Thanks guys.
To clarify I'm working on a 2d tile based map engine and I want the alpha for lighting effects. That's why I don't want to use sprites because I don't want to have a sprite for every square on my map. The map is being redrawn constantly.
Because I have to do this a lot I can't use the pixel method above... it would be too slow, need some way to tap into the hardware acceleration on the card (2d or 3d).
I can't believe theres no way to draw a normal 2d image on the screen with alpha, colouring etc.
I had a look at the sprite conrol library someone has written, and although it's very good it does use sprites and textures (therefore having a sprite list to maintain and not getting a pixel accurate copy of the image).
Any more suggestions?
To clarify I'm working on a 2d tile based map engine and I want the alpha for lighting effects. That's why I don't want to use sprites because I don't want to have a sprite for every square on my map. The map is being redrawn constantly.
Because I have to do this a lot I can't use the pixel method above... it would be too slow, need some way to tap into the hardware acceleration on the card (2d or 3d).
I can't believe theres no way to draw a normal 2d image on the screen with alpha, colouring etc.
I had a look at the sprite conrol library someone has written, and although it's very good it does use sprites and textures (therefore having a sprite list to maintain and not getting a pixel accurate copy of the image).
Any more suggestions?