Signs That Disappear!

Hi all,

I have some signage for the inside of my shop. When I tried to set them on the walls yesterday, they disappeared right into the texture on the wall before the sign was even close to it!

The textures are the kind that have windows in them, btw. Don't know if this makes a diff?

Can anyone tell me how to over come this problem? I know I could hang them from a chain or something, but I'd rather not do that.

Thanks!

Solanghe

So in other words the textures use alpha transparency. There's the issue for you; surfaces with transaprency don't overlap correctly when close together. You're going to need to redo either the wall or the sign so that you aren't using alpha transparency. I'm guessing the easier thing to redo is the sign; I'm curious what it looks like that it uses transparency.

Hi John. Thanks for your response; I have to be honest, I have no idea what you are talking about. I had the signs made for me by someone with photo shop. She made the textures, then I attached them to the prim (sign shaped square). I don't know what alpha transparency is...is this something I need to take up with the person who made the textures?

Thanks,

Sol

They don't even necesarily have to have any visible aplha in them, any two textures saved as 32 bit targas will do this, and I have a sneaking suspicion that a 24 bit and a 32 bit targa close to each other will act weird as well, although I have never actively tested that.

Solanghe,
'Alpha' is like 'see through', or 'transparent'.
Johan is trying to get a description of your sign and your interior wall.

First the sign: You said you pasted the sign on a prim.
Simplistically, when you hold up the prim, do you see letters on a solid board? or is it letters on a piece of glass? If you see the wall behind the letters through the prim, then the sign was made using 'transparent' paint or 'alpha'.
(Transparent Paint!! I like that idea! *ducks*)

Now the wall: Did you say it had windows? The windows may also use 'transparent paint'--the alternative is that the wall be multiple prims. Click and edit the wall. if its a single prim panel, then the Texture on the Wall includes the windows painted with 'alpha' paint.

Johan points out that SL doesn't do a good job of determining WHICH of two surfaces is in front of the other when both have Alpha. They fight over who's in front of the other and flicker.

If you move the sign OUT FROM THE WALL a little, it might solve the problem.

And Dnel points out that even if there's no 'alpha' paint on your sign, there's still occasionally an issue with how textures are saved. If moving the sign out from the wall a little doesn't solve the problem AND you don't need 'alpha' paint on your sign, have your sign painter save the sign textures as JPG or 24bit TGA before loading it into SL. That may solve the problem.

If you must move the sign too far from the wall to stop the flicker, and you need the 'alpha' paint on the sign, then 'yes', you should probably get your sign painter to come in world and look at the problem.