Here's a way to make a model transparent with hexediting. I use Freeware Hex Editor XVI32 I learned how to do this from Pmmgarak and Taharez at the NIFLA message board.

For this tutorial, I picked one of the Extended Primitives that are available in MilkShape3D under Tools, and I chose a texture from the CD. I slide the transparency slider underneath the "Emissive" button down a bit, and check the SphereMap box. Then I exported it to .nif format.

I need to copy the NiAlphaProperty block from a model that I know has transparency. The AncestorGhost on the CD is a good candidate. I open it in my hexeditor and use the Search->Find function to find "NiAlphaProperty".

The four bytes in front of the "N" in "NiAlphaProperty" are the real beginning of the block, so click on the first one, and holding the shift key down hit the arrow key to select the block. Don't select the 4 bytes before the next "Ni..." block--they belong to that block. Copy to the clipboard, and start a new document and paste. Save this somewhere where you can find it again.

Next I open my model in the hexeditor, and I search for "NiTriShapeData". Just in front of this block I insert the NiAlphaProperty block. Remember the real beginning of the block is 4 bytes before the "N", so select the first byte of this beginning then go to File->Insert and pick out the file with the "NiAlphaProperty" block.

Now I move up until I find "NiTriShape". I have to increment a counter and add some bytes in this block. The byte I have to increment is located 74 bytes from the end of the name of the "NiTriShape" (Editable Mesh in this case). I have my hexeditor set for 20 columns, so I can easily count down to 80 with the down arrow, then count back to 74 with the left arrow. I should land on a byte with a value, 02 in hex in this case. I click on the byte in the hex window and type 03.

This 03 is the first byte in a 4 byte group, so I count to the 3rd byte left of it. There are 1 or more 4-byte groups that represent property groups. In this case there are two property IDs: 05 00 00 00 and 07 00 00 00. The one I insert just has to be higher than the last. With the byte just after the last property id selected (the 00 after 07 00 00 00 in this case) I go to Edit->insert string and click the Hex String button and type "08 00 00 00 " in the field beneath it, and click OK.

After another four bytes that should be all zeroes, there's a number. In this case it is 08. I increment that by one by typing "09" here.

Then there is one more byte to increment by one. It is near the top of the file, the 45th byte in fact. In this case it is nine, I change it to "0A" (that's hex for ten)

That's it, if everything been done correctly the model will be transparent.