alpha transparency

hi people. i just got a one simple question and i dont know if this is completely stupid and silly one, so i apologize <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

does transparency(of sprites) affect performance in any way? or excessive use of alpha and stuff?

the reason i ask is im wondering if i should make my environments using tiled sprites, or use more of a free hand method with "fading" sprites together.

again, sorry if this is a stupid question, i just honestly dont know and couldnt find an answer.

The only thing that will effect it is the size. So obviously if you have a 16x16 dot on a 1024x0124 image where the rest is transparent.... then you're doing something wrong.

Likewise thousands of small tiled sprites will slow everything just the same.

It is suggested to optimize using power of 2 images, along with tiled background for stuff you want repeated.

ah!

thank you very much for clearing that up <img src="smileys/smiley20.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

now i know what to do. and yes, im using power of two in pretty much everything i create. now if i could only find out how to do gradients of different shapes. like the one in light behavior but only different shapes.

anyway, thank you, newt!