Simviation Forum - Glass Helicopter (Alpha Channel question)

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Glass Helicopter (Alpha Channel question) (Read 615 times)

Jan 19^th, 2009 at 2:32am

heloflyer Offline
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I'm having trouble trying to make my aircraft shine the way I want it to. When I make any changes to the alpha channel instead of my changes effecting the reflection on the texture they effect the level of translucency so it ends up looking like I'm flying a helicopter made of red glass.

My process is as follows:
Create a .bmp with Paint Shop Pro 7.
Open .bmp with DXTbmp.
"Send Alpha to Editor" this gives me a blank image in PSP
Paste a copy of the original .bmp onto the blank alpha which gives me a greyscale version of my .bmp
Make changes
Save it
Go back to DXTbmp and "refresh alpha"
Save it all as DXT3
put it in FS9 and fly my glass creation

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

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Reply #1 - Jan 19^th, 2009 at 7:09am

CODY614 Offline
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Best to always start with the one that came with what you are trying to re-paint.
Just use DXT.bmp to "Export the Alpha Channel" and then slowley adjust it to get what you want."Back Up" "Back Up" "Back Up"!
http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=208137
That's a quickey look there at what I'm talking about.

Jeff

Commodore 64&&210 kb Hard Drive&&&&

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Reply #2 - Jan 19^th, 2009 at 5:42pm

heloflyer Offline
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I see, no use trying to reinvent the wheel

Thanks for the reply

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Reply #3 - Jan 19^th, 2009 at 10:50pm

heloflyer Offline
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After doing some more reading I'm starting to get the impression that there's something in the model (.mdl) that makes the alpha channel effect transparency instead of reflectivity.

Am I on the right track, and if so is it possible to change it?

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Reply #4 - Jan 20^th, 2009 at 7:18am

CODY614 Offline
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Who's Helo is it?
And where to find it?
I can take a look at the textures if you like?

Jeff

Commodore 64&&210 kb Hard Drive&&&&

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Reply #5 - Jan 20^th, 2009 at 7:42pm

heloflyer Offline
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Jordan Moore"s Hovercontrol Blackhawk. I think it's here at Simviation but if not it's surely at Hovercontrol.com

Thanks for your help!

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Reply #6 - Jan 20^th, 2009 at 9:00pm

CODY614 Offline
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

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O-kay...
Strange!
You did use the window fix?
I opened the "tx_bh_windows_1_inner.bmp

You said...
"Save it all as DXT3" But...Look at the original "DXT3 512X512 16bit!"
This can make a difference.
It maybe coming from the way you save the "Alpha" also before you use it...'Alphas' should be 'Grey Scaled' I.E. Remove all color before you save it.Just the 'Alpha' though!
Also might wanna try to "Import The Alpha" with DXTBmp rather than refreshing it!
If this still doesn't help...If you want you can send me the files you are painting and I'll go through them.

Jeff

Commodore 64&&210 kb Hard Drive&&&&

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