Alpha channel / transparent background
babel25
Posts: 54
Im using 4.7.
I'm able to render my scene as a png with a transparent background, in any render quality or style be in 3delight or openGL, default or cartoon. Yay! Except... sometimes I can't. Some of my saved files render with a solid background instead of over chequerboard. I cannot work out what the difference is. Cant see anything turned on or off, the background is set to none in the environment tab, there is no unseen background object. If I import a scene that wont render transparent into a scene that will, it works, so its not a scene object doing it. In fact I'm having this issue with new scenes. I cant see that its a camera setting either as it seems to be a per scene not per camera issue.
Any ideas?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I'm starting to think it's an intermittent bug. Further tests open a new file and only 3Delight will render with alpha, which is what i thought was supposed to happen but wasn't the case earlier. But i do still have some files that will render transparent with opengl and some that wont.
Version 4.7.which? There are known hiccups affecting the background setting in the Environment tab, which were fixed in the current version, 4.8.0.59. If you can update, it would be a good idea.
4.7 64bit Osx. Update sounds wise... unless transparency with opengl is a fortuitous bug, in which case I'd prefer not to lose it. Is it the norm?
Sorry thats 4.7.0.12 Pro
"With transparency" is the way it's supposed to work with background set to "none". The bug is that the Environment tab doesn't properly show changes to the background setting; if you load or merge a scene that includes its own background setting, you might not notice what's happened until you render.
Thanks. To clarify, is it normally possible to get transparency with openGL renders? Not just 3Delight?
we ve had this discussion already Kitty you remember ?
i never managed to get a transparent pic with png saved in basic opengl
try it yourself please and prove the opposite
i would be glad
Behold! 3 renders, with transparency, viewed in photoshop (look at them full size you'll see the chequerboard under the image). Basic (as you can see by the incomplete rendering of the hair), Intermediate, and 3Delight. Though note the 3Delight is handling hair edges alpha better and not picking up background fringeing. (huh actually so is basic)
Ruphus, do you get transparency with intermediate openGL?
The simple fact of the matter is the OpenGL renderer in Studio is too limited/basic to use for anything other than a preview of light placement (maybe). It has a very basic and inaccessible (or not easily so) set of shaders, and with the OpenGL renderer, the shaders are everything. All the materials/shaders are optimized for 3Delight or Iray...NOT OpenGL.
Not really relevant mjc, some of us can get images that we like with the open GL renderer, so if they can come with an alpha, hallelujah!
At present I'm just trying to find out if they do that normally before upgrading to 4.8. If not i'm sticking with my freaky 4.7.
Actually, it is...
If enough people were known to use it, then maybe getting access/allowed to swap out the OGL shaders for ones that are capable of what you want would be possible. Right now, the shaders used don't have the advanced features that are needed to do that kind of work...considering that everything else is being optimized for the other renderers. 10 yr old games have more advanced OGL shaders...and even those would be hard pressed to keep up with the optimizations done for Iray and 3DL.
These are 4.8 OGL renders
Basic
Intermediate
Ok. So. Do these have alpha channels? Can they have alpha channels if you set the background to none? It's not a wish or a feature request. I am actually getting them in 4.7 (note my renders are over chequerboard if you look at them full size). I just want to know if its a beneficial bug or what daz 4.8 does.
Yes...that is background 'none'...
Here's a screenshot of one of them opened in GIMP with a layer underneath...
Brilliant. thankyou mjc !
Still has the crappy multi-layered transparency rendering on the hair...but (that's one reason for needing better OGL shaders)
OGL is underrated often here
if you want some cartoonish looking animations with cartoon shaders/per pixel shading on and high quality settings
for the viewport you can get some nice results
what i would like to have is a transparent background with checkerboard for movie backdrops
thats not working
i save in png but no
I upgraded to 4.8 and found nothing had changed, that is I get OGL with transparency some of the time. I think I've found what the varable is . It's size. If I try for a render over about 1200 wide, the transparency is lost. Annoying, as thats just about the size where it would become useful to me.
So looks I'm back to rendering on green and keying in another app.
And yes Ruphus, that's exactly it, its a great cartoon style render. And fast.
hey babel
you have found it
its all about the dimension preset
some work some not
now please someone knows whats the rule ?
maybe the summery of pixels ?
16:9
biggest pixel size
transparent checkerboard
1767:994
after that: black
Setting the environment map to "none" may not be enough. Set your Draw Dome to "off". Works like a charm for me. Under Daz 4.10, I have no resolution limit problems.