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Tutorial: Working with alpha channel in Photoshop Hello everyone. So, after I saw some people asking about how to work with alpha channel in Photoshop, I decided to make a simple tutorial for it. Tutorial was created in CS5, but this should work in any other version as well. We're going to use Photoshop ONLY. No DXTBmp! That program is only good for working with extended bitmaps, since Photoshop can't save that. But for DDS textures, you can use nVidia Photoshop DDS plugin and there's absolutely nothing Photoshop cannot do. So here we go. Step one: Assuming you already have some layer ready for alpha channel, we switch to CHANNELS tab. In case you for some reason don't have that tab in there, you can activate it in "Windows" drop-down list. We named our layer we want in alpha channel "Alpha layer" Step two: Now switch to the alpha channel itself or create it, if there's not one already. Step three: Go to Image -> Apply Image... Step four: Now the importnant part. Set everything just like you see it on screenshot below. Layer: There should be your layer you prepared before to be used in alpha channel. In our case, it's called "Alpha layer" Channel: RGB, because that's where the layer currently is. Blending: Normal, so you can actually see the alpha after. Do not press invert unless you actually need to invert your alpha for some reason. ALL DONE! Alpha is now there, no need to use any other witchcraft. Reverse process: Extracting alpha into RGB channel In case you want to edit your already existing alpha channel and want it in RGB channel, it's very easy. Just create a new layer and use "Apply Image..." menu again. But now you select your source channel as "Alpha 1". Layer now doesn't matter, since that channel has only one and Blending should be again set to Normal. I hope you learned something today and if you have any questions or ran into any issues, feel free to ask, I'll be more than happy to help you! -
Well, by principle, this batch script is nothing new as batch scripts calling Imagetool to convert texture files have been around since FS9. This one, is a bit more than "just" a conversion script though. Features: - A script-based user-interface - Converts .bmp to DXT5 .dds files (with or without mip-maps)* - Supports backup and backup restore operations - Works with *.bmp files only, i.e. other files are not backed up to save disk space - Can convert large (e.g. all AI aircraft) and small (e.g. a single aircraft) folders - As Imagetool tends to skip converting some files in large folders, the script also checks for unconverted files - Supports blacklisting, i.e. for panel bitmaps or similar *Well, a conversion to DXT5 .dds is nothing new, but it could help saving the odd GPU cycle as the GPU won't have to flip each texture around while rendering it. Texture rendering in DX10 mode might also benefit. Usage: 1. Unzip to a place with enough disk space available** 2. Run Converter.bat ** The backup folders will be created in the folder Convert.bat is located!! Notes: 1.) I do not intend to destroy your FSX installation. I've tested this tool in a contained environment as well as on my own FSX installation and it left everything intact! 2.) CREATE A BACKUP BEFORE DOING ANY(!) CONVERSION WORK 3.) Make sure to read any instructions and notes on-screen when using this tool! I didn't add them for nothing! 4.) I've added a safeguard when entering folder paths, i.e. if the specified folder does not exist, you will be thrown back to the main menu. So it's harder to mess up by entering the wrong path to a folder. 5.) Creating or restoring backups and converting textures can take a very long time. On a SSD, converting my 11 GB AI aircraft folder took over an hour 6.) Backups can be amended in case you're adding new files to your FSX installation at one point 7.) Conversion is an iterative process. You will need to do more than one pass in large folders. 8.) DO NOT rename or delete the "ZZZ_Helper" folder! You *will* break this script! 9.) The conversion process also fixes the "Missing Alpha" issue Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/66vaa7226k76g6b/DDSConverter.zip Any fearless volunteers?
