problem with model having transperant texture

ive made a model and ive made a material for it.
the material has an alpha channel for transperancy and it has a normal map also with an alpha channel for the specuarity.

heres the vmt
"vertexlitgeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "models/warlord/clothesrack01"
"$translucent" 1
"$bumpmap" "Models/warlord/clothesrack01_normal"
"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$envmaptint" "[ .36 .36 .30 ]"
"$envmapconstrast" "1"
"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1
}

heres the after effect the problem is that the model seems to have a ghosting effect where you can see thru it in layers.
and i dont want that.
ive tried several things but cant seem to shake it

Oh boy, this could be so many things its not even funny.

Let's see, firstly, put this line in your vmt file and see if it helps:

"$nocull" 1

---

Aaron's Stuff

i thought nocull was so the material would draw on backfaces as well?

none the less ill give it a try
ooooh 4am ill try it after some sleep

nope diddnt help still ghosts.
i checked the alpha channels to see if it wasnt pure black or white but it was fine

edit: i just tried running it without the normal map, but still shows like that.
could there be a limitation to how models can draw transperancies??

This problem happened to me when I first started to do a bit of modeling, I forget what I did but I accidentally pressed a button which "inverted the normals" or something weird like that. But the UV map didn't have an alpha channel, it had something to do with the actual geometry. But I don't think this is whats happening in your case.

I'm really out of ideas, you should just try to narrow down the possible problems, remove the alpha channel from the UV map and see if this still happens, if it does still happen its not the alpha channel, if it doesn't then the problem is related to the alpha channel and so on.

Also, Interlopers has a pretty good modeling forums board so be sure to ask for help there if you need it.

---

Aaron's Stuff

ok if i remove the translucent flag in the vmt the effect goes away, but theres the obvious non see thru sections now, which isnt wanted at all.

leaving the problem either in the alpha channel or in the code of the vmt

just wondering if you're using GIMP as Ive had nothing but problems with its alpha support, doing things in pshop works fine

It seems that where the alpha channel is applied to those particular polygons on the model, you have it as straight flat. -Are those polygons 'closed' Meaning, did you leave any surfaces without normals exposed? Try making a box as part of the same model and change your UV mapping to include it, but don't change your texture and see if that box does the same thing as your clothes. If it does, remove the clothes from the model (or close them up so that every surface that can be seen will have it's normals showing) -OR- build another model of that box and apply your transparent texture to it and test that. If then, that box doesn't have the problem, you will know it's because your have left exposed backfaces of some polygons.

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

no im using photoshop.
altho i think PS plays little tricks on me cause im using xp64.

but as for rivens sug

i did find a piece where i diddnt close it off and i patched it up. it did make the fabric no longer see thru but for some reason the bars still had the effect, im gonna look for more holes, as this did seem like a step in the right direction.

on another note. i thought one of the ways to optimize a model was to NOT draw faces on the parts of a model that would not be seen anyway. is this only for models with transperant textures?????

TBH, I'm not sure. Yea, I know you're supposed to leave sides never seen by the player as empty (not filled with a polygon) but I never made a non-sealed transparent model. I have made transparent models before and they worked fine. -So, maybe this is an unwritten rule about the uses transparent textures on models. -It'll be interesting to find the solution.

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

im gonna rebuilding it from scratch and see what happens there.
but before that im gonna try dissecting the model as it is untill it stops

side question:
does anyone else here use photoshop7 on a winxp 64 bit machine???

i could swear that ps is giving me these little quirks

I used to use PS7 for while and found some issues with layers not wanting to accept changes from filters and fill adjustments.

-BTW, Did you ever find the answer?

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

so far no definitive answer.
there was 1 command $alphatest
which does get rid of the problem but causes it to look like a goldsource texture.
but ive been keeping my eyes open for possible answers