Textures and Material Colors

I would like the ability to create a transparent texture and have the material color of the object show through instead of just full transparency.

Think "stickers".

I don't want to have to match the background color of my texture to the color of the object. It forces me to upload multiple textures if I want to put them on different colored objects.

Of course one wa around this is to put another prim infront of the base prim and put the transparent texture on the front prim. This will give you the same effect but it doubles your prim count for every face you want to accomplish this on.

I'd rather have a more elegant solution.

I endorse this idea/feature.

Could be very usefull.

I think I understand what you are wanting... When you have transparency on one prim texture you can't see the geometry on the other side? I think that's a problem in every graphics engine I know. Dunno if it's the Graphics drivers we use or the engines themselves but it happens to me in any game I've edited models for (nwn, unreal) and as far as I know there isn't a way around it . But if Linden Labs knows a way I hope they put it in there, because it's really un-realistic.

I just thought of something... if you correct that, toon cel shaded objects won't work. lol

I believe Aaron's talking about using the same texture baking technique used to layer clothes.

When you have a clothing texture, it's merged on the server with the skin texture. (skin skin, heh) The completed texture is what's sent to the viewers. If such a feature were employed on object textures, you could do quite a bit with it -- stickers obviously being the example used here.

Possibly the BEST use of such a feature were if it were implemented client-side to allow for the creation of script-controlled textures. But that's just my opinion.

Oh, that would be nifty. That sounds much better.

That's pretty accruate Catherine,

A little more complex then what I was asking for though.

I simply want a way to layer a texture on top of the base color of the object.

Though being able to layer textures upon textures would also be very nice.

Well, you'd kind of have to merge one texture above another. Objects in SL aren't simply able to be one colour. The "blank" texture isn't the absence of a texture, it's just one that's all white. So to layer one texture over another --even a blank one--, you'd have to do like I suggested anyway.

Yeah. FPS games use the technique to place "decals" on objects. Like bullet marks on a wall. It should be doable. Aren't we thoroughly into the age of multitexturing? The last graphics card I can remember without multitexturing support is my old Diamond Monster 3D with the original 3DFX chip. Ages ago.