Beating a dead horse (alpha channels and me)

[Threedp]

Folks have kindly attempted to help me over at FB, but I just can't seem to get this right!

Our Avengers have the annoying habit of extending their arrestor hooks when one opens the canopy, which looks damn goofy when you're just flying along at 10,000 feet! Someone wondered whether it might be alpha-ed out so I thought I'd try. The hook is mapped to the main texture at the bottom/middle left. Using Photoshop, I created an alpha channel and made the spot where the hook is, black. When I go to save the DDS files, no matter how I save the DDS, the spot where the alpha is comes out black on the textures (and that's how it looks in game, black, as opposed to the normal striped). Here's what the resulting files look like (left and center) and the alpha channel in both (right). Maybe it's something I do when saving out of Photoshop (flattening layers for instance) or a DDS setting (I use 1-bit alpha, etc.), or maybe this just doesn't work on the main texture? But I thought I'd ask one more time! Thanks in advance for any advice.

[MajorMagee]

Save the _t file in the DXT5 format. Don't use alpha channels on the _s, or _r files to maintain compatibility with AnKor's Shaders.

[Bravo/4]

Take the mos file out and see what happens

[FOO FIGHTER]

I always create a white texture sheet and black out the bits that I want to hide. Then add that as an alpha to the _t.dds. In sim the blacked out bits are invisible. This will render the .mos non-functional but is very effective at hiding things. I use Martin Wright's(?) DXTBmp to add the alpha texture.

Edit: I also save to .dds in photoshop in dxt1 with alpha but then add the alpha with DXTBmp. As Bravo/4 says, the mos might be causing the issue.

[Daiwilletti]

I uploaded a pdf guide to editing dds sheets some time ago. I found it very helpful to get propellors to disappear. Its probably under cfs3-other or similar.

[Threedp]

Thanks for the advice. I tried the DXT5 format and no alpha on the 's' file to no avail. Then I removed the MOS file and voila, it worked. So then, to see if I could keep things simple, I went back and re-saved my main texture as DXT1 (1 bit alpha) as I always do, and with the MOS file absent, that worked too!

Forgive my ignorance, but what am I actually doing by removing the MOS file? Is there any harm in it?

[Bravo/4]

The mos file gives you the bullet hole damage, so that is basically what you lose, never bothered me personally!
From my experience losing the mos is the only way to alpha anything out of main textures.

[Threedp]

Thanks! I appreciate the explanation and will include it as an option in the pack.