Alpha mapping

WYSIWYG supports simple Alpha Mapping with PNG images. In Shaded view, camera view can look through and lighting beams can pass through transparent sections of these images that were set as textures.

Alpha Level supports Alpha Blending for Camera on surfaces with transparency. Two overlapping translucent surfaces will be displayed accurately showing the levels of intersecting transparencies.

When Alpha Beam Shadows is enabled, alpha fill percentage/value in images are utilized when altering the beam’s color and intensity as it passes through the surface. See Simulation tab in Shaded views.

Beams do not handle different levels of Alpha fill. Beams will only pass through the images with Alpha fill level between 0 and 127 of 255.

In a PNG image file:

• Areas of the image filled with any level of transparency will work correctly as transparent or semi-transparent textures in Shaded view.
• Areas of the image filled with higher transparency (Alpha fill level between 0 and 127 of 255) will allow beams to pass through.
• Areas of the image filled with lower transparency (Alpha fill level between 128 and 255) will not allow beams to pass through.

Notes:

• Each alpha shadow level supported for this feature requires additional video memory from your graphics card, which can impact performance depending on your scene and computer hardware.
• Alpha Texturing is supported with PNG images containing alpha transparency built into the image. For more information about using Alpha Textures, please see http://forums.cast-soft.com/index.php?threads/using-alpha-in-r38.662/.
• The Image Manager window preview will display a grey checker pattern to identify the alpha levels that are defined in the image.