Checking "translucent" causes material to change

#1 I don't believe the native Milkshape slider dealing with Translucency works other than perhaps triggering the flag setting; which I do with the Export Dialog and the Material section of it. I also believe in order for the polys textured with the translucent material to be 'see thru', the texture must support an Alpha Channel that has the Opacity Value set to the see-thru-ness of the intended glass, canopy, etc...

I believe any 'renaming' is done by the exporter and is a way of holding the flag's state during export, ie, would be 'normal' behavior.

Hope these were answers you were looking for.

For example: I took a .jpg flavor of my default texture and set it with around a 'half' value with the slider in the Material Tab of Ms3d. I gave the Material a Translucent check in the Exporter Dialog and then processed the shape. I got a fully Opaque texture on my DTS shape in ShowToolPro, even though the Material List in STP gave indication of the texture being of a Translucent nature.

I then opened this .jpg texture, upgraded it from a background to a full Layer and gave it an Opacity value of 50%, Saved it as a .PNG version of my default texture. I Assigned this new texture to the shape, gave it a radio check for Translucent and when exported and viewed in STP....I see my shape, textured, but see-thru at 50%....as I 'intended' my shape to appear in the engine.

Don't forget to move the .jpg texture, to avoid engine priority grabbing that one instead of your new, translucent, .PNG....if they're named the same!

#2 Hi Rex,

Thanks for that--I'm pretty sure I've learned something :-). However, my problem is just that when I check the Transparency box in the exporter, it suddenly changes the name of the material in the top field. Have you seen that?

Lee

#3 I found the problem! One of the materials in the file was not actually used in the model. I deleted that material, and voila, the transparent checkbox acts just fine.

Hope this helps someone!