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POTC Texture Transperancy

J

jmv575

Landlubber
Storm Modder
I was fooling around with the flags that KAM made for the international relations section of the F2 screen to try and switch the old Fleur type French flag to the Tricolor. When I convert the tga.tx to the .tga so I can edit it, I lose the transperant parts... they become black. Has anyone figured out a way around this?
 
If anyone still has the original tga <-> tga.tx converter that Rexman made a while ago, could you put it up on the FTP. I think the new program our Russian friends release doesn't deal with POTC transparency properly. Thanks.
 
Hey JMV, I just put it up, hope it's complete, I couldn't find my original file so just archived the tool the way I was using it. Think it should work okay.

It's in UTILITIES and is clearly labeled "Rexmans TX converter". <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />

Hope it helps!
 
Sorry, forgot to mention - make a directory for the files and place them in there - you might want to make a separate directory for packed and unpacked, that's what I do.

Use tx_dds.exe in both directories, otherwise the pack and unpack utilities are labeled.

Put .tx files into unpack directory and double click on the unpack command. They'll unpack to .dds files and then you can use them in your image editor.

When you want to repack, just save your files in the pack directory and double click on the pack command and they'll pack back up to .tx files.

BACK UP ANY ORIGINAL FILES JUST IN CASE! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />

HTH! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Thanks Cat. I remember using this program last year. Its not as organized and nice as the new one, but I think it will handle transparency better. Thanks.
 
I was right. I don't know why, maybe DDS keeps transparency data better than a TGA, but it worked. Thanks again Cat.
 
Cool, glad it worked out. I use that one instead of the Russian converter, the latter never worked for me, for some weird reason.
 
<!--QuoteBegin-jmv575+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jmv575)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I was fooling around with the flags that KAM made for the international relations section of the F2 screen to try and switch the old Fleur type French flag to the Tricolor. When I convert the tga.tx to the .tga so I can edit it, I lose the transperant parts... they become black. Has anyone figured out a way around this?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

j0, kam is me <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" />

akella's txconverter isn't the problem, i assure you - i always use it, and i used it to make those flags.

the transparency info is stored in the alpha channel of the image. in adobe photoshop you click the 'channels' tab on the layer screen, select the alpha channel and you can edit the transparency there. some convertors (like irfanview) save all tgas with a completely opaque alpha channel, so you lose that info.
 
It makes so much more sense now. I was wondered what the odds of you having the flag of Catalonia and some other guy named KAM adding it to the game.

Thanks on the tip about photoshop. That will make everything a lot easier.
 
heh <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" /> i added it because i had a quest idea, and then never got round to adding the quest. i still have the idea though <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
 
I don't assume it involves an Don Estaban Maturin y Domanova perchance?

What have you learned about Nation adding?
 
Um, in terms of alpha channels.
JMV, what program (and if PS what version) do you use? (Unless I missed it. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" /> ).
If it's 7.0, that's a "Known Issue"--due to IIRC the TGA File Spec.
Y'see, TGAs store the channel differently, and PS7.0, in order to more closely follow the spec, don't load the TGA transparency as a separate channel but apply it directly to the other three channels. You have to hold (IIRC) alt while loading to get the PS6 behavior (put transp. in alpha channel) back.
Or upgrade to 7.01, which goes back to the old way.

Other than that, I too have had no trouble with the TX Converter.
 
I use PS 6.0. Using rexman's tool instead of the Russian TX converter seems to answer well. Would there be any reason that PS would load a DDS differently than a TGA?
 
i use ps 6.01 and have no problem - pehaps there's a difference between 6 and 6.01?

no, my quest wasn't to do with maturín i domanova, but now you mention it... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" /> my quest idea was originally set around the rebellions of 1640.

about `nation-adding`... the 'nations' i added weren't intended to be `fully-fledged` nations; i just wanted a few characters/ships in the game to have catalan and/or unknown allegiance (so when you looked at them with the spyglass you'd see a catalan flag etc.). so i didn't go into adding them into the `nation-relation` arrays. i think that would require the player to start a new game...
 
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