Topic: Making Use of Transparent textures

[jadej]

Hi there! Here's the deal! When we apply png textures that includes transparency on lumion models they do not work as expected, but then we turn it on "reflection or clip", and now everything is working as expected, okay so far so good. The problem is that when we are animating and creating the scenes or even flying around the models the png texture seems to dissapear from camera, like the camera has a short range for png texture. How do we solve this? If there is a solution for this we'll be very pleased. Thank you for now!

[Morten]

Hi jadej, which version of Lumion are you using?

[jadej]

I'm using 3.2 version.

[peterm]

Is that Lumion, Lumion Pro, or Lumion Free?

[peterm]

Hi jadej

How do you want the transparency in the PNG to work?

There are two options currently supported by Lumion:
1.  used to mask/clip areas of an image.  Use Custom --> Standard Material and the slider Reflection/Clip/Bright.  This uses a 1 bit pixel recognition to make the pixel transparent (like chroma-keying), used for example to remove single colors such as background of an image such as in a 2D person billboard.

2.  mask/make any area of an image transparent according to the level of transparency/alpha channel set in the image editor.  This means any part of or pixel can be not fully opaque.  Use for example in semi-transparent lead-light windows.  Use Glass Material, set Texture Influence high and Transparency to something less than 1.  The Glass Material is currently the only material to support 8 bit transparency.  Textures generally need to be either PNG, TGA, TIFF or DDS.

The problem is that when we are animating and creating the scenes or even flying around the models the png texture seems to dissapear from camera, like the camera has a short range for png texture.

So, as you are using the clipping of a texture in the Standard Material, the texture is disappearing when seen.

Note: there is no feature in Lumion to set the transparency level as in the 8bit transparency of Glass for the Standard Material.  This has been discussed and in the user Wishlist.

[Chimp]

2.  mask/make any area of an image transparent according to the level of transparency/alpha channel set in the image editor.  This means any part of or pixel can be not fully opaque.  Use for example in semi-transparent lead-light windows.  Use Glass Material, set Texture Influence high and Transparency to something less than 1.  The Glass Material is currently the only material to support 8 bit transparency.  Textures generally need to be either PNG, TGA, TIFF or DDS.

Hi Peterm,

How do I assign my texture with alpha channel to the glass material? I can't see the option to add it.
 
I'm trying to make a glass vase that has a gradient of transparency running up it vertically using a 32bit tga. Is this possible?

[Morten]

Hi Chimp, yes, that's possible.

You have to assign the 32-bit texture with the opacity channel to the vase in your 3D modelling application, before importing it (or re-loading it).

Needless to say, it would be more user-friendly if you could assign such a texture to the Glass material in Lumion.

[Chimp]

Great, I'll try it out now. Thanks Morten

Any chance of a normal map option coming for the glass material in the future? A subtle bump would work wonders for windows. ie. distorting or warbling the reflection a little. 

[Morten]

I know that the developers have tested normalmaps on glass in the past (hey, that rhymed!).

Unfortunately, the tests were carried out outside Lumion, and there are some fundamental limitations that effect semi-transparent materials inside the Lumion engine, so it couldn't be implemented at the time. The developers have however mentioned that they want to consider ways of improving the Material Editor in the future, so here's to hoping

[Chimp]

That's good to here - hopefully they find a way around it.
I currently add some geo to my window panes and buckle them a little. It's not the best way to go about things and would be easier to control with a normal map but it'll do for now.
Cheers for the info.

[peterm]

Just for info; there's a tutorial done by Byzantos, Lumion Better Reflections I on opaque glass reflections with bump to warp the glass.  Suitable to non-transparent, heavily reflective glass.

[Chimp]

Thanks. Yes that's the exact effect and perfect for highly reflective windows.