Transparency Issue :

I'm having problems getting rid of the thickness line that appears when you join two sheets of glass together.

I remember reading something in this forum a while back which described a trick for getting rid of the effect entirely - but I can't find it now. See, I don't want to use megaprims - so joining two transparent prims together is the only way I can get a sheet of class big enough.

If someone would point me to the thread, or tell me how it's done I'd really appreciate it.


Thanks

Thickness line? Could it be that the tiny tiny edges that are connected aren't transparant? That could create a visible line.

I read somewhere that there is glitch with transparencies.
On my computer it show often something else.
Perhaps you should ask in Texture section of forum but they will probably say the same.
It usually happens when 2 transparent images are together.

It sounds like the side issue as Ivy stated above. What you do is make the abutting sides transparent. There are freebie textures out there - "totally clear" and "transparent" - see if you have them in your inventory or stop by NCI and pick up a freebie texture pack... or join Builders Exchange and ask someone for one.

Two different problems getting conflated here. The "seamless glass" problem has to do with making the mating edge completely transparent. The easy way to do this is to apply a full-alpha texture to those edges, as Ivy suggests. The harder (but ever so slightly less laggy) way is to use a script that makes the whole prim full-alpha, then in the Editor adjust the transparency of the faces that are to have some visible texture. (Yes, one could have the script set the alpha of just the desired faces, but that requires that you know in advance which faces will be full alpha and which won't.)

The other problem is the "alpha-sorting problem". This arises when two textures containing alpha channels overlap, and sometimes the rear one is rendered on top of the front one. So, for example, if you put a plant in front of a wall with an alpha window and move your cam around a bit, suddenly the wall will pop in front of the plant.

This is the argument for modular windows, so that the window panes are always the same side. And now this really belongs in Texturing Tips or Building Tips.

@Ivy Darrow

It's not really called a thickness line; it's just my way of describing it.

It's that line you see at an angle at the join between the prims, even though they are perfectly aligned. The only time you don't see it is when you're perfectly head-on to the join. I call it thickness line because you see it no matter how thick the glass is, and the line is always the thickness of the glass.

I've tried making it transparent, the whole prim is transparent, but the problem is down to their being two edges against each other I think - not really sure to be honest.


@FD Spark

Same here, I've always had this problem.


@Cristalle Karami

That "Totally Transparent" texture rings a bell; it's probably what I read about before. I'll hunt one down and give it a bash.


Qie Niangao

Detailed tips, all good to know. I think I'll try the full-alpha on the edge faces first - but how do I make a full alpha? Which colour represents full alpha?


Thanks all

full alpha = totally clear / transparent. go to Texturing Tips and read the awesome tutorial about alpha transparency.

Great, found the thread - it was the 32bit requirement that stopped my previous attempts from the looks of it. Still, I got a free copy of Photoshop Elements 3 with my scanner - I'll just have to re-install it and hope it handles 32bit TGA!

Oh, wait, but... you don't need to make the full-alpha texture yourself: there are lots of them out there, free. Ideally, the smaller they are, the better, but to just get the effect you want, any of them will work.

The reason the scripted-alpha approach is slightly less laggy is that it doesn't require any particular transparent texture to get downloaded to the clients. But this is hardly a big deal, especially if you use the same transparent texture throughout a build.

I totally understand what you're saying, in fact I was going to do a 1X1-pixel (in black of course) - and just upload that.

I think I'll look for a freebie right now though, because I didn't really want to install PS Elements 3 as I'm intending to buy that PhotoshopE6/PremierE4 bundle soon. For now though, I'll have a look for a 1X1-Pixel full-alpha 'cause like you say, no reason for any larger in this situation.

Thanks

Just keep this script in your inventory and drop it into prims as needed. It will make all sides 100% transparent, and then self-destruct. That is, the script will self-destruct not the prim.

default
{
state_entry()
{
llSetAlpha(0.0, ALL_SIDES);
llRemoveInventory(llGetScriptName());
}
}

(Or use: llSetLinkAlpha(LINK_SET, 0.0, ALL_SIDES); to do the entire object but be careful!)

There's a transparent alpha texture in your Library folder.

Prims that have 0.0 alpha and prims with a full alpha texture behave differently though (the former is selectable/touchable and the latter will act like it's not there, selecting/touching whatever is behind the prim).

The way I do it select both joining pieces together - go to select textures - shift select the larger window planes they will uncheck (why you use shift) now go to texture selection and get the texture called alpha in the library, select it and all edges of the window will now be alpha/transparent - if you your windows are truly proprerly aligned you will not see the seam.

I've got it sorted now, Day Oh dropped me a 'Totally Transparent' texture in-world and saved me a search; thanks mister!

Thanks again to all for the tips, but one thing I will say is that I couldn't get the stock Linden transparent texture to work - it's quite different to the one Day Oh sent me

I texture 100% alpha then retexture the front and back (the part that shows), then use copy selection.

There will always be a line between prims no matter what you do but taking the advice of others in making the adjoining surfaces transparent will help some but will not eliminate it. The good part is that while you may notice it most others will not notice it.

Nobody is as picky as the creator of an object.

It is possile to eliminate it, at least completely from vision.. just offset the pieces perfectly so that there is no overlap whatsoever,, and use the transparent/alpha texture trick. There should be no 'thickness line' if done correctly

Interesting, thanks for that. Although, having experimented using a transparent texture, I notice that while right-click is honoured with the pie-menu, left clicks seem to be ignored.

A bug, a feature, or user error?

Huh. I get the exact opposite effect from transparent-textured surfaces: can't get a right-click to do anything, but a touch handler gets invoked with a left click. *But* the little hand cursor doesn't show up. Which I think is a change from how it worked at some point. Anyway, per the LSL wiki:

Heh, sorry... I'm talking about objects behind the transparent surface. Not the surface that is itself transparent (ie. as per Kitty's observation).