to moderator:
sorry i should commented to this very old thread.
to ellis:
i learn a bit in .gp4 format and i found an interesting thing that reflections (and other mappings) also affect with specific texture coordinate (.gp4 file store 8 tex-coords, but sometimes not all used). but i'm not sure this technique applied to all car shapes because i've just currently played with coulthard's car shape.
.gp4 file format store several optional "sections" assigned to each material name as follows: (hex number is section codes)
(0x10) emmisive/ambient color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x06) diffuse color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x08) specular color -> float RGB (opt)
(0x27) illumination for emissive -> float RGB (opt)
(0x0D) lights power -> float min/max (opt)
(0x0E) TRANSPARENCY -> float level value (opt) <--- might interesting you
(0x26) self illumination -> float bool (opt)
(0x2B) two-sided -> unsigned 32-bit integer as bool (opt)
(0x2A) texture clamps -> array of 9 unsigned 32-bit integer as bool (opt)
notes;
texture clamps actually used only at first 8 entries. simergy coders accidentally writes 9 entries 'coz of zero-based index array.
"layer" term is not actually correct in this matter, because DirectX gives possibilities to combine alpha part on texture color as used into many effects such as texture blending, transparent, or even used as environment mapping or bump mapping blend in multi-textures render stages. Sometimes, texture color has different purpose and used separately with material colors (ambient, diffuse, etc) but sometimes can be combined to produce some effects.
if you ask me whenever we can modify how gp4 handles transparent and reflection in texture rendering, i need to take a look into the gp4 codes itself.
but if you known better into .gp4 file format, simply be playing with value in transparency section (and other sections whenever you'd like).
gr88ts,
madman
In reality, doesn't matter who's
right but most important is who's
left.