Changing the Transparency of an ObjectReference

[Magicockerel]

I have an opaque non-actor ObjectReference that I want to have fade away over time during a certain event. Everything I've found suggests that you're only able to make actors transparent. For example, both the SetAlpha() function and the Chameleon Magic Effect are both limited to actors. I thought Effect Shaders may be able to help me out, but they're apparently limited to applying a membrane to an ObjectReference. Some features of Effect Shaders are even limited to actors as well, which isn't promising. The abFadeOut parameter of the Disable() function has the ObjectReference fade out over a fixed duration of approximately 1 to 2 seconds. The issue is, I want it to fade away over approximately 10 seconds.

 

An equivalent of the SetAlpha() function for non-actor ObjectReferences would be perfect. However, pretty much any avenue of approach would be viable for this project, it just needs to be reasonable simple. The only limitations are that I cannot rely on DLC or 3rd party tools like F4SE.

 

The only possible solution that I am aware of is to create a series of animations that change the transparency of the ObjectReference, and to play those animations via a script in regular intervals. I'm not sure how difficult that would be to implement, and how good that would look, so I'm after other solutions.