Problem with Custom HUD & Alpha Channel.

[Lachesis580 10]

I made a Custom HUD with this:

The Problem is as you can see in the middle,its look always complete half Transparency and the Red Color is missing Ingame:

I saved the Image as PNG,TGA(32) and dds(DXT5,ARGB8888) and converted it with Texview2 but always the same result.

Edit:

I use Paint.NET

[wok 1]

I think the image size needs to be a power of 2, is not enough to make it a square, it has to be 16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, etc. I always had problems when not using those sizes, my images were shown on black and white.

[Lachesis580 10]

Doesn't help i made now 128x128 but same result.

[wok 1]

Have you tried converting the png to paa using the ImageToPAA.exe file included in the latest BI Tools pack? You can find it on steam > library > tools > arma 3 tools (then in your steamapps folder you will find a folder called Arma 3 Tools with all the tools)

Edit:

Here's my result:

What I did is, I downloaded the first image you posted, opened it on photoshop, resized it to 128x128, CTRL+S to save as png without changing any settings. Then I used the ImageToPAA.exe app to convert it to .paa and loaded it into a dialog in a RscPicture control. Here's the paa file I used in case you want to test it: http://pastelink.me/dl/702f29

Edited November 21, 2013 by wok

[Lachesis580 10]

Thanks with ImageToPAA from Steam the Alpha Channel works!

But now a other problem the quality is very low:

Left = Original PNG Source | Right = Converted Image with ImageToPAA

And atm i dont know how to force that the Image will be saved as ARGB8 or anything else.

[wok 1]

This is the only info I found http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ImageToPAA Doesn't say much about quality, the only parameter seems to be -size which I guess the default is the same as the input image. Maybe the TexConvert.cfg in ImageToPAA can be edited to tweak the settings, but I really have no idea about that.

edit:

If you still have textview2 installed you will notice you get an error when you try to open it (this is because some registry entries were edited by the new arma tools), if you edit the first line of TextConvert.cfg on the ImageToPAA folder from:

convertVersion=8;

to

convertVersion=6;

You can now open textview2 without the error, but I am not sure of what results it will give, didnt have time to test it and gotta go out now.

Edited November 21, 2013 by wok

[Lachesis580 10]

Nope result is the same. :(

[wok 1]

Have you resized the original image (to make size a power or 2) before converting it? That can cause the quality of the red borders to drop (at least it did when I resized it on PS), and then when you convert it to paa it may drops even more. If you did resized it you could try redoing the image on the correct final size instead, because when I convert your original 96x96 image to paa (on textview2 since with the new tool it shows error because the size is not a power of 2) without resizing it the quality doesn't seem to change at all, when I resize it it looks like crap.

Edited November 22, 2013 by wok

[Lachesis580 10]

Nope i made a complete new image 128x128.

Left = Original PNG Right = The Converted Image with "ImageToPAA"

I also tried to have TGA as Source File but same result...

Then i tried to save the Source PNG or TGA with Photoshop instead of Paint.NET same Result....

Is it really so complicated to save a 128x128 Image with Alpha in High Quality o.O unbelievable.

BI should write a better "Paa" Tool. :S

[wok 1]

Can you post your new 128x128 png image so I can run some tests with it?

[Lachesis580 10]

Yeah sure

http://s14.directupload.net/images/131122/b7p7zq8l.png

or

http://www43.zippyshare.com/v/11295540/file.html

[wok 1]

Here's the best I could do:

(It looks a little better than the screenshot, I had to lower the image quality because the forum doesnt allow >100kb imgs, also my dialog is bigger than the image to it should look better with the correct size)

What I did is, I was reading the ImageToPAA/TexConvert.cfg file and saw stuff like this:

class ColorMapRaw

{

name = "*_raw.*";

format = "ARGB1555";

dynRange = 0;

};

So it looks like depending on the input image name it selects a different output format (in this case if it's something_raw.ext it will use ARGB1555). So I did that, added _raw at the end of your image name (before .png), and dragged it to the ImageToPAA.exe file to convert, then I loaded it in game and the quality was like in the above screenshot, but instead of red the color was blue (have no idea why). To solve that, I opened the .paa file in TextView2 (had to do the TexConvert.cfg modification I told you in the previous post to be able to open TextView2), and just saved it under a different name without touching any settings, now the image was red. Here's the paa from my test http://pastelink.me/dl/bc6d37

BTW. If you test the image in game, and then you make modifications to the image, the changes doesn't seem to reflect in game until you either restart the game (restarting mission doesn't seem to be enough) or change the image name, maybe the first image is cached in the memory idk.

Edited November 22, 2013 by wok

[Lachesis580 10]

Thats hilarious....

If i open the paa again with texview the quality looks good but ingame its a other world o.O :

Red changed to DarkRed.. and the Alpha is complete 100% and not like this:

and other methods like

_4444 (Texview cfg) or made a Custom Config like these:

 class ColorMapRawHD
 {
   name = "*_rawhd.*";
   format = "ARGB4444";
   mipmapFilter = NormalizeNormalMapAlpha;    (with or without no change on the result)
   dynRange = 0;
 };

Giving the same result or the old Bad Quality result.... it's soo hilarious...

BTW. If you test the image in game, and then you make modifications to the image, the changes doesn't seem to reflect in game until you either restart the game (restarting mission doesn't seem to be enough) or change the image name, maybe the first image is cached in the memory idk.

Yep i knew that. for this damn "little" Alpha paa probelm i restarted Arma3 129571029 Times :D