Alpha Channels and me!

[falcon409]

I'm probably going about this bassackwards but here's the question. . .why is it that after repainting a texture, say for the fuselage, and I save that and then load the alpha channel to make the necessary adjustments (this is in Paint Shop Pro) and then save that along with the main texture. . . .the program doesn't maintain the alpha if I make changes to the original texture later on?

Confused?

Ok, I have a fuselage texture. . .I load the texture into DXTbmp and the corresponding alpha shows in the preview box. Now I close DXTbmp. . .load that texture into PSP to make an addition (added a rivets layer). I save it to the texture folder, open DXTbmp and the alpha is gone. . . or is it really? Is it there with all it's adjustments and it's just not displayed or is it gone because I made a minor adjustment to the original texture?

This is an ongoing problem.

[FSDSMAN]

are you saving it as a DXT3/5 texture?
Better off working on seperate textures, one for the alpha channel (note not layer) and a second set for the diffuse. When ready load your diffuse in DXTBMP and then import the alpha channel and save as DXT3 or 5 (dxt1 has no alpha channel) You also must open the save file with DXTBMP or the alpha channel will not show or you get an error.
Hope it helps

[falcon409]

Thanks for the answer there FSDSMAN. Actually I don't use DXT3 at all. Everything I do is 32bit. I construct my layered paint kits from scratch and save the finished "merged" version to the texture folder as a bitmap. I then open DXTbmp, load the texture, send the alpha channel to PSP for editing. . .load that back into DXTbmp and save both as a 32bit texture.

Later on, if I make changes to the texture in PSP and save it again to the texture folder. . .when I open DXTbmp to do the conversion. . .the sometimes "elaborate" alpha is gone. . .that's my problem.

[Cazzie]

Always save a RBG .psp texture of your Alpha falcon. Everytime you replace the main texture in DXTBitmap, there will be some degradation to the Alpha, as it is only an indexed color in grayscale, so it should be replaced also.

Caz

[falcon409]

Always save a RBG .psp texture of your Alpha falcon. Everytime you replace the main texture in DXTBitmap, there will be some degradation to the Alpha, as it is only an indexed color in grayscale, so it should be replaced also.

Caz
That makes prefect sense Cazz thanks.:salute:

[AckAck]

If you have created the alpha in psp (contained in your psp file), instead of saving as a 32-bit BMP, save it as a 32-bit targa. When you open the TGA in DXTbmp, it will retain the alpha.

I use photoshop, and rather than have a separate file for the alpha, I just have a layer set with the layers used to create the alpha. When ready to flatten to save, I flatten the alpha group, copy and paste it into the alpha channel, make the alpha group not visible, flatten the whole file and save as TGA. (After saving it unflattened as psd, of course.)

That saves exporting two files and combining them in dxtbmp.

Brian

[JoeW]

It's simpler if you save the file to *.psp, layers and all and open in Imagetool, open format and choose DXT3 or DXT5 and save as *.dds.
It will load quick and look great. I never have problems when I do them this way.
:applause:

[Bjoern]

I work with layer masks in GIMP and they export totally fine as alpha channels. Be it directly as .dds files or as 32bit .bmps or as .psd files.


Hint: Set up a batch file for Imagetool and you can convert your textures with one double click instead of that tedious navigation through Imagetool's menus.

[N2056]

Ed, I use PSP9 here with the Nvidia Photoshop plug-in that also allows you to export a DDS file straight from PSP.
Here is a link: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

[falcon409]

Ed, I use PSP9 here with the Nvidia Photoshop plug-in that also allows you to export a DDS file straight from PSP.
Here is a link: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html
Hi Robert, yea, I use that as well when working with dds textures. So many of my airplanes are portovers that rather than get into converting a bunch of textures to dds I just work in the 32bit bitmap for sanity sake, lol. Alpha Channels have just been something that I was never sure of as far as how it's saved, where it should be saved and why, after making a very elaborate alpha for a texture it never seems to last any longer than one save through DXTbmp, lol.

[paulb]

Hi Falcon

I dont know if what I am going to say will help you or not, but here is my process. It is probably not an efficient process, but it works for me and everthing stays as sharp as the day it was first created.

I use PSP 7 and DXTbmp, plus FSscreen.

I do all of my 'initial' painting in PSP ignoring the alpha channel. In other words I just keep it (the alpha channel) all white/matt.

I next save files in PSP as a bmp. Always with no Mipmaps. So I now have two files - my layered PSP file and my Bmp file.

I then use DXTbmp to convert the bmp file to DDS5 and save it in my FSX aircraft folder to try out.

So, at this stage I always have three files - my original layered PSP file, my bmp file and my DDS file. I typically do a lot of the initial painting in psp without testing it in FSX.

When I start testing, I load up FSscreen before starting FSX. I use FSscreen to take closeup screen shots so that I can see things that I need to fix. This way, I can usually fix a number of things in one go and am not constantly going back and fore from PSP to FSX.

Once I am happy with my paint I decide if I keep a matt or create a shiny Alpha channel - if I need one. I say 'if I need one' because some repaints eg a dirty camouflaged aircraft can look more realistic IMHO with just a white/matt alpha channel.

I mentioned three files above - my PSP file, my bmp file and my DDS file, I regard my Alpha channel as a fourth file, so once I have created it I keep it separate. That way, when I am going from PSP to FSX via DXTbmp, I open my bmp file in DXTbmp and import my Alpha channel to create my shiny DDS file.

When I am happy/finished with my repaint, I delete my bmp file (purely to save space) and keep three files - my layered PSP file (useful if I want to make any changes a week or two later but also useful if I am reusing stencil data or similar on a slightly different repaint of the same model later on), my Alpha channel file and my DDS file (which is only kept/held in my FSX aircraft folder).

Cheers

Paul

[falcon409]

Thanks for answering Paul. I've gotten a lot of great answers and ideas to keep me busy. I have settled on something similar to what you're doing. . .and to a point, what I had already been doing. The biggest difference to this point was how I worked the alpha. Previous to this the alpha was done last and I would send it to PSP, do what I needed to and import back to DXTbmp. . .but never saved it. As I mentioned early in this thread the problem with that was that if I made adjustments to the main texture, the alpha didn't always remain. . .sometimes yes, sometimes no.

So now (I've been doing a new livery for the FSX Hondajet) I went back and added one more layer for the alpha on each of the three layered textures so now I have it should I decide to make any changes. Otherwise, everything else I was doing was fine and more or less followed the sequence you described.

Thanks everyone!!:salute: