I've been working with Damezzi to add a new set of PNG graphics with Alpha support.

For the non geeks, this means that it should be possible set the transparency of each pixel from 0 (transparent) to 255 (solid). It should be possible to add in things like clouds that don't obscure the terrain beneath, but are semi transparent. There may be a slight performance hit, but I don't think it will be noticeable. I'm still working on finishing up the code, so we haven't seen the finished item, but I think it should look pretty cool. Once I get everything working, I'll upload a sample.

I think it would be neat to be able to see where the coulds are without having to toggle them on and off. I'm sure that there are some other more important things that are going to happen with this, including cleaner fonts, but for some reason the clouds fascinate me. They're very nice to know for some scenarios, but a pain in practice.

I know that the high end products like Adobe support Alpha, but there's also an Alpha editor add on for Paint.Net (free) which I haven't tried out. I have enough problems with the simple red green blue without the added alpha channel!!!

Ralph