Yeah, i have tried every thing i could possibly think of and nothing is working.
i have even tried to set the panel its self to alpha 50 and run it without using the fading functions but there is still no change. This is what i tested.
Code:
 bmap startup = <startscreen.bmp>;
panel start_up
{
bmap = startup;
alpha = 50;
flags = transparent, refresh;
}

function main()
{
...
start_up.visible = ON;
}


It acts like it completely ignores the alpha line and just displays what it wants to.