Solaris X Window System Developer's Guide

Viewability

A transparent overlay window is considered viewable even if all its pixels are fully transparent. For viewable pixels in a transparent overlay window that are fully transparent, the underlying pixels in the underlay will be displayed.

If an overlay window is unmapped or moved, the underlay beneath may receive exposure events. This, for example, is the case on devices that cannot display the overlay window and underlay window in different plane groups.