Applied Alpha Textures Lose Opacity In PBR Viewers
SarahKB7 Koskinen
I've noticed that textures which contain an alpha layer, which use an applier to apply them to meshed body parts (either head or body) lose approximately half of their normal opacity when viewed in PBR viewers.
However, when using the exact same avatar in earlier non-PBR viewers, such as Firestorm v6.6.17, the applier texturing appears perfectly normal, with seamless blending of applied textured avatar parts with BOM surfaced avatar parts.
Attached below are three photos, showing a large black tattoo which is intended to cover the neck and upper chest. The tattoo is applied to the mesh head (with a HUD based tattoo applier function), and a matching BOM body tattoo is worn over the mesh BOM body.
As you'll see, the overall tattoo looks completely dark and normal in the earlier non PBR version of Firestorm (v6.6.17). But, the exact same tattoo loses approximately half of it's opacity in the head section (with applier function) when used in two different PBR viewers, Firestorm v7.2.4 and Second Life Viewer v26.2.
Therefore, this is a bug that has been caused by PBR viewers and requires a viewer bug update fix to allow Residents to use their favoured BOM and applier avatar parts together without losing their intended full functionality.
A PBR viewer update would also enable the continuation of legacy avatar parts that may no longer be supported for BOM updates, or no longer available and have become irreplaceable. PBR has technically "broken" these body parts.
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SarahKB7 Koskinen
Accidentally found a temporary and very unusual fix; wear two identical heads! When syncronised, they both inhabit the same space, so a doubled layering of head skin amplifies the applied alpha tattoo textured on them, making them both appear fully opaque again! Weird, but it actually works! Also seems to indicate that the reduction of opacity by PBR to alpha layer applier textures is -50%.