Alpha Channels...

[Guest MelvinRafi]

Hi folks!Can anyone tell me how to create alpha channels in Paint Shop Pro 7 with respect to creating reflections and such for Flight Simulator 2002. I'm getting way too confused with layers and masks and all.I would really appreciate any help. Thanks a lot.:) Melvin Rafiwww.meljet.com

[Guest Milton]

Hi Melvin,Thank you for your many contributions to this community.Lou "Firestriker" has excellent advice on alpha channels the simple way.Works great using your existing texture templates. Just paint over the templates as a separate copy in your preferred shade of gray (RGB 128-230 range), save as _t_alpha then merge them into your normal DXT3 textures in DXTBMP or ImageTool and save as DXT3 with Alpha to your texture folder.Details at Lou's site.Milton

[Guest MelvinRafi]

Thanks for the help. I'll try that now.:) Melvin Rafi

[pacosancas 0]

That's the preferred way to work with DXTBMP. But for using Imagetool, I use another method by making an alpha channel in PSP version 7:1- Save your work in PSP as a *.psd file (e.g. texture_t.psd)2- Make a separate 256 greyscale image corresponding to the alpha channel (e.g. texture_alpha.bmp)3- With both images open in PSP and the texture_t.psd file active, select MASKS > NEW > FROM IMAGE. Then select texture_alpha.bmp as source image 4- Go to MASKS > SAVE TO ALPHA CHANNEL and press OK in the dialog that will appear (this window also gives the opportunity do delete any existing alpha channel you may need to get rid of).5- Go to MASKS > DELETE. Answer NO if asked to merge into the current layer.Save your work. Now you have a *.psd file with alpha channel that can be read by imagetool, and which preserves the layers structure (except some vector layer objects). Remember when you open it with imagetool not to use the Save option after manipulating it, but the Save as... optin, and save it as a bmp, preferrably to a different folder. Imagetool may otherwise spoil your .psd file (it has happened to me twice).I have found that imagetool gives generally a better result than DXTBMP when convertingo to 444 format, while DXTBMP can handle the 888 format which gives the greatest quelity (at the expense of large size, so I only use it for special parts such as the 3d panel).Paco

[Steve Cannell 4]

Hi MiltonWhere do I find Lou's site ?Steve

[Guest MelvinRafi]

Paco,Thanks for the help. I've tried it step by step but it doesn't seem to work. PSP displays the alpha channel as blank and Imagetool also tells me that there is no alpha channel.Is there some sort of common error that I might have made?:) Melvin Rafi

[pacosancas 0]

If you'd like to zip your .psd and your alpha bmp and send them to me, here is my address and I'll see if I can find the problem:pacosancas@hotmail.com