TEXTURE ALPHA MAPS

very cool. There are several shapes behind the middle picture if you look. I will be using these shapes to map textures onto my planets next week. This week, I'm using a texture that is reloaded with a different alpha value to simulate a fading in and out texture. You can use the S and X keys to increase or decrease the alpha value of the front middle smiley face, it starts out invisible. Notice that the cut out portions of the smiley face are never visible, I did this on purpore, pretty cool huh.

I have heard of a way to cut out portions of polygons by backface culling them instead of using alpha transparencies....I may look into that next week because it sounds like it has advantages for speed an accuracy. This week though, just check out the fade in/out. It can be easily used to stack pictures and fade them into or out of each other.

controls

a, z control elevation, arrows are strafing, mouse is heading

s and x control the alpha value of the middle smiley pictures