ADE Custom Ground Polygon Texture Formatting

[BeechPapa 32]

I am attempting to add custom taxiway markings with ADE's custom ground polygon tool. I've followed the instructions for texture management, placed the texture in texture_def.txt, and inside the actual textures folder. The ground poly is not showing up, however, once I load up FSX. When examining my own texture and comparing it to the ones that come with ADE, I see there is a difference in formatting, even though both appear to be BMPs. This is a screenshot comparing the stock texture to my own: 

Anybody know what kind of format that is on the left or what steps to take to get there?

 

Edit: Just to be clear, the screenshot above is of the original PSD, but the texture in the ADE folder is an exported, flattened BMP. 

Edited February 22, 2014 by BeechPapa

[hesynergy 67]

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Anybody know what kind of format that is on the left or what steps to take to get there?

 

 

Try googling DxtBMP since the trolls here wiped out the site reference 

 

Chas

Edited February 22, 2014 by hesynergy

[BeechPapa 32]

Thanks for the DxtBMP software tip. I already have it though, along with the Nvidia photoshop DDS plugin. Problem is I have no idea what format to export to. ADE stock ground poly textures are all BMP, not DDS, but there's still some formatting differences. Might this issue have something to do with the alpha?

[N60JBravo 27]

I recommend you open some of the default ADEX textures in DXTBmp and see how they are constructed.

 

Textures such as yours are DXT3, some with mips, some without.

 

regards,

Joe

[BeechPapa 32]

Thanks Joe, comparing textures in DXTBmp helped. PS didn't show a difference in channels, but it appears the ADEX textures have a blank or slightly textured main image (what I assume is the RGB?) with the actual letters showing on the alpha channel. Although I have tried to replicate that, all attempts have failed. I'm not too good at this alpha channel/BMP formatting stuff, been struggling with this for a while, so will try looking up tutorials on alpha channels later tonight to see if I can get to the bottom of this. 

[N60JBravo 27]

First off, Photoshop can't open DXT compressed files unless they are DDS and you have the nVidia plugin.

 

The ground poly textures that come with ADE are not DDS, probably so they work with FS9.

 

For your letter, make the RGB the color you want, add some noise or something to keep them from being too monochromatic.

 

Make the actual letters in the Alpha channel.

 

Start with a black Alpha channel, (0, 0, 0 RGB) and make the letters white (255, 255, 255 RGB).

 

When projected in the sim where there is a black Alpha the ground poly will be transparent. Where there is a white Alpha will show your RGB channels.

 

If you use just white and black for the Alpha you can save your texture as DXT1 w/Alpha.

 

If you want to tweak your letters, say to weather them a bit, you can do so with shades of gray in the Alpha. Then you would want to use DXT3.

 

Play around with it and keep an eye on the clock. This is a good way to burn a couple hours,...easy.

 

regards,

Joe

[BeechPapa 32]

OK Joe, I finally got it to work. Thanks for the guidance. With DXTbmp’s import alpha tool, I was able to make two separate plain vanilla RGB documents into a single DXT3 w/ alpha that works as planned. The noise tip works well, and I’ve added some grunginess here and there now that I’m getting the hang of the technique. Know what you mean about keeping an eye on the clock though, this stuff is time consuming. This was only supposed to be a simple adex project, and keeps growing on me. Fun stuff though. Thanks again.