I decided after reading a bunch of the tutorials to ( I am up to calligraghy ) test my skills in some other fashon then drawing alligators or something. I had on my computer a game called wormux and I said to myself "Self heres an oportunity the xml files are simple to write and understand draw your self a map." so I began drawing a map with vines and some cool trans parent mud. I had trouble drawing the vines because they are green not black any, hints? What is the real problem however is that the wormux game thought my white background was solid. I looked at their maps and saw their backgrounds are all checkered gray and light gray.

1: The background color MUST be nil, not white nil. How do I do this?

Could you attach or upload the file that you're referring to?

File/Document properties (shift ctrl D) => page/background color => set opacity to 0 ?

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

The Inkscape background is transparent by default. It is transparent, even though it doesn't show the checkerboard pattern that a lot of other graphics programs use to indicate transparency. That is, unless you've changed it, or someone else used your program, and changed it before you started working.

I can't really follow you about the vines and mud and map and xml. Are you taking the XML and putting it into another program? To my understanding, which regarding XML, is very, very little....but I think you could only put XML from Inkscape into another program, if that other program (the game) uses XML. Well, actually that's not true, but it would be easier if it were. Is the game made with XML or use other SVG images? Have you tried saving as Plain SVG instead of Inkscape SVG?

You're not using a PNG are you? If so, you should use File menu > Export Bitmap, and NOT Save As Cairo png. Export Bitmap will make nil background, as long as Inkscape background A alpha value is 0. Cairo png will give white background.

I'm even more lost on the green vines and transparent mud. If you want the vines green, color them green. Or if you want them black, make them black. Are you saying that when you look at the image in Inkscape, the vines are one color, and when you put the XML in the game program, they turn another color? Maybe there is some partially transparent layer or mask or something, that you're not taking into account. When you put the XML in the game program, maybe you're inserting it in the wrong place, so that some partially transparent layer or mask is affecting the Inkscape SVG/XML image?? Note that I only have the vaguest idea about how a game is made or coded! But you seem like a fun-having, jump-in-with-both-feet, adventurous kind of person. So I hope you can appreciate that comment as me having fun and jumping in with both feet, into something I only know halfway. I know the Inkscape side pretty darn well, the XML side only a little, and the game code side, not at all.

If the mud is transparent, how do you know it's mud? Maybe it's partially transparent? If it's partially transparent, and the background is transparent, whatever color is behind the image is going to show through. Right? If you made a Layer partially transparent, it could be affecting everything in the layer, and potentially everything above and below that layer. Or if you used a Blend Mode in a Layer, that could also change the colors.

That's about all I've got, without more clarity and details about the situation. Something tells me I would quite enjoy your Inkscape work (hint )