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Old 19th March 2005, 06:24 PM   #1
wsimike
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Default alpha masked textures

Hello again..

Okay, have another question that, though I found a post in the forums that seemed to explain how to do it, didn't seem to work in practice.

Basically, I want to apply an alpha-masked texture to a surface. I have the texture created as a 32-bit TGA with an alpha channel.

I followed the instructions on a thread I found, to texture the model, right click on the color bar in the bottom left and select "append texture". After a couple more steps, apparently, the masked parts of the texture should be transparent. However, they're not... I see the leafy part of the texture surrounded by solid black.

If I try to adjust the transparency slider, it affects the entire surface..

Sooo.. in short, are there instructions or a tutorial posted anywhere that illustrate howto do this properly? I tried doing a search but onlly found the above-mentioned thread..

Thanks!
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Old 20th March 2005, 05:02 AM   #2
Andy
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I'd recommend using a png file as the texture with transparency. Gif will work too (but you won't get the no. of colors).

The textures are per-object and currently independent of materials. Simply select Object->Texture->Load-Texture to set your texture. Changing the material will affect the overall appearance of the surfaces 'underneath' the texture e.g. changing the color from white will 'shade' the whole texture.

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Old 20th March 2005, 11:10 AM   #3
wsimike
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Hi there..

Hmm... Still not working.

I re-saved the texture as a PNG, with an alpha channel.. no-go. The texture still shows up as solid, the leaves with all the black background color..

Is there some setting that allows the transparency to display properly? Does the transparency display at all in the editor?

Thanks!
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Old 20th March 2005, 01:16 PM   #4
Andy
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Does the tree in the samples folder work? (that's a transparent gif)

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Old 20th March 2005, 03:42 PM   #5
wsimike
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Hmm.. yeah, the tree loads up with transparency just fine...

Though, should the program also support PNG and/or TGA with alpha channels? I'd rather not use .gif format... don't like the quality loss.

Maybe it just doesn't display properly in the editor, but would elsewhere?

Also, what formats are supposed to be retaining the texture/uv-mapping upon export? So far every one I've tried doesn't have any texture info when I bring it into Milkshape3D. My ultimate goal is to get it into the Torque engine..

Has anyone found a pipeline that works for getting geometry from AC3D to DTS format for Torque? If so, I'd greatly appreciate some assistance with that..

Thanks!
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Old 23rd March 2005, 09:42 AM   #6
wsimike
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Hi there..

Just was wondering about the PNG/TGA alpha mask situation. Is there some way to get those to display properly in the 3D view in AC3D, or is it only .gif that's supported to that extent?

Thanks!
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Old 23rd March 2005, 12:50 PM   #7
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PNGs work for me - right click and 'save as...'



Try using this as a texture and let us know how you get on.

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Old 23rd March 2005, 02:15 PM   #8
wsimike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Colebourne
PNGs work for me - right click and 'save as...'



Try using this as a texture and let us know how you get on.

Andy
Okay.. .got it. I figured out what I was doing wrong as soon as I saw your image in Photoshop. I hadn't been turning off the background layer before saving. I did that, saved as .PNG and it's working fine now.

Thanks a bunch!
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