Object Translucency

Will just have to make a quick reply as I'm short on time...

Have a look at the FF texture cascade (SetTextureStageState(), look up "texture blending" in the programming guide) and especially the D3DTA_TFACTOR and D3DRS_TFACTOR - should allow you to get what you want.

hth
Jack

Let's say you are rendering something with a single texture and you are not attempting any form of lighting or other effects.

// Set the operation of stage zero of the texture cascade to an alpha operation
// and set that operation to be (arg1 * arg2)
d3dd->SetTextureStageState(0, D3DTSS_ALPHAOP, D3DTOP_MODULATE);

// Argument one will be the pixel from the texture in stage zero
d3dd->SetTextureStageState(0, D3DTSS_ALPHAARG1, D3DTA_TEXTURE);

// Argument two will be a constant that you set
d3dd->SetTextureStageState(0, D3DTSS_ALPHAARG2, D3DTA_CONSTANT);

// You set that constant like this
d3dd->SetTextureStageState(0, D3DTSS_CONSTANT, D3DCOLOR_ARGB(a,r,g,b));

Now, assuming you have alpha blending turned on and your source and destination
blend values set to 'source' and '1 - source' respectively the hardware is
going to multiply the pixel from you texture by the constant you set and pass
the result down the pipeline were the alpha blending will happen.

To get things to look transparent or fade them from fully visible to fully
invisible adjust the value of 'a' when you set the second alpha argument
constant; just vary it between 0 and 255. Keep r, g, and b at 255 unless you
want to muck with the color of your object.

Like jollyjeffers said have a look at the texture cascade (aka multitexturing
via calls to SetTextureStateState()) to get a better idea of all your options.
It's a little confusing at first...but simple once you get it.