I have a slight problem with some Direct3D Retained-Mode programming. I realize that Immediate-Mode is so much better, but I just need to finish some unknown parts of Retained-Mode.
How exactly would I go about having a partially translucent Meshbuilder (or Mesh) object. Having Texture mapped that object, I'd like parts of the texture to be more translucent than others (so basically its an opacity map inside the texture). I've learned that I have to set the render mode :
device->SetRenderMode(D3DRMRENDERMODE_BLENDEDTRANSPARENCY | D3DRMRENDERMODE_SORTEDTRANSPARENCY );
and I can use a 32-bit texture (RGB-Alpha) and have the Alpha bits represent the opacity of each pixel. The only problem is that I can't save a BMP or PPM as a 32-bit texture. I would really appreciate some help in this area (I know I can set a global translucency for the whole mesh by setting the translucency in the material, but that's not what I want).
And another thing is that I would like to be able to use Anti-Aliasing on my textures, but i'm not at all sure how to go about that.
I would really appreciate some help in these fields (more so in the opacity area).
Thank you very much,