Alpha problem in maya 2008

[BurningIdeas]

I have no idea why this is happening.The same material is applied to both objects and as you can see, the sphere has no problem, but the tree on the other hand... Did some experimenting and found that it has something to do with extruding. This problem isn't really too big of an issue since I don't get the same problem in unrealed but solving it in maya would make working on this model much easier (I'm already using 4 programs at once, unrealed would make it 5)

Computer Specs: 8800gt sli
2gb ram
windows xp sp3

Texture: 2048 targa with alpha

[rburke]

im not sure what the exact problem is. But here is some things to think about. If your using a material with a specular component like a phong or a blinn then you need to paint pure black into the part that is supposed to be transparent on your spec map. As you can see at the bottom of the tree the transparent parts are still getting spec highlights. Second is your method of using alpha. In high quality things can get sorta boogered up. So sometimes i make sure i try saving my texture into different formats, and in different methods. A third thing to do is to copy that alpha channel in photoshop, and paste it into its own layer and save it as a black and white image. Apply that to the transparency channel and then just use a regular texture on your color channel. This can often work better with the high quality mode. But again im not 100% sure what the problem is it is not clear from your post.

[BurningIdeas]

I hope this picture is better. Kinda hard to show what's going on with still pictures. The one to the right is what my tree looks like in low quality. I put an checkered object BEHIND the three branches. The middle tree is what happens in high quality. Notice how you could see the silhouette of the checkered object through the branches. For some reason, the whole tree becomes somewhat transparent. I did check if the parts that is supposed to be solid is completely white multiple times. Also checked if I had any reversed faces and still, no luck. I also tried what you suggested with using a normal black and white image for the transparency instead of and alpha, and I get the same results. You might be right. It might just be high quality rendering boogering things up, and then throwing the boogers at me. Aargh!

[rburke]

in your view options you can set per poly or per object transparency sorting. Try that. And since you dont want to see back faces turn off culling maybe too.

[Amad]

Maya still has a hard time with transparencies across objects like this. It's usually best to employ alphas on a decal instead of doing it across entire polygonal objects. The problem is, it's getting confused on what to sort so it's dropping your objects where it shouldn't be. I'd just do this in polys and forget trying to employ alphas in this way. Sucks, but that's just part of it right now.

[rburke]

yeah great point Josh spheres cylinders and other closed objects can be a nightmare for transparency sorting in maya. best to avoid using alphas on closed geo. That root effect you could achieve with some cleverly placed alpha planes though.

[BurningIdeas]

Thanks for the help guys. I guess I'm just gonna have to put up with it while knowing it'll be fixed in UnrealEd

[Axowape09]

Yes it is a Seagate. I read somewhere its not just mine though, it was a problem with the .9s or .10s I cant remember which one mine was.

[dabu]

what is up with the spam bots? so odd, theyre almost like real human nerds......