Button Mod Help

[Stew U-582]

I am working on a mod that gives extra command buttons on the Orders Bar
Ive come accross a problem converting back into the dds format.

Ill explain what ive done and hope someone can help me out


Ive taken the TGA fille for the orders buttons
using the dds converter ive changed it to a bitmap
ive added new icons using ms paint as an editor
Ive converted the bitmap into a TGA and DDS file then saved in the correct folder

Now it all seems to work except for one thing
all the icons appear but instead of being transparent and showing the button colour , green or yellow they are black.
I still get the icons detail in grey and you can see the button colour , green or yellow , as a thin boarder around the outside.

Can anybody shed some light on what Im missing in the editing procedure.

[CaptainCox]

I am working on a mod that gives extra command buttons on the Orders Bar
Ive come accross a problem converting back into the dds format.

Ill explain what ive done and hope someone can help me out


Ive taken the TGA fille for the orders buttons
using the dds converter ive changed it to a bitmap
ive added new icons using ms paint as an editor
Ive converted the bitmap into a TGA and DDS file then saved in the correct folder

Now it all seems to work except for one thing
all the icons appear but instead of being transparent and showing the button colour , green or yellow they are black.
I still get the icons detail in grey and you can see the button colour , green or yellow , as a thin boarder around the outside.

Can anybody shed some light on what Im missing in the editing procedure.Could you upload the file somewhere, I could have a look at it. Also PM if you want.

[Stew U-582]

Could you upload the file somewhere, I could have a look at it. Also PM if you want.


I cant seem to at the moment file front is all screwed up and I cant upload any photo's

[CaptainCox]

Could you upload the file somewhere, I could have a look at it. Also PM if you want.


I cant seem to at the moment file front is all screwed up and I cant upload any photo's :p tricky then hey ;) But I suspect it could have something to do with the alpha channel...or use http://www.mediafire.com/
Its almost as good as filefront.

Edit: just checked FF my end, seems to work fine here.

[Stew U-582]

Ok I looked at the file hosting and created an account,

this should link to a screenshot

http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=bszi1mkwmuy&thumb=4

[CaptainCox]

Yea got it. Will have a look at the original file...just a min

[CaptainCox]

What I can see that file uses the Alpha channel. Did you manage to work with the alpha using MS Paint...I think not as that prog don't have that function or?

[CaptainCox]

RGB Channels (Colors)
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/CaptainCox/withoutalpha.jpg

Alpha Channels
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/CaptainCox/ALPHA-1.jpg

[Stew U-582]

Your over my head allready.
I dont know what an alpha ch. is.

I converted the DDS file in sh4 to a bitmap then used windows paint to edit it
then changed back to dds.
when I opened it in paint all the backgrounds were black , i imagine they are ment to be transparent.

So im using the wrong editor i spose

If this is too complicated dont worry about it , im not a garphics expert and i was just tinkering.
But if im on yhe right track id love some advice

[Stew U-582]

I see now,

is there a progarm to edit the channels seperatly

[CaptainCox]

Ok I show you something.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=112868
In this case its about the transparency. But I think if you simply delete the Alpha ( I think that happened in your case, not 100 % here but) you might end up with it loosing the color. The best would be if you upload that DDS image you worked on to
http://www.mediafire.com/ Zipped of course and I could have a look at it, don't take more then 3 min to fix I think. Well there is a free prog called GIMP
Its almost as good as Photoshop, check it out!
http://www.gimp.org/

[Stew U-582]

Ok ill get organised and finish making the new icons

its a wip at the moment

then ill upload what ive done.

Thanks for all your help

[CaptainCox]

If you chose to try out GIMP you might need this
http://registry.gimp.org/plugin?id=4816
or
http://www.utzone.de/include.php?path=content/download.php&contentid=4069
Its a DDS plug in for it, then you wont need to convert to another format etc.

Hope it works out ;)

[Stew U-582]

ive just downloaded the gimp software so ill give it a go

[Stew U-582]

ok got the gimp installed,

now im downloading the help files

a bit more complicated that the old Paint

Thankyou Captain Cox , again
for all your help.
Ive now got the correct tools to do some good modding
so I wont be bothering you for a while ,
I think it will take some time to work all this new software out.

thanks

[CaptainCox]

Coolers, but if you need something, just ask, no problem at all!

[CptJoker]

The below information is all AFAIK from what I have observed about the rendering system used in SH4.

Alpha channels are used to select which areas of a DDS will be drawn and which won't. The white parts are 100% visible, the black parts 0% visible, with shades of gray in between. So you can pull off a gradual transparency as seen in the TBT and binocular silhouettes - however, this kind of DDS should be saved as a DXT5, which is the name of a type of high-quality DDS compression. The main types of compression are DXT (with no alpha channel), DXTa (with a 1-bit, very simple alpha channel), DXT3 (with a more detailed alpha channel) and DXT5 (with the most detailed alpha channel, able to handle shades of gray.)

Most of the time saving things as a DXT3-compression DDS will be sufficient, as this will have have a detailed-enough alpha channel, except for when it comes for gradual shades like in the binocular silhouette (saving this as a DXT3 would result in noticeable banding instead of a gradual fade...)

For my own part I have not noticed any differences (performance-wise) between using a DXT3 and a DXT5 compression, as the file sizes of the DDS end up being nearly the same: the only difference is in the quality of their alpha channel. Of course, if your texture has no alpha channel (check before editing) you can happily save it as a plain DXT and save space (no point in saving an empty channel...) as some textures have no transparency.

I should note at this point that some alpha channels have different purposes: some are lightmaps, others are reflection maps, etc. However, as a rule of thumb, if the texture you are working on has an alpha channel that looks like a black & white cutout of your texture, chances are the alpha channel is for specifying transparency.

If you ever add stuff to your texture, make sure to add things to the alpha channel too or it might not look right in the game. Tricky maybe, but there you have it!

[Stew U-582]

Thanks Captain Cox,

Ive managed to use the software you reccomended and create
a working test Icon.

Now Ive just got a bit of work to do designing some new icons for
the extra orders buttons , create a readme and I will be able to release the mod

Thanks verry much:up:

ps.. Ill be sure to mention you in the readme credits.