Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Solatar on January 15, 2006, 07:13:28 pm

Title: How to use transparency in .dds files
Post by: Solatar on January 15, 2006, 07:13:28 pm

Search is still disabled, and a targeted Google search gave me nothing. I'm trying to take the cockpit texture, and make the textured hud and the little bars next to it transparent in the map. I hate this HUD...

I got it to go invisible by whiting it out in a .pcx file, but then I have the problem everything in front of it is transparent. If I want to use the Medusa, however crappy it is, it makes it even worse by making parts of the bars (that are in front of the HUD) invisible.

I've seen a bunch of .dds files that are transparent, or have stuff over the transparency (especially shine maps, etc.) I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this/what options I should check while saving/what do do to the file before I save in PSP8. I've made the area I want transparent transparent, made the entire thing a Raster layer, saved in about every type of .dds format the nVidia plugin thing supports, and I can't get the damn thing to work...somebody wanna help a guy out?

Title: Re: How to use transparency in .dds files
Post by: Taristin on January 15, 2006, 09:50:26 pm

Alpha channel. White is opaque. Black is transparent. And there's the multiple shades of grey in between.

DXT 5 only. AFAIK

Title: Re: How to use transparency in .dds files
Post by: Solatar on January 15, 2006, 09:51:45 pm

*tries out*

Title: Re: How to use transparency in .dds files
Post by: FireCrack on January 16, 2006, 03:55:28 am

DXT 1 - Only full opaque and full transperent, full white and full black, no greys inbetween.
Nontheless you shouldnt be using DXT1 anyways

DXT 3 - Some shades of grey inbetween, i think it has somthing like 8 or 16 levels of trasnpeerency

DXT 5 - the full shebang