Alpha Masking vs. Alpha Blending in basic lighting?

[Azaiya Aeon]

EDIT: whoops, to clarify, all of this is when under LL water

After searching Jira and coming up empty, I'm trying to understand if this is a bug or not.

Alpha blending works with Advanced lighting on and off, but textures I have that use alpha MASKING do not display transparency with advanced lighting turned off. Any parts of the texture that are supposed to be transparent turn white.

When reading the SL wiki page about the different alpha modes I didn't see this listed as a caveat of alpha masking. Is there a solution to this issue I'm unaware of, or am I basically going to have to use alpha blending if I want to ensure that an item with transparency looks correct in both lighting modes?

Edited February 13, 2018 by Azaiya Aeon

[ChinRey]

Alpha masked kelp and lots'a li'l fishies under water. ALM switched off:

Barely visible through the water surface, ALM still switched off:

Linden water or not, alpha masking should work well with and without ALM and even with basic shaders switched off. You're not the first to report problems with it though and I think there is at least one JIRA. Don't know the details but somebody else is bound to reply with more info soon.

 

Edited February 13, 2018 by ChinRey

[Whirly Fizzle]

Maybe this bug?

BUG-9851 - Alpha masked textures on rigged mesh render opaque underwater when ALM is disabled.

[Azaiya Aeon]

Thank you, Whirly! That is precisely the issue I am experiencing. Jira can be a bit of a labyrinth for the uninitiated.

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

Maybe this bug?

BUG-9851 - Alpha masked textures on rigged mesh render opaque underwater when ALM is disabled.

So, it only applies to rigged and fitted mesh?

Weird but good to know.