How do you do beautiful NON-ALPHA explosions ?

I don't want alpha blending as it's time consuming to do
in software DDraw. I like the type I see in Metal Slug,
with white smoke etc.

Most of the software I have for pyrotechnics generate Alpha
data which makes it necessary for alpha blending to be performed
or else the explosion will look too blackish.

Any good way to make clean edge and nice explosions like
you see in Metal slug without having to draw manually ?

One solution is to render it in 2 versions using your 3d software package. One with alpha and one without alpha but with a color key. Then mix both to get the inside antialiasing but not the outside antialiasing.

We use our own tool for this process, it's called Cutter, you can try it at :
http://www.phelios.com/dev/


pat