Windows.......without tears....help

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day all,Just finished texturing the aircraft and imported it through the Fly! II editor. Unfortunately the windows didn't quite come out nice and transparent. I used an alpha chanel RGB *tga ( 32 bit) texture. ( I think! :-) )Anyone got any idea as to what I may have done wrong?Cheers,Roger

[Guest CaptainJ]

Hi Roger,there are several items that can cause these kind of problems. - Did you correctly UVWmap the window part ?...- Did you called the window part "glasse" ?...- Did you put the exported glass texture into the ART folder? The last one is tricky! I believe the export tool transform all textures into TGA (16bit??) the problem is then that the editor does not get the Alpha channel. So what you bassically do is overwritting the exported glass tga in the ART folder, with the original one you made in photoshop (the 32 bit one)..If these above doesn't fix your problem. Then maybe it wise to check if your glass texture has indeed an Alpha channelTake care Roger, Let me know if you where able to fix it.... If not we have to look further.

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Jarno,>- Did you correctly UVWmap the window part ?...NO!>- Did you called the window part "glasse" ?...NO!>- Did you put the exported glass texture into the ART folder?NO!No wonder ther windows didn't come out right. :-lolThanks mate for all the advice. As you can see - I really need it. :-lolCheers,Roger

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Jarno,OK I've been following your advice.I joined all the windows together into a single part using "object union" operator which I believe is similar to the max "attach" operator. I named the part "glasse#1".I then map the top view of the part "glasse#1" to a *.bmp file. I don't have a choice here. ( *.bmp is the default and only file that truespace maps to ) I load the *.bmp file into photoshop and save it as a 32 bit *.tga graphic and add an alpha channel to the graphic.However when I reload the *tga file the alpha channel has disappeared?How do I save and retain the alpha channel? it just disappears every time I save. Cheers,Roger

[Guest Steve Brown]

Hi Roger,You can add the Alpha channel back with Photoshop, as far as I know.I havent done any Alpha channel work for a few weeks, but this is what I had to do with my Liverpool Airport Terminal.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/101924.jpg SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orgF2FDesign Websitehttp://www.f2fdesign.com/ My Fileshttp://library.avsim.net/search.php?CatID=...&Go=Change+View http://www.wrexhamspace.org/sig.jpg

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day steve,When all else fails RTFM!!! I did a bit of research in photoshop and found out that tga files and alpha channels don't mix. In photoshop 7.0 you cannot save a tga file with an alpha channel. The alpha channel just gets dropped with the save.Having realised that I was trying to do the impossible (creating translucent windows before loading the model into the Fly! II editor )I altered my plan of attack and imported the model with plain tga files. Once the crammed tif file was generated I simply added an alpha channel to the indexed colour tif and now alls well. Thanks for the reply.Cheers,Roger edit: PS glad to see you've arrived back safely from your holidays.

[Guest Steve Brown]

Great RogerThis is what I had in mind but Im not too good at explaining myself.Your doing a great job by the way :-) SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orgF2FDesign Websitehttp://www.f2fdesign.com/ My Fileshttp://library.avsim.net/search.php?CatID=...&Go=Change+View http://www.wrexhamspace.org/sig.jpg

[Guest CaptainJ]

Roger,Making an alpha channel in photoshop 7.0 on a TGA texture is possable!! however it needs weird steps to take to make one! 1) get a transparent background use a texture size of 64X64 Pixels2) fill the background color with anything you want.3) go to channels and apply the alpha channel4) use the slider in the color tab the choose color between pure white (0% transparent) and pure black (100% transparent)5) with the alpha channel selected, go to "layer" (in the topbar) select 2 times after each other "add vector mask"-> "Reveal all"6) an new white layer is created called "Layer1mask" select this layer and fill it with a grey color 7) you'll see the transparent appearing now! save the texture in a 32BIT TGA formatTake care,

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

Roger,Happy New Year and Congratulations on the new Fly! II baby!!! ;-)I didn't realize it was so big! I think it's got its father's props and it's mother's wings... ;-)Want to see some close-ups...http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/banneraa.jpg