Question

OpenGL Setup:

glEnable( GL_BLEND );
glBlendFunc( GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA );
glEnable( GL_DEPTH_TEST );
glEnable( GL_TEXTURE_2D );
glEnable( GL_CULL_FACE );
glCullFace( GL_BACK );
glClearColor( 0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 );

Initializing the texture:

// 16x16 X pattern
uint8_t buffer[ 16*16 ] =
{
    255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255,
    0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0,
    0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0, 0,
    0, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255, 0,
    255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 255,
};

GLuint texture_id;
glGenTextures( 1, &texture_id );
glBindTexture( GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture_id );
glTexImage2D( GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA8, 16, 16, 0, GL_LUMINANCE, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, buffer );
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR );
glTexParameteri( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR );

The textures are drawn as quads using glBegin/glEnd. The color for each vertex is white with full alpha: {r=255,g=255,b=255,a=255}.

Here’s an example scene. The photo and cheese are both loaded from PNG images. The cheese has transparent holes, which show the photo and background behind it. The X pattern I expected to be transparent too:

Why is the quad black instead of transparent, any how can I fix my code to draw what I was expecting?

This question may be similar, but so far I am unable to apply the brief answer to my current problem.

Update: I think I solved it, thanks to the answers below. I changed…

glTexImage2D( GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA8, 16, 16, 0, GL_LUMINANCE, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, buffer );

to

glTexImage2D( GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_ALPHA, 16, 16, 0, GL_ALPHA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, buffer );

… which gives the desired result.

Answer 1

@Dietrich Epp’s answer was almost correct, only that the format you’re looking for is GL_ALPHA:

glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_ALPHA8, 16, 16, 0, GL_ALPHA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, buffer);

Then set the blend function to glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); or glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);, depending on if your values are premultiplied. Last but not least set the texture environment to GL_MODULATE

glTexEnvi(GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, GL_MODULATE);

Now you can set the color of the ‘X’ with glColor.

Another approach is not using blending but alpha testing.