Ghost textures

[bravo 6 0]

I'm having a problem with transparent textures that Im creating atm with Photoshop.

Im working on some transparent textures but the area with image is solid (opacity = 100%)

The texture.paa when opened with TextView 2.0 or any other program is complete solid (opacity = 100%) where it should be and also transparent in the desired area, exactly like BIS paa files.

I can't find where exactly the issue starts, it must be something that i miss in photoshop because if i use BIS original .paa files they work fine.

The first texture/face that appears in first plan acts like a Ghost (with reduced opacity that i didn't put), meaning that i can see whats in the back, the strangest thing is that what exists in the background plan appears first then the first plan.

I did created a Alpha 1 channel, though I'm not sure if it was correctly made.

Does anyone have any idea what can be causing this?

[Synide 0]

Photoshop:

One (1) only alpha channel.

Alpha channel describes the visibility of the combined RGB channels.

White (255,255,255) in the alpha channel means the underlying rgb will be 100% visible, Black (0,0,0) means 0% visible.

Image size must be power-of-2, save as 32bit .tga with NO rle compression.

Btw, don't forget to use the suffix naming convention for your textures. Eg. glass_ca.tga.

So, when opened in TexView2.exe or converted with pal2pace.exe the programs can write out the .paa with appropriate properties & attributes.

Ok?

PS. Probably you've saved your .tga as 24-bit OR you have multiple alpha channels present in your .psd and when Photohop writes out your .tga it's combining them all. If you have multiple alpha channels (some as temporary working ones) then you should merge them all down into 1 alpha channel before saving as 32bit .tga.

[Messiah 2]

it sounds like you're missing the correct suffix _ca on the texture name as syanide said. You can have 100% or 0% opacity with _co, but for varying opacity you need to use _ca

(and if you forget to use a suffix, texview will assume its a _co)

[bravo 6 0]

problem still remains and i can't understand why this happens..

I have this in photoshop:

alpha 1 channel

Layers

When i have all layers and alpha 1 set i save the file as name_ca.tga in Targa Options "32 bits/pixel" without marking the compress (RLE).

After creating the name_ca.tga i open the .tga file with Textview2 and save it with a new .paa extension "name_ca.paa" using the following options:

TextView 2 Options

After this i still see the Ghost issue, second plan appears 1st then the 1st plan.

PS: Im using photoshop CS4, if i change the image to 32 bits channel (image \ mode\ 32 bits per Channel) i can not save the image to .tga extension. For saving the file into a tga file i need to remain with 6 bits per channel and only then i have Targa Options "32 bits/pixel", like i mentioned before.

[opteryx 1562]

I have the same problem, could it be an rvmat issue?

my rvmat

-edit-

bravo, if you set your image to 8 bits per channel, do you then get the 32 bit option when saving targa?

[bravo 6 0]

-edit-

bravo, if you set your image to 8 bits per channel, do you then get the 32 bit option when saving targa?

yes, thats what i said.

I have to choose 8 bit per channel in order to save in a .tga extension  and to show me the Targa Options "32 bits/pixel".

dunno about the rvmat, im almost sure its not about the .rvmat because if i replace with an original BIS.paa file the problem is gone and the rvmat is the same when using the .paa with issue.

So i assume the problem is somewhere in photoshop.. but where?!  

edit: by the way my rvmat

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">mainLight = "Sun";

fogMode = "Fog";

ambient[] = {0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0};

diffuse[] = {0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0};

forcedDiffuse[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

emmisive[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

specular[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

specularPower = 1.0;

renderFlags[] = {"NoZWrite", "AlphaInstancing"};

PixelShaderID = "Normal";

VertexShaderID = "Basic";

[bravo 6 0]

bah!

i just tested  with a different .rvmat code, this one:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">ambient[] = {0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 1.0};

diffuse[] = {0.4, 0.4, 0.4, 1.0};

forcedDiffuse[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

emmisive[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

specular[] = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0};

specularPower = 1.0;

PixelShaderID = "Grass";

VertexShaderID = "Basic";

mainLight = "Sun";

renderFlags[] = {"AlphaInstancing", "AlphaTest32"};

fogMode = "Fog";

and the issue simply disappeared    

[irony] "Jesus, holy mother crist!" [/irony]

Looks like the problem in this case was in fact the .rvmat!

[opteryx 1562]

Yep, seems like this line is required:

renderFlags[] = {"AlphaInstancing", "AlphaTest32"};

[bravo 6 0]

Yep, seems like this line is required:

renderFlags[] = {"AlphaInstancing", "AlphaTest32"};

Though its pretty strange because while using the first .rvmat code i posted, without that line, with one similar original BIS .paa texture, the issue simply disappears and does not exist.

Thats why i have the feeling we must be forgetting something in photoshop.. There must be some option that we are not using..

Another thing that i don't understand in the kegetys photoshop plugin is the Mipmap Filter, what does it do exactly? Why so many options tin the Mipmap Filter window? The other windows i do understand the different effects.

I normally use the options:

Format = DXT5;

Bitmap Filter = Triangle;

Sharpen Effect = None or Sharpen Soft (depending the case)

I have the feeling the textures we modify/edit and save do not have the same quality as the original BIS textures, not because they have better resolution or quality but maybe because we are using the correct configurations when we save the image.

Does anyone know what are the best settings/configurations for each case? (plants, houses, windows, etc..)