polygon instead of 4 there)

This next image shows the alpha looking ok from the front.


Anyway, I don't want the hair to be transparent, obviously. Any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated. Let me know if what I've said here is hard to understand or if I need to clarify anything.

Thanks so much

Adam L. Gray

Well, I've had this problem myself before, and if I recall correctly it had something to do with the draw-order technical mumbo-jumbo w/e.. but, it won't look like that once it's in-game, so no worries there.. other than that I don't really think one can do anything about it.

jakelear

Thanks Tiros, you solved my problem!

What you said about draw order gave me an idea, so if anyone has this problem in the future, this is how you fix it. (I like to grab screengrabs out of the max viewport so it's important that it looks right within max for me)

The cloth plane was the offending object. It was being drawn before the hair, so the cloth plane's transparency was overriding the hair. So I duplicated the cloth plane so it was the last thing drawn, then deleted the original. The new cloth plane was drawn after the hair, so the transparency applied properly.

Thanks again!