The Sunspire - how were the transparent walls done?

[Xfing]

What it says on the can. I tried opening the level in the editor to see, but I didn't see any custom textures displayed. So how were the see-through dark glass panes done? That's an amazing effect.

[Alter-Fox]

There's a feature in Descent's engine but unused by Parallax called "cloaked walls" I think. It essentially removes the texture from the wall and makes it partially transparent like a cloaked bot.

[Sirius]

Yeah, that was the one. It's the only way to do partial transparency in standard D2 levels. XL, as we all know, supports alpha, but that wasn't an option for TEW.

[Alter-Fox]

I think it renders the wall the same way it renders a cloaked ship or robot...
but you'd have to look at the code to be sure.

[Xfing]

Pretty damn sweet.

[LightWolf]

I tried using that once, but had to switch to a forcefield bridge when I couldn't tell it was there (even in 80-something percent cloak)
You can do this with a 100% cloak to get a solid black wall, or 0% cloak to get a completely transparent, yet not shoot-through-able, wall.