Posted by Kevin Matthews on July 17, 2001 at 23:54:55:In Reply to: Re: RenderCity Problem With Doors? posted by Frank DaCosta on July 17, 2001 at 02:25:06:
Is it Radiance itself that can't handle alpha transparency? Or is it just RenderCity's implementation?
To the best of my knowledge, it's a built-in limitation of the current versions of Radiance. We'd love to be able to support alpha textures in Radiance without having to write the software for it. The problem isn't fundamental -- Radiance certainly could be upgraded to support alpha channel transparency. But it's not trivial -- it would take a noticeable chunk of software engineering.
I am experimenting with Desktop Radiance. Is the support for full face textures something you'd care to make publicly available?
One would think that would be a good idea, and pretty natural for a company like Artifice that has invested significantly in other open source solutions. At the moment, unfortunately, it is not clear that Artifice is currently licensed to distribute changes to Radiance code. This is something we would be happy to work out with LBL, if they were motivated in the same direction.
We really do love to give away software (whenever we can afford to...). However, we're not thrilled with what seems to be a heavy AutoCAD-specific focus in the Desktop Radiance development priorities. Unless I've missed something recently, LBL has not gone all the way to give Radiance a flexible open source license like the LGPL License used for Quesa -- and less so for Desktop Radiance.
Seriously, this might be one of those areas where the warmth of sincere end-user interest might help thaw out a slightly cool situation. I am a huge believer in the potential for win-win collaborations between motivated partners.
Aren't you glad you asked?
; - )
Best wishes,
Kevin