Shockwave 3D Alpha Channel Support

[wowens]

How can I get a texture with a transparency map to export correctly?

[Sam_Horton]

This is not a lightwave issue but rather a Director 3d issue. Director must calculate depth sorting based on each models pivot point, therefore, when you use a transparent texture on a mesh there is no way to tell what polygon is in front of another polygon. This is not a problem so long as there are no transparent polygons in the mix, but as soon as you start introducing polygons with texture based alpha, the entire mesh goes crazy. I'm not completly sure if this is indeed the situation but I have found a few fixes that lead me to believe that it is.

1: use shader based transparency instead of texture based transparency. You have to make the polygons that need to be transparent a seperate shader and then adjust each shader's transparency value. this works great for things like vehicle cockpits, windows etc... but still might not completely do the trick.

2: make each polygon that needs to be transparent a seperate model. This method works really well and you can continue to use texture based transparency. I use this method for fences and things often. Also try mixing the above fix and this one together.

I feel your pain on this issue man. This is the single greatest defect in Director's 3d engine and I really hope they fix this before adding more silly upgrades like mx.

good luck!

PS
I've tested the transparent problem in virtually every exporter on the market and all of them had the same result :(