Transparency and mesh clothing

[Dreyton Wolfhunter]

Hey everyone! I need some help for the texturing of a mesh i bought. I would like to create a dress which is semi transparent in the lower part and completely opaque on the upper side. (see the image). But when I try the texture on it I can see through it the other side of the mesh. And this is really annoying.

https://gyazo.com/199bed91c141b575b404117a096fa69d

I know it is an issue of 32 bits images and I made tests with both png and tga formats but I solved nothing(I'm using photoshop cs6).

I know even some people manages to handle transparencies with GIMP, but no idea how.

Someone knows how to get rid of the problem?

[Rolig Loon]

In general, if you know that you don;t need transparency, it's wise to save your texture as a 24 bit image instead of a 32 bit one. Not only does that save on memory usage and load time, it helps avoid alpha sorting issues.  In your case, you could beat the sorting issue by using a separate 24-bit texture on the bodice and using the 32-bit image only on the skirt.  If you're using TGA format, you have the 24/32 option as you save the file in Photoshop.  If you're using PNG, use the Save For Web option to save your texture as a 24-bit image.

Aside from sorting issues, you know of course that mesh has only one side.  When you look at a mesh object from the inside (or "back" side), you will always see right through it.  The way to beat that is to add to the vert count of your model by adding extra face to build a "back" side.

[arton Rotaru]

If this mesh is only 1 material, and you don't have access to the mesh outside of Second Life, you are out of luck I guess.

 

[Anestacia]

Have you tried wearing the mesh?

i see it a lot on rezzed mesh but once I wear it looks fine

[Dreyton Wolfhunter]

Just for answering:

1. Yes, the mesh has only 1 side for materials and I don't have access to it outside from SL. So I cannot modify it.

2. Wearing the mesh only makes the front part visible, yes. It fixes the issue but since it's a long dress I cannot see the other side between the avatar legs (for example)

3. The mesh has the inside faces so it's not an issue done by its normals

 

Help! 

 

[Penny Patton]

Rolig gave you the best answer.

I know it would be awesome to have sexy, gorgeous translucent clothing but there's a reason you almost never see this in any videogame: Translucency is created with blended alpha textures and blended alpha does not work well at all in realtime 3D environments.

There's a few issues here.

• First, blended alpha is extremely processor intensive. The more blended alpha you see on screen the more severe the framerate hit you'll see.
• Second, 3D rendering engines have a lot of trouble with blended alpha and lighting. This is why hair often looks like only part of it is being lit by local light sources.
• Third, the alpha sorting issue where the engine has trouble determining which faces are in the foreground and which are in the background when you have overlapping blended alpha textures.
• Fourth, the halo effect. When you wear rigged mesh with blended alpha textures you'll often see a halo around your avatar when you're in front of other blended alpha textures, or SL water.

When using blended alpha, you will always run into at least several of these issues. There is no solution other than to not use blended alpha.

It's worth noting that masked alpha does not suffer from these problems. So you can still employ alpha masking without running into these issues, but masked alpha only does opaque/transparent, without the nice translucent inbetween. Still, 9 times out of ten sticking with masked alpha and giving up on translucent textures is better than dealing with the problems associated with blended.