Can't get transparency to work.

[Guest]

I am trying to do some transparency tests and I can't get it to work! I have a 24 bit bmp. I then make a black and white bmp out of that for my alpha channel, keeping what I want to show white, the other, black, and name it somehing else. I then load the regular bmp in DXTbmp by Martin Wright. Then I import my alpha channel and save everything as a Targa file. In Gmax I make a rectangle and apply the Targa texture to it. Keep in mind that I have named the material something like zbias_5_test. I don't know if zbias hurts or not. This is a ground rectangle that has some scenery I want to show and some I want the default to show through. I export it as usual and make an API using Fsregen. I then make a bgl and put it in my ADDON SceneryMysceneryscenery folder. I then convert the Targa texture to a DXT1 (I've tried both the non-Nvidia and the other) and send it to the ADDON SceneryMyscenerytexture folder. Next I place the API in Airport and compile. Once in FS I get the rectangle with the texture on it but everywhere I had thought the alpha would show transparent is now just black. What's going on here?By the way, the zbias thing worked fine. I was just guessing at it based on posts I read in the past. If anyone can describe why/how it is used, that would be good too.Thanks in advance.

[Guest odog]

hellotry convdxt from martin, you can set the color of the trans. whatever you like. it works like a charm. and martin will reply quickly to any questions you have.have funODOGalso the zbias removes the shadow and flicker from ground polys

[Guest]

Maybe I am doing something wrong but convdxt will only recognize resampled slices in the form ###############**.bmp.What's up with that?The thexture I am trying to do is sort of like that but it is a gamx rectangle that is textured with something other than a texture slice.Bump.

[Guest]

bzump

[arno 1]

Try ImageTool, it works great for me. Just save the image in a format that can handle an alpha channel from your paint program (tga or psd or so). Then you can load this image into ImageTool, there is no need to make a seperate bmp for the alpha channel or so. And then just save it as DXT1 or DXT3.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest]

I've tried this too. In ImageTool the texture shows up fine and when I select the alpha channel, it too shows up ok. So I save it as an extended format...I've tried all of them that support alpha...and still no luck.

[Guest]

I'm not ignorin you, just have no idea what's wrong.B

[arno 1]

And when you click View alpha channel in ImageTool you see the alpha channel you have made (so the black and white parts)?Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest]

Is the transparency 100%Because DxtBmp will take 100% Green g:255 and make it transparent in DXT1 + Alpha.

[Guest]

Everything boils down to the fact that my correct alpha channel is showing up in both ImageTool and DXTbmp. However, once converted, the alpha channel is just black texture in FS. Working on a building, I applied a default (I think it was default...it might have come with an addon scenery) texture and didn't map anything in gMax. i was basically playing around with placement/size. The funny thing is, since the texture wasn't mapped and just layed over the model with all kinds of black space involved, part of my building was transparent! The texture was a normal bmp when I applied it in gMax. I looked at it in DXTbmp and it had an alpha channel everywhere the actual textures were not (basically the background). I converted this bmp to DXT1. That's why the alpha showed up I guess. But if this works, why in the world would my texture, with an apparently good aplha channel, not work? Is there any problem with applying this to 1) a rectangle that rests on the ground or 2) something that is named zbias_*_*? It seems like every time I make my own texture or modify an exisitng one i have all these troubles that make no sense!!!Help!