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# transparent

An object that determines the opacity of each point in a material.

```
var transparent: SCNMaterialProperty { get }
```

## Discussion

Use this property to selectively make parts of a material appear transparent. You can uniformly adjust the opacity of a material using its [`transparency`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/transparency) property, or of all the content attached to a node using the node’s [`opacity`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNNode/opacity) property.

By default, the transparent property’s [`contents`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterialProperty/contents) object is a fully opaque black color, causing the property to have no visible effect. Setting the transparent property’s contents to any solid color uniformly fades the opacity of the material based on that color’s opacity value. To make parts of a material appear transparent, set the property’s contents to an image or other texture-mapped content whose alpha channel defines areas of full or partial opacity.

The figure below shows a semitransparent material before and after providing a texture image for its transparent property. (To make the transparency effect more visible, a blue sphere is shown behind the transparent material.)

![](images/com.apple.scenekit/media-2934166@2x.png)

The [`transparencyMode`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/transparencyMode) property controls how SceneKit interprets color information from the transparent property’s contents.

## See Also

[`normal`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/normal)

An object that defines the nominal orientation of the surface at each point for use in lighting.

[`emission`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/emission)

An object that defines the color emitted by each point on a surface.


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