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Originally Posted by Soundman
It's not helping that Photoshop is still relatively new to me, I've not used it but a couple of times. It's apparent that I'll need some patience and time to absorb what you have stated above and let it sink in. Hope you'll allow me a question or two more if I get stuck.
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I'm using PhotoShop Elements 5.0, and yes indeed, there is a lot to learn within its large capabilities. I forget if PhotoShop added itself to the "Send To" menu screen in Windows but if it didn't you can copy its .exe shortcut file to it as well. Again, this way just right clicking on the image file will allow you to dirrect it to the specific tool you want to use on it.
My version of PhotoShop won't allow you to work on the Alpha Channel mirror image (least not in its .dds form),
but it will allow you to see what it covers. Find the "Select" menu heading and click on the "Load Selection" entry. This will overlay the main image with the Alpha Channel as a moving outline. You can draw between the lines with say a medium to dark green color to highlight the specific parts you want to change. Remove the selection; the Alpha Channel outline will disapear leaving you with the lubber line highlighted in green. Always "Flatten" the layers of the image if there are more than one, use the lower right hand box to do this in PhotoShop, then save the .dds image through the nVidia plug-in as described
before.
To directly change the Alpha Channel of any image in PhotoShop you will need to "convert" it to a file PhotoShop can use, like a .bmp. That's where a tool like DXTBmp comes in. As I pointed out before, export the Alpha Channel image to a folder you made for your work, it will create a .bmp for you. Then send the .bmp to PhotoShop. All Alpha Channels are black and white and various shades of grey so there's no color used. Just remember that black masks the image, white allows the image to be seen. The various grey areas give you a degree of light allowed through. If you make a white mark on the Alpha without the "main image" having the same spot covered with some kind of color or element, the image in the game will show the white mark, as a white mark. Just one pixel off will do this, so be carefull where you make Alpha Channel changes.
And, Yes I'll help if I can.