...Should alpha channel ever be non 1? Say I hand paint a texture

File: transparency.png (821KB, 1423x900px) Image search: [Google]

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>>504837
Just export to png, it has alpha values for every pixel.

>>504837
>Why can't the alpha fade?

But it can, you idiot
Did you even try to apply the alpha channel or even SLIGHTLY experiment, or did you decide that it's better to post a question on a really slow board and wait 3 hours for the first reply
White = 1
Black = 0
50% Grey = 0.5
And everything in between

>>504864
but is it supposed to fade out in this situation? I have tried and my results were "unpredictable"

>>504883
How about posting the map to clarify what you mean
It's very simple, if you used your OP image as the alpha, the whites are opaque, the black are transparent, so you'd get anything but the outline drawing for it
There will be no fading since there's on black (0) and white (1)

File: capture2.png (235KB, 1042x590px) Image search: [Google]

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>>504884
Let's say I have a texture of a floating orb going from (.5f, .5f, .5f, 1.f) to (0.f, 0.f, 0.f, 1.f) and it looks like this. It was made with photoshops radial gradient tool with the settings in pic related.

I meed to cut out the black BG so the gradient in the middle appears to "float"

Since my engine prefers TGAs over PNGs I need to make an alpha channel manually. Is my alpha 100% white or does it fade out as well?

>>504889
you make only your alpha have the gradient and make your color solid white or whatever. You don't put any impression of transparency into your color and try to fight it.

File: 1438515316473.jpg (93KB, 806x813px) Image search: [Google]

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>>504912
This is wrong. OP has a trick question. What he wants is a falloff LIGHTING effect like NdotL but instead he did it in 2D in photoshop with a texture. This will never translate into 3d, not easily at least. OP is confusing partial transparency aka translucency with a NdotL effect on a vec4(1.f) sphere in 3d for his floating sphere (again in 2d).