[gdal-dev] Possible issue with alpha band and VRT

[Even Rouault]

Jukka,

> I repeated the steps which are described in this question
> https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/317916/gdalbuiltvrt-output-is-diffe
> rent-than-the-source-images-when-using-dstalpha and it indeed seems that
> transparency that is defined with an alpha band in original images is lost
> if I read data through VRT. 

gdalbuildvrt doesn't do alpha compositing (yet?). It you stack several images, 
the non-alpha and the alpha band of the latest appearing in the sources will 
be used, overriding completely what is beneath.
gdalwarp will do the right thing.

> I wonder if something similar happens than in
> this issue https://github.com/mapbox/rasterio/issues/1454 with
> GDALRasterBand::GetMaskBand().

>From a very quick look, no. The rasterio issue is about 16-bit images and mask 
band

Even

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