title: How to make MapView transparent on Android
body: <p>I'm working on a mapping app. And I want to show some views under the MapView. I'm using the method:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mapView.setAlpha(0.5f);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Nothing happens to the mapView. When I try to apply this method to my buttons it works fine, even applying it to the parent view of the mapView makes every child view transparent except for the mapView.</p>
  
  <p>When I don't initialize the mapView it shows as blank and fully transparent, so I know that it has something to do with the mapView rendering the tiles fully opaque.</p>
  
  <p>I have used a custom mapView class and overridden the dispatchDraw and did some canvas editing there but no results.</p>
  
  <p>How can we make the mapView transparent? I have looked into other questions here and I cant seem to find a solution.</p>
  
  <p>Is there some special method in the mapView.getMap() that we can use to make it transparent?</p>
  
  <p>I know this is a bad design choice (putting a view under the map), but I wanna know any solution to this.</p>