Translucent vs transparent windows

[dkightley]

Having known about a translucency problem I've had for ages, I've finally sorted out an answer (I think) and am posting the solution here for my own reference....and for others to see as well!!

The problem:
My NET tram has heavily tinted windows and I've successfully got this right; dark green on the texture and mid-grey on the texture map. But when adding a partition betwen the cab and the passenger compartment that has a window in it, then things went wrong. In MSTS, either the partition was invisible from outside the tram, or looking through the windscreen gave you x-ray vision - the inside textures, and all textures on objects viewed through the "hole" were also invisible.

I knew it had something to do with the "transparency" setting in 3DCanvas when applying the textures, but was not sure exactly how to cure it!!

The solution:
For totally transparent windows throughout, set ALL textures to have a translucency of zero.
For translucent external windows (and windows from the inside transparent), set the outside texture translucency to 2, and ALL inside texture translucencies to zero.

Hope I've got this right.....

[decapod]

I posted something on the amabilis forums about how to create models with translucent windows inside and out.

Though there is rarely the need to do this - transparent interior looks perfectly good.

http://amabilis.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=2 ... 4016056905

It's all down to the sequence in which they are drawn