Scipio Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I have tried to work a bit on the explosion-effects, but when I put them in the game, the explosion is surrounded by a black square. I'm using PaintShopPro 8. Since the bmp format doesn't seem to offer much options as for example multiple layers (at least in PSP8 I use), I'm obviously doing something wrong. Help would be fine! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdstrike Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 You need to save the file as a 32-bit bmp to preserve the alpha channel. I don't know PSP8, but the all newer graphic editors should be able to handle 32-bit bmps. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Good news! I was just asking if someone could make one a few weeks back, well explosions and fire. Good luck, I look forward to your work. Mord. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted July 10, 2008 Author Share Posted July 10, 2008 You need to save the file as a 32-bit bmp to preserve the alpha channel. I don't know PSP8, but the all newer graphic editors should be able to handle 32-bit bmps. Okay, thanks. Seems I will finally have to learn to use Photoshop... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Yeh, that BMP alpha channel thing threw me for a loop for awhile too. Just over the weekend I was working on a mod, being cleverer than i had ought, and the vehicle sides were showing up in-game 30% transparent! Ooops! Not what i intended! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Bergman Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 In PSP: Make an empty layer. Copy your graphics to another layer above the empty layer, and hide the original. Delete the required-to-be-empty spaces in the copied layer. You should now have an image with a transparent background. (Shown as a checkerboard effect.) Set background-pen colour to black. Save the file as a .png Open the .png in Paint (the freebie useless thing that comes with windows.) Select "Save As" and choose 24-bit BMP. (Paint will actually save as a 32bit bmp) Save file. IMPORTANT- restart CMSF. (Otherwise you'll find the whole texture has disappeared.) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Thanks for the help Marco! I haven't solve all problems yet, but this should get me on the right track. Another question - the explosion animation is build by 25 BMPs. Would CMSF use for example 30 BMPs if they would be there? I don't expect this seriously, but who knows... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M1A1TC Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 another free program that will open alpha channel is Gimp. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 Well, finally I made it. Generally, the BMP format doesn't seem to be the state of the art format for textures today. I wonder why BTS stayed with it. Seems to me that transparency for example can be realized much easier and better with the also very common PNG format? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tc237 Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Okay, thanks. Seems I will finally have to learn to use Photoshop... I'm not a Photoshop fan boy, in fact I resisted using Photoshop for years when first starting to mod games, always trying to go the GIMP/free route. Eventually it got so frustrating dealing with simple problems (very similiar to yours) when using the free stuff that I gave in and bugged enough friends untill I found a copy of CS2. Since using Photoshop, I've had no problems with anything. It is the industry standard, so using it eliminates many compatability issues with file types. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 Unfortunatly, my PhotoShop version doesn't save the Alpha-chanel in BMPs and also doesn't allow me to change the settings for this, while Gimp does. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 Another question: when I replace the BMP for a ground texture like cliffs, it works pretty fine on close distance, but in some distance the texture is switched to an original texture of - as I guess - lower quality, but I can't find a low quality texture for the cliffs. Any ideas? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.