Terrain Texture Experiment

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:42 am

Has anyone ever noticed that some of the terrain textures have alpha channels? Any idea what they do? I couldn't figure out what they could be used for and since there has been some discussion about textures possibly causing some troubles I decided to remove the alpha channels. I haven't seen any difference or had any issues as a result so I offer them to you to see if anyone else notices anything good or bad. One really good thing that happened is I can finally see the textures properly in the Terrain Editor. The terrain swatches always looked too dark and the lower right corner should show a larger view of the texture but it was always obscured by the alpha channel showing up in pink.

These come from Assets\Terrain\Textures in your game install folder. Make a backup of your originals should you want to go back.

Jancsika · Post by **Jancsika** » Fri May 11, 2007 6:48 pm

It works great, just as you said. I thought that the pink box was something wrong with my graphics.
I have tried SideToSideDSC and got a CTD but after uninstalling and reinstalling the scenario it works fine. So I dont't know.
There are so many glitches in this game that it it is hard to keep track what works with what.
Anyhow it works fine in the editor and now I can see what I was doing,
Jancsika

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:19 pm

Doc - while you're discussing alpha channels, you mentioned something about them in making Goods icons, something about turning the square icon into a round one. Can you explain to one of your students here, namely me, how to do that?

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Sat May 12, 2007 1:39 am

Actually I don't think that was me cuz I haven't found where the alpha channel is for them yet. If indeed there is one but there probably is since the background color doesn't seem to matter and the corners get clipped in-game. The only icons I've messed with were the machinery ones when I was playing around with the America Scenario. Here's what I came up with.

Transparency channels are pretty program specific and somewhat situation specific so if you're really talking about the icon transparency then I will have to find out where it comes from first. Basically you need to learn how to make Masks in an image that will then be used as the Alpha channel. Sometimes you can use the layer transparency to create them if you make a background layer that is empty and build your image above that. Then when you export your final image you use the layer transparency to create the alpha mask. But of course you have to be exporting to a image format that supports transparency like GIF, PNG, TGA.

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sat May 12, 2007 5:23 am

Doc-

That icon is amazing! Can I have your permission to incorporate it into any upcoming updates to America? I've been toying with the idea of making another revision, namely to fix one annoying little bug in the events, as well as include some goal specific artwork, a la Utah.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat May 12, 2007 6:35 am

Doc - I'll have to do a search. The icons I made have the square around them in-game.

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sat May 12, 2007 6:57 am

Snoopy- I use photoshop, I generally start with a pre-existing icon, freshly plucked from interface.fpk, that already has the perfectly round shape. I then modify it and make the icon I need.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat May 12, 2007 7:24 am

I'll have to look into that, I did use PSP, but I think I converted it to ICO, edited it, then converted it back to TGA. To mant colors to work with for me.

BadKharma · Post by **BadKharma** » Sat May 12, 2007 11:42 pm

Snoopy I'm not sure why you would convert something to an ico (icon) file when that format isnt used and ico files support millions of colors unless you are making pre-xp icons that only support 256 colors and no transparancy. I make alot of custom icons for programs and interfaces to earn a living.
Doc I like that machinery icon great job. From viewing the icon in Photoshop it appears the alpah channel is used to make the round image when active the outside dark brown color becomes red.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:34 am

BadKharma - That is basicly why I did it, 256 colors. I only have PSP 7.0 and to do a true color TGA file would take forever for me to change colors. I envy someone like you with the programs and the skill and the job. I need a challenge, like finding out what is wrong with a map and what changes can do what. I guess I don't have the patience to do the slow icon and DDS changes that others do. And because of my health, the more difficult it is, the easier it becomes for me to forget how to do it. When I made my second set of icons it took an hour to find my notes and figure them out.

Keep up the work you do my man.

Post by **Warll** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:36 am

Have you tried using GIMP 2?

BadKharma · Post by **BadKharma** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:44 am

Snoopy what you could do is save the image as a gif that will reduce the number of colors to 256 also. I make all my graphics from scratch so it is really easy to control the number of colors involved although for full color XP or Vista icons I use the complete pallette with gradients and gradient meshes. Too bad Photoshop is so expensive it really offers alot for creating and editing graphics if I didnt make my living with graphics I'm sure I never would have spent the money for it or illustrator either. WarII's suggestion is a good one gimp is freeware and allows alot of options.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:45 am

I have GIMP 2 and have briefly looked at it, but again, my head is one that cannot be to cluttered up. Seriously. The playing with the maps programing keeps me from getting to deep in much else.

BadKharma · Post by **BadKharma** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:52 am

OK btw forgot to mention that I'm sorry to hear of your health issues. I was a paramedic for 20years until I injured my back too badly and seeing everything I did messed with my head so much I needed to find a different living.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:34 am

I was working setting up a small printing press in my department when I had my first Grand Mall. 6 monthes before my job was running 6 ton compression molding machine without guards. Luck was with me. A trained paramedic was working maintance 4 feet away from me. I udes to be able to program in 6 different Machine Codes, and think in Basic and Dbase III faster than I could write it. Now I have to think to give the answers I do and the reasarch I do for this forum. And I love it. Much better than Solitare.