How to make a mesh transparent relative to the desktop

[Znunu]

I'm developing a desktop companion in unity. This library was just what I needed. It has been very useful and easy to use.

Id like to be able to shade/color a mesh so that it becomes a (semi-transparent) window to the desktop. I've tried just creating a transparent material, but it just shows whats behind it in the scene, not the desktop.

I'm basically trying to recreate some of the features in Desktop Mate.

1. When the girl is sitting on your taskbar, parts of her are visible (in front of taskbar) other parts are not (behind the taskbar)
2. She drops a semi transparent shadow on the desktop

3. I'd also like to render an entire scene/world, while giving it a frame of alpha. This is inspired by the game Desktop Forest

[kirurobo]

I apologize for the delayed response.

If the settings are correct, creating a translucent material should display it as translucent.
If the background in the scene is shown, the alpha value may not be preserved in the output of that material.

Why not try saving the screen as a PNG image? This way, you can check the results even while running in the Unity Editor.
You might be able to use the ScreenCapture feature for saving in PNG format.
https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/ScreenCapture.CaptureScreenshot.html