Transparency and shiny trick?

I have seen it done before but a prim that has been made say 50% transparent and had the shiney effect on it aswell, how can it be done

i know it doesn't work thru the normal processes? and i know it can be done, but how?

Using one of the invisiprim textures, not alpha.

ok how is this done, instructions?

using a 50% transparent texture made in PS?

Edit: see below, this is incorrect

Search the forums for "invisiprim". You'll find any number of scripts for turning an ordinary prim into an invisiprim. Use one. Then simply turn on shine in the editor to make your new invisiprim shiny.

Just be aware that invisiprims hide avatars, and any surfaces with 32-bit textures on them. So you wouldn't want to use this to make a shiny window on your house, for example. You wouldn't be able to see anybody through it. Use it only in places where it doesn't matter what gets hidden.

The reason this works is because the invisiprim texture is not actually transparent. It's got a bug in it that reverses the draw order of certain things, effectively making them disappear from view. The bug turned out to be useful, so it became a pseudo-feature. Actual transparent textures cannot be made shiny in SL.

Another thing about invisiprims: I learned early that objects within an ivisiprim would not display shiny or bump mapped properties applied to them. More recently I discovered that windlight (or some other recent viewer change) fixed this. Would this be a bug feature?

I sometimes fake "shine" by using one of my metal gradient textures and making it somewhat transparent.

I sometimes fake "shine" by using one of my metal gradient textures and making it somewhat transparent.

Works good for "scratched up glass," too.

I sometimes fake "shine" by using one of my metal gradient textures and making it somewhat transparent.

Works good for "scratched up glass," too.

If you're using the invisiprim script -- set the shine level in the script, not via edit.

This is because -- depending on which script you're using, the shiny level set in the script can potentially over-ride the texture shiny whenever a new copy of the object is rezzed (causing the script to start over).

You'll be looking for something similar to:
[ PRIM_BUMP_SHINY, 2, PRIM_SHINY_LOW, PRIM_BUMP_NONE]

You can swtich out the PRIM_SHINY_LOW for

PRIM_SHINY_NONE
PRIM_SHINY_LOW
PRIM_SHINY_MEDIUM
PRIM_SHINY_HIGH

ok thanks i get it now,

i really wanted 2 use it on my pub and shop windows to give it that extra YAZ, but obviously cant