Alpha Textures and Lag

My understanding is that Alpha textures create a bigger load on the sim (lag) than standard textures.

My Question: Is this an all or nothing thing? Is there a way to optimize an alpha texture, so that I use less resources?

Such as - does a texture with 10% transparancy use less resources than 90% transparency.... or it just doesn't work that way.

I have a bunch of instances where I just can't get away from using alpha textures - such as where I'm forced to work low-prim, but have windows or glass. Are there any creative ways of minimizing the load with alpha textures? (Other than just not using them)

Thanks!

I'd be surprised if textures caused -any- server-side lag. I pretty much thought the only things that would bug the sim are physics, avatars, and scripts. I imagine alpha textures cause some overhead in terms of client rendering, just because alpha textures have to store more data-per-pixel. The amount of transparency shouldn't matter really; if its got any transparency at all, then the entire image is going to have an alpha channel.

I haven't seen it make much of a difference at all really. If I go to the debug panel and turn off alpha rendering, I have yet to see a difference in frame rate on the client side but then I have a darned good video card..

The only big lag generators will be overlayed alpha textures (like 15 pieces of glass next to each other, so you can set through the whole set), since this causes the frame to be redrawn several times to complete the whole image.

Avoid them where you can, but as long as you do go insane with them the effect isnt too bad.

-Adam