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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by Stew U-582

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.p...mkwmuy&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)


Alpha Channels

[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?pat...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