Semitransparent or Ghost skins?

[Edward Pearse]

Does anyone know if it's possible to make a semi-transparent or ghost skin either using a .tga alpher layer on a skin texture or using tattoo layers or something?

 

[Dresden Ceriano]

It would be so cool if this was possible. Unfortunately, I believe the only way this could be accomplished is my using semi-transparent skin textures on a mesh avatar.  The default avatar simply doesn't have the ability become semi-transparent... alpha layers serve to only make all or parts of it entirely transparent.

...Dres

[Coby Foden]

Yes, Dress is right.

The reason why it is not possible is that under the user created skin there is the default Linden skin. So if the created skin was made semi-transparent, then the Linden skin just would show through the semi-transparent created skin.

What comes to the Linden skin: it is not possible to make it semi-transparent, nor is it possible to remove it.

Alpha mask affects both - the created skin and the Linden skin. Avatar alpha mask is similar to on/off switch; either it is on, or it is off. In avatar alpha mask there are no in between semi-transparent states.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I have seen ghost costumes where the avatar is semi transparent, so it must be possible.  Here's one for example: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XC-Ghost-Bride-Avatar/2739005

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

I have seen ghost costumes where the avatar is semi transparent, so it must be possible.  Here's one for example:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XC-Ghost-Bride-Avatar/2739005

 

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I played with this idea years ago, when I wanted to be a translucent Hippie for Hippiestock 2. You can alpha out the entire avatar, then wear translucent clothing. Unfortunately there is no clothing layer for the head. I haven't checked to see if the tattoo layer has a head component, that might work. Otherwise you can make the body translucent with clothing, then wear a prim head and accessories.

There's often a way to cheat the system. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to achieve the look I wanted for Hippiestock, so I was forced to wear a skin made of flowers on a transparent background. I was only partially visible, but the flower edges were fairly pixelated because the skin's alpha channel was thresholded to opaque/transparent.

Now I'm tempted to get in-world to try for that look once again.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

I have seen ghost costumes where the avatar is semi transparent, so it must be possible.  Here's one for example:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XC-Ghost-Bride-Avatar/2739005

 

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That avatar is in no way system based... in other words, the system avatar is entirely transparent.

...Dres

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

I have seen ghost costumes where the avatar is semi transparent, so it must be possible.  Here's one for example:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XC-Ghost-Bride-Avatar/2739005

 

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I played with this idea years ago, when I wanted to be a translucent Hippie for Hippiestock 2. You can alpha out the entire avatar, then wear translucent clothing. Unfortunately there is no clothing layer for the head. I haven't checked to see if the tattoo layer has a head component, that might work. Otherwise you can make the body translucent with clothing, then wear a prim head and accessories.

There's often a way to cheat the system. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to achieve the look I wanted for Hippiestock, so I was forced to wear a skin made of flowers on a transparent background. I was only partially visible, but the flower edges were fairly pixelated because the skin's alpha channel was thresholded to opaque/transparent.

Now I'm tempted to get in-world to try for that look once again.

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If you alpha out the entire avatar, there's simply no way to see any clothing or tattoo layers.  Either the base avatar is there or it's not, unless you direct the alpha where to be through an alpha layer specifically created to hide just the parts you want to hide.

The alpha channel in system clothing layers will never make a system avatar's skin transparent, otherwise, there'd be a lot of people running around looking like they're invisible, but their clothing is not.  No.  I remember your Hippiestock flower outfit, and I'm telling you, there's no way you achieved that look without wearing an alpha layer, as well as, I would suppose, a tattoo layer which contained the images of the flowers.  I say tattoo layer, simply because there were flowers on your invisible head.

Try as you might, I assure you, you'll run into the same limitations as you did then.  This is a case where it simply isn't possible to cheat the system... and by system, I mean the system avatar.

...Dres

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

I have seen ghost costumes where the avatar is semi transparent, so it must be possible.  Here's one for example:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XC-Ghost-Bride-Avatar/2739005

 

---

 

I played with this idea years ago, when I wanted to be a translucent Hippie for Hippiestock 2. You can alpha out the entire avatar, then wear translucent clothing. Unfortunately there is no clothing layer for the head. I haven't checked to see if the tattoo layer has a head component, that might work. Otherwise you can make the body translucent with clothing, then wear a prim head and accessories.

There's often a way to cheat the system. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to achieve the look I wanted for Hippiestock, so I was forced to wear a skin made of flowers on a transparent background. I was only partially visible, but the flower edges were fairly pixelated because the skin's alpha channel was thresholded to opaque/transparent.

Now I'm tempted to get in-world to try for that look once again.

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If you alpha out the entire avatar, there's simply no way to see any clothing or tattoo layers.  Either the base avatar is there or it's not, unless you direct the alpha where to be through an alpha layer specifically created to hide just the parts you want to hide.

The alpha channel in system clothing layers will never make a system avatar's skin transparent, otherwise, there'd be a lot of people running around looking like they're invisible, but their clothing is not.  No.  I remember your Hippiestock flower outfit, and I'm telling you, there's no way you achieved that look without wearing an alpha layer, as well as, I would suppose, a tattoo layer which contained the images of the flowers.  I say tattoo layer, simply because there were flowers on your invisible head.

Try as you might, I assure you, you'll run into the same limitations as you did then.  This is a case where it simply isn't possible to cheat the system... and by system, I mean the system avatar.

...Dres

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You're right, I just checked. My outfit was a custom skin, which allows only all or nothing transparency. I also played with a checkerboard pattern, hoping to make my avatar "translucent". That yielded an interesting effect, but hardly what I had in mind.

ETA: Here's that look...

And because the avatar head is smaller, but still takes a 512x512 texture, the effective pattern scales are different...

[Dresden Ceriano]

That's a very interesting test run, Maddy.  Perhaps if one could make an alpha layer which consisted of a pixel-sized, checkerboard pattern it could almost give the effect of being translucent.

...Dres

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

That's a very interesting test run, Maddy.  Perhaps if one could make an alpha layer which consisted of a pixel-sized, checkerboard pattern it could almost give the effect of being translucent.

...Dres

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The alpha layer I'm wearing in these images is a 50% checkboard, like this (well, exactly this)...

The problem with my method is that as you back the camera away, the renderer averages pixels together and the average pixel is once again either fully transparent or fully opaque. You can see that in my head in the first image of my previous post. So, you can't get translucency, you only get patches of the avatar that have the checkerboard texture, or patches that don't. As you back away, the checkerboard patches get smaller and smaller until they're all gone.

If you take off your reading glasses, or back sufficiently away from the screen of your computer, the above pattern appears continuous and grey, not a black and white checkboard. That doesn't happen as you back the camera away in-world.

Here are two more images of me from greater distances...

So long as avatar alpha is all-or-nothing, you'll never get a translucent effect.

[Dresden Ceriano]

Right, I tried the pixel-sized checkerboard and it just made me look weird... well, weirder than usual...

Oh well.

...Dres

[Coby Foden]

If there was a way to turn the Linden skin semi-transparent only then it would be possible to have a ghost like effect. But I think there is no way how we could access the Linden skin and change it into semi-transparent one.

Here I have a new skin. The head has no designed skin texture, the slot is empty, so the Linden head skin texture shows on the avatar's head. Upper and lower body body have designed skin textures. The Linden skin texture is under the designed skin textures and thus does not show.

The appearance sliders affect only the Linden skin. They have no effect at all on the designed skin.

Now if there was an extra slider "Transparency" then we could affect the transparency of the Linden skin. We just would make new skin, leave the head, upper and lower slots empty (i.e. no desinged skin textures). Then we would see only the Linden skin and its semi-transparency effect as we would adjust the "Transparency" slider.

Ok, who will make a new BUG report for this new semi-transparency slider feature?  :matte-motes-nerdy: :smileyvery-happy:

[Urzul]

Use mesh or sculpt,prim then you can make a ghost.dont use the default shape,whit a total alpha.