Personally I wouldn't use gif files for textures, I was just mentioning a couple of file types that support Alpha blending. gif files have too many bit depth limitations for good quality images. I always use jpg or png.
If it is helpful, the vases in the test render don't contain any texture mapped images, just the file attributes you mentioned, with a few tweaks.
I have tried all sorts of ways to produce frosted glass for another user and also a render I was working on, without success, please let me know if you find away, within the current Sunflow limitations.
As for vector graphics idea. Models are produced by vector graphics, mathematical calculations between points, so I'm not sure what you mean?? or do you mean for textures?
db4tech
