Semi-transparent textures

[dmarkwick 261]

I guess this is the closest place for this.

I'm trying to make some semi-transparent textures, but my efforts have failed. I make a simple model, and apply what I think should be a semi-transparent .paa texture but it's solid. I'm pretty certain it's the texture as if I borrow a semi-transparent texture from another model it works.

Even when I take this working texture & do something simple like change the colour, it stops being semi-transparent. This is without me touching it's alpha channel, just leaving it as it is & changing the colour channels.

I make the textures using Kegetys' paa plugin for Photoshop. Is there any issue involved with Kegetys' pluging regarding alpha?

[DaSquade 0]

If you didn't changed the alpha and the name, then it is the convertion type imho. Save it as paa with the DXT5 convertion.

[dmarkwick 261]

Yup that's what I do.

[Linker Split 0]

try to open the saved textures into TexView2, and choose to see Alpha channel... if there's one, not white, then the Alpha should work...

in PS, did you save it in the default setting as the plugin told you to do? because fro what I know, in case of an Alpha channel that has fading effects, you must save it as RGB444

[dmarkwick 261]

try to open the saved textures into TexView2, and choose to see Alpha channel... if there's one, not white, then the Alpha should work...

in PS, did you save it in the default setting as the plugin told you to do? because fro what I know, in case of an Alpha channel that has fading effects, you must save it as RGB444

Yep all looks good in Texview 2. Back in PS, I saved the texture as RGB444 as you said. I got a cannot load texture message ingame, but I saw the object's texture anyway. It appeared OK even though there was an error.

[Linker Split 0]

try to open the saved textures into TexView2, and choose to see Alpha channel... if there's one, not white, then the Alpha should work...

in PS, did you save it in the default setting as the plugin told you to do? because fro what I know, in case of an Alpha channel that has fading effects, you must save it as RGB444

Yep all looks good in Texview 2. Back in PS, I saved the texture as RGB444 as you said. I got a cannot load texture message ingame, but I saw the object's texture anyway. It appeared OK even though there was an error.

can you post here the image? (as a Jpeg of course) then the Alpha channel too

[dmarkwick 261]

No need - it's a pure block of olive green, 8x8 pixels with a mid-grey alpha. It's small because I only need a block colour not texture detail.

[armored_sheep 56]

Name the texture ***_CA.* Open it in TexView and than save as paa. If you have correctly installed TexView with TexConvert.cfg it should work automaticaly. Sign _CA means colortexture with alpha.

[raedor 8]

For more info on texture names see this: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Texture_Naming_Rules

[dmarkwick 261]

Simply opening the texture in Texview2 and saving it fixes it. I guess there's a problem with the .paa PS plugin.

[nullsystems 0]

Im afraid I also have the same issue.

I created an image with black and white on it to test.

Saved as a _co.PAA file and as a _ca.PAA using the PAA Plugin for photoshop.

I tried using every setting.

Absolutely nothing shows up in the viewer as alpha even after re-saving it.

Perhaps there is a tutorial with very specific guides on alpha layers for this?

Note: Does the model first have to have some kind of transparancy built in?

[Panda-PL- 0]

Another "I use paa plugin for PS and it won't work" post...

Have you tried saving as TGA with alpha channel (32 bit) and converting in Tex View 2?

[dmarkwick 261]

As I said, simply open the texture in Texview, then save it. No need to actually do anything else in Texview. For me this fixes the transparency. (RGB4444 BTW)

[nullsystems 0]

Ok heres what im doing.

1. Open new file, transparent background.

2. Convert to 16bit

3. Paint one half black, one half white leaving small area in middle transparent ( so I can test all three areas ).

4. Convert to 32bit, this makes me flatten all layers. Now all I see is WHITE background and black area I painted.

5. This now only lets me save as a few types and PAA. So I save as file_ca.PAA with RGB4444, no dithering.

6. Open in viewer, FILE > SAVE.

7. I then load this into the addon an get no change in transparancy.

If I reload the image in PS, it shows as mostly black with green bits? And in the viewer it shows as grey but in ALPHA mode it shows as black. THIS is why people are having problems.

[nullsystems 0]

Can no one explain whats going wrong?

Obviously alot of people are having problems with this otherwise as you said "not another post"...there must be a major issue people are forgetting or not doing along the way?

Its really frustrating lol

[[aps]gnat 28]

I could be wrong but I think the whole point of DMarkwick message is "don't use PS for saving a PAA"

Are you saving as a normal TGA or JPG in PS and then and only then loading this file into TexView2 and save it as a PAA then?

[dmarkwick 261]

Can no one explain whats going wrong?

Obviously alot of people are having problems with this otherwise as you said "not another post"...there must be a major issue people are forgetting or not doing along the way?

Its really frustrating lol

It's like I'm not saying a single thing. I've posted twice now in this thread about how to get around the problem, are you still having problems?

[Soul Catcher 0]

I have been having the same problems trying to make some inventory pics for some weapons, i've got photoshop CS2, i make a new image (with background as transparent), then i create a new layer and paste my weapon image into it (a screen grab of bulldozer) then i select and delete the bulldozer background (leaving me with just the weapon). everything looks fine so i then save the image as wep_ca.tga (32bit). I open the new wep_ca.tga in texview2 and all i get is the weapon on a solid white background, i save it as a .paa with texview2 but it still has a solid white background. I have tried the steps mentioned before but it still wont work, does anyone have any ideas on where im going wrong?

[sparky 0]

well after you delete buldozer's background did you create alpha channel for your texture?

[[aps]gnat 28]

I'm not sure about semi-transparent, but full transparent is like this;

1 - open the jpg/tga in a paint prog

2 - save as uncompr 24bit TGA file

3 - use magic wand to select/highlight the background only as mask

4 - invert the mask

5 - select "save mask to alpha" (typically the black mask area of an alpha will be the transparent bits ingame)

6 - save TGA again

7 - open TexView2

8 - open the TGA file with TexView2 (background should be a grey colour)

9 - select save, change file name from .TGA to .PAA

10 - done

[Soul Catcher 0]

thanks for the advice guys, unfortunately it didn't work and i still ended up with the solid white background (most probably due to my lack of ability and understanding in photoshop CS2), but i just re-installed and used photoshop 7.0 and everything is fine now my textures are working as they should .

[Panda-PL- 0]

If nothing else really works and you only need it for limited applications you should use TexView2 Edit->Filters and write a filter that changes specific color to zero alpha.

In this example Black is my specific colour:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">comment "Fill black spaces with Zero Alpha";

c = src pixel [u,v];

if (0==red c && 0==green c && 0==blue c)  then

{

 c=color [0,0,0,0];

}

In this case it is vital that you do not use anti-aliasing or smooth the edges of the weapons on the pics because only exact black will be switched into transparent.

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">comment "Fill black spaces with Zero Alpha";

c = src pixel [u,v];

Limit=0.2;

if (Limit<=red c && Limit<=green c && Limit<=blue c)  then

{

NewAlpha=(blue c)*1.5;

c=color [red c,green c,blue c,NewAlpha];

}

The above allows for some tollerance (Limit=) but remember it will also work for dark spaces on the weapon itself.

Experiment with what you set as new alpha to (hopefully) get smooth edges (I used blue channel, hoping this will smooth out the transition a bit).

[nullsystems 0]

Thanks for the tip there.

Im sick of PAA and plugins and even texviewer.

Either the PAA plugin for Photoshop errors and says it has a problem with the module ( for no known reason ) or the texviewer cant open files. Tired of it, these tools just simply dont work properly or easily.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Thanks for the tip there.

Im sick of PAA and plugins and even texviewer.

Either the PAA plugin for Photoshop errors and says it has a problem with the module ( for no known reason ) or the texviewer cant open files. Tired of it, these tools just simply dont work properly or easily.

Give up on the PS obviously, but I can't understand complaints about TextView2 ..... you are using version #2 right?

Nothing wrong with it, much better than the old OFP textview

[Synide 0]

Don't give up nullsystems... OFP/ArmA is all about how much you can suffer and still keep some shred of humanity intact...

I use Photoshop PS3. And, I save ALL my textures out as .tga 32 bit format.

And, then I just point faces in O2 to the .tga file and if I happen to 'preview' the model or course Buldozer/ArmA converts them to .paa in the same folder automatically.

As far as 'transparent' goes. I found that when I save out as .tga format I must have ONLY 1 (one) Alpha channel in the .psd file. Otherwise Photoshop will combine them all into one resulting in no alpha channel in the .tga - even when i don't have 'other' alpha channels 'visible'.

Also, make sure that your alpha channel is... Black=Not Visible, White=Visible. Every shade in between black and white in the alpha channel is the 'degree' of visibilty.

Keygety's .paa plugin is no longer necessary.

I specify .tga format for ALL references in whatever model. This is because you can double-click on the texture name in the 'Resource Library' O2PE dialog and it opens in TexView2 automatically. (Only if you have .tga filetypes associated with TexView2)

This of course can be done with .paa's as well. But, .paa's will not open from the UV Editor, .tga's will. So associate .tga's with TexView2, and point to .tga's on your faces and in your rvmat files - you'll find life alot easier.

They say a picture is a 1000 words... So here's several thousand words to illustrate....

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Cheers, Sy.