Importing Alpha Information with Model

Hello, I am new to Blitz and as such new to these forums.

For a couple of days I have been experimenting with importing graphics, and other things into blitz.

Now I have been trying to import alpha information with my .3ds and .x models. Unfortunately the objects that are supposed to be alpha'ed are not. I have tried exporting using both Cinema 4D XL R7 and 3D Studio Max. I have also tried both transparency within the program, and an alpha texture map, neither worked.

I am saving the texture and the alpha to two different .jpg files.

What am I doing wrong. I am just loading the mesh with the loadmesh command. The textures do show up on the model, and I know that the file name lengths are correct.

Any suggestions?

For starters, the alpha information must be saved along with the color in a single texture image. You can use TGA or PNG file format to do this.

Allright,

I tried using one alpha texture in .TGA format. It works fine in 3D Studio MAX but when inside the engine, it does not change anything... Any other suggestions?

The easiest way is to give the textures that should use the alpha channel a special keyword, or saving them in another format than the rest of the textures. You can then use TextureFilter to load them with alpha channels automatically.

Like so:

; This will load all textures with "ALPHA" in 
; their filename, with the alpha channel intact.
TextureFilter "ALPHA",1+2+8

; This will load all textures with the ".tga" file
; extension, with the alpha channel intact.
TextureFilter ".tga",1+2+8

That should do the trick,
Fredborg

Thank you thank you thank you... It worked! These things should be more obvious though...