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FPSC Classic Models and Media / Transparent Texture

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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 01:55
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I've been trying to make the attached texture partly transparent but I'm having no luck. I want the black parts completely transparent and the gray part completely opaque, I don't want degrees of transparency just black=transparent, gray=not.

I've tried the nvidia dds plugin for photoshop, tried saving as .tga and .png but still the black isn't transparent. can anyone help?

Was going to take a break... But I missed FPSC!

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FredP
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:00 Edited at: 17th Jan 2008 02:19
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I know this sounds like a stupid question but do you have the black at 0,0,0?
I'll take a look real quick.

Edit...I attached something that might work.You said you wanted the black transparant so here you go.

Please have mercy and use the search function.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:04
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Yup, as far as I can tell, it say's 0,0,0 in Photoshop (having the black as pure black 0,0,0 was the first thing I tried ).

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rolfy
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:05 Edited at: 17th Jan 2008 02:09
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If using tga or dds you need to make the alpha channel black for transparent and white for opaque grey in the alpha will be semi-transparent.
Still use grey in diffuse channels with black white alpha.
If using the nvidia plug in save as 1bit alpha for full transparency and 32bit for semi-transparency.
I'm not certain as I dont use 'em but dont you need to make the image .jpg for 0,0,0 black to work.
Saving as png usually requires that you select the transparent area.


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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:08
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Quote: "If using the nvidia plug in save as 1bit alpha for full transparency and 32bit for semi-transparency."


Yup, tried that (I think!): "DXT1 ARGB 4bpp | 1 bit alpha".

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rolfy
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:10 Edited at: 17th Jan 2008 02:14
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Give me a sec I'll download and take a look.
Your alpha channel is all grey you should select all in the rgb channel and copy and paste this into your alpha.
Then adjust the brightness and contrast till you get a good black and white alpha.


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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:12
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Thanks guys, really appreciate it and if you do, could you tell me exactly how you did it so I don't need to ask again?

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rolfy
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:15
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Try this.


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rolfy
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:19
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Remember to change your dds to 8bit channel in image,mode to make any changes


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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:19
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Nope, sorry

What I'm trying to achieve is to have a sphere with a light inside it and have the light shining out. I created a sphere in Entity Workshop and wrapped this texture around it. Now I'm not sure if it's the texture blocking the light or if it's the sphere being solid and therefore no light can shine through it (see attached).

Was going to take a break... But I missed FPSC!

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rolfy
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:25 Edited at: 17th Jan 2008 02:27
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You could try placing a sphere inside of that one and use an illumination shader,check out the alienglobe that comes in the sci-fi stock I seem to remember that using the same thing.
If you intended to have light rays coming from this you could use planes with semi transparent texture and shader.
If you want a light inside it you may have to remove the faces.


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FredP
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:29
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Here's how I did it or a quick tutorial on using the Gimp to make transparant textures...
Make sure that the texture you want to be transparant is all the same color...it can be pink.It won't matter as long as the color is the same.Load the .dds texture into the Gimp (it really doesn't even matter if it starts of as a .dds texture.The Gimp can convert it.
Once the texture is loaded into the Gimp select by color.Pick the color that is supposedc to be transparant.
Click on Layers-add new mask.Check and make sure that selection and the invert are selected.
Click on Layers-apply layer mask.What you want to be transparant should be transparant now.
Save as a .dds file.
I use this technique to get transparant textures all the time.
I also used a similar technique to get a window texture.I took the sci-fi large window texture and just made it a layer mask like I did the transparant part of the texture above...worked like a charm until I relaized unless you shot the glass you couldn't tell it was there.So I took the texture and combined it with an almost transparant blue texture.Made a decent texture.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 02:32
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Thanks guys, I'll try those tomorrow, time for the land of nod

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Ice Cube
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Posted: 17th Jan 2008 03:43
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Quote: "I've tried the nvidia dds plugin for photoshop, tried saving as .tga and .png but still the black isn't transparent. can anyone help?"

Have you tried saving as Explicit Alpha (DXT3) [for DDS]
And if you want a transparent *.png just use a transparent background (not black).

Cheers!

http://yuppieserve.com/fpsc/

http://www.free-textures-tga.com/
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Avid
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Posted: 18th Jan 2008 00:27 Edited at: 18th Jan 2008 00:28
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DXT 1 for no or plain/black white alpha (total fill, no detail). DXT 3 or 5 for complex alpha. DXT 3 is really low quality for that though, so it's either DXT 1 or 5 for me usually.

In photoshop, create a new channel and fill that in with black for transparent areas, and white for opaque, that should do it. Make sure the dds file is scaled in powers of two (1024x1024, 512x256 etc).

Check the attached image for clarification:

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Nickydude
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Posted: 19th Jan 2008 22:15
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Quote: "Here's how I did it or a quick tutorial on using the Gimp to make transparant textures..."


GIMP doesn't save in .dds format! Is this a plug in?

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Nickydude
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Posted: 19th Jan 2008 22:21 Edited at: 19th Jan 2008 22:22
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Ok, can anyone create a sphere (I created mine using Entity Workshop 2) and wrap a texture around it so a light can be placed inside with the light shining out of transparent parts of the texture (the black areas in the image below)? I've tried and tried but I just can't get the transparent bits on the textures.



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FredP
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Posted: 19th Jan 2008 23:12
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Quote: "GIMP doesn't save in .dds format! Is this a plug in?"


Yes.You should be able to find it on the Gimp site in the plug ins section.

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rolfy
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Posted: 19th Jan 2008 23:13
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If you use a transparent texture the poly's are still physically there.


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Deathead
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Posted: 19th Jan 2008 23:20
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I know Paint.net saves in .dds.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 27th Jan 2008 20:31
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Quote: "Yes.You should be able to find it on the Gimp site in the plug ins section."


Could you tell me whereabouts Fred? I've looked and can only see a plugin that reads .dds files http://registry.gimp.org/list?name=dds

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FredP
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Posted: 27th Jan 2008 20:37
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http://registry.gimp.org/category?id=7 should have it.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 27th Jan 2008 20:42
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Thanks, but the only plugin for .dds (near the bottom) points to the same page as I've just mentioned.

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TeMpLaR1
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Posted: 28th Jan 2008 07:18 Edited at: 28th Jan 2008 07:24
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Here we go, tell me if this works
I made your black parts of your texture transparent I'm postive it should work.

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FredP
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Posted: 28th Jan 2008 07:22
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The Gimp .dds plug in is attached.

Please have mercy and use the search function.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 28th Jan 2008 09:09
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Thanks guys.

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TeMpLaR1
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Posted: 28th Jan 2008 09:11
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so did it work?

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Nickydude
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Posted: 28th Jan 2008 18:11
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THANK YOU TeMpLaR1!! That texture worked a treat! Exactly how did you do it? so I don't have to keep pestering.

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TeMpLaR1
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Posted: 29th Jan 2008 02:59 Edited at: 29th Jan 2008 03:17
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Well Its the same technique I use when I make my huds its simple.

Actually I might do a small tutorial right here for you now.

This method works with Photoshop and the Nvidia .dds plugin.

1. Create a New Canvas making sure the Background Contents is Transparent.
2. Now simply create your texture. What ever you wish to be transparent leave it transparent in the document. Example shown below:

3. After you created your texture and made the parts you want transparent, (transparent in Photoshop) its time to save your file.
4. Click Save as and select the .dds format.
5. Now heres the part that will make sure you texture is transparent. Set your plugin setting exactly the same as below:

6. Now after you have set the settings exactly the same as above hit save.

There you go, by doing this the .dds plug in creates the Alpha map for you, saves a lot of mucking around doing it yourself.

Hopefully thats enough for you to understand how to do it.

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Nickydude
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Posted: 29th Jan 2008 12:34
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That's great. Mind if I stick it in the guide?

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TeMpLaR1
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Posted: 29th Jan 2008 12:35
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Sure, go right ahead

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