game level...wire work

[AXE]

alpha maps?

[Aaron Moore]

For a game, probably a texture would be much cheaper than any geometry... with objects you're limited by the number of polys so fine wire work can look crude.

Use a opacity map and a good texture.

[AXE]

I'd say a combination of cheap geometry and some alpha maps would make the difference.

[satanatron]

anyone know of some tuts for alpha mapping..(hate to sound like a noob...I'm more the concept art guy)..

thanks.

[armageddon_2k1]

yeah :)

just browse trough max's Help File, searching for Alpha Maps, and you'll probably get all the info you want.

[Gamoron]

I'd say alphamps is more of a Photoshop thing. Make the geometry and in photoshop paste or paint the appropriate b&w image in the alpha channel of your texture.

[Ryno]

It's a PhotoShop thing. It's an image composed of black and white that determine which portions of the object are visible. Black=invisible, White=visible

[EricChadwick]

You may want to ask your programmers about it. Specifically will the transparency use stencil alpha or smooth alpha.

If stencil, you'll be limited to only black and white, no grays. It usually renders a lot faster than smooth alpha. The jaggies will be smoothed out somewhat in the engine (depending on your hardware).

Smooth alpha may have sorting errors depending on your game engine, where things behind the fence may render on top of the fence.

It's always better to bother someone in the know, before creating the assets.

Stencil is also called clipmapping, screen door, sprites. Depends on who's talkin'.

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