2D Art White pixels appear when importing TGA with alpha channel

[Chernuk]

I have been having my alpha mapped textures as TGA in Gimp.

When I import them into UnrealEd, some of the darkest pixels in the texture appear are white.

Is this a problem with the conversion/importing mechanism within UnrealEd?

Should I be saving the files as .DDS format before importing?

 

[UncleDrax]

DDS is the native format of UEd, so if you can get it how you want in DDS format, that would work better. PLus you can manually set up your MIP maps.

As for the GIMP specifically, I've had similar issues with PSP8 trying to import a tga format (grabbed the eval version of psp10, and it works great!).. Before PSP10 I've used Gimp to do my transparency work and haven't really experienced any issues..

What TGA options are you using to save out? (compressed | uncompressed | 24bit | 16bit..etc..)


PS: moving this to the 2d section

 

[Chernuk]

Thanks Drax. I was saving my tga as 32bits compressed files. For some reason I was thinking the UnrealEd converted to DDS format went I imported textures.

Now I've picked up the DDS plugin for Gimp and working on them directly. If anyone else wants it, I got my copy from:
http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/ - just extract the files into your gimp plugin folder.

With DDS format, the compression is great. I went from 2.4 MB to 640KB. My texture package is now have a much more reasonable size.

Plus, I haven't see any errant white pixels.

How much work do the MIPmaps usually require? So far I haven't touched them and nothing looks wrong on my maps or meshes. Am I just being lucky?

Hmm, I dont see anyway of handling them in Gimp, can you fill me in on that too please?

p.s. thanks for the move. But I don't how I feel about having lost a D. Its kinda flat.

 

[UncleDrax]

For most textures, you probably don't have to worry about creating your MIPS levels. (that's what the checkbox when you import it into the Editor is for ).. a good example of when you would want custom MIPs done would be something like chain-link.. up close.. fine.. but as it switches to the further away MIPs, in the process of loosing detail, the fence can become transparent.

Re: Missing the D.. I'm glad someone around here has a sense of humor

 

[Chernuk]

Gotcha ya.

I noticed that in Gimp I can opt to save mipmaps when I save a texture in DDS format. They show up as a seperate layer in the layer dialog window. So I see can opt to edit them in Gimp.

I wonder what happens if I generate mipmaps via gimp and then generate mipmaps again when I import into ROed...

 

[UncleDrax]

Off hand, I'd guess that UnrealEd would overwrite your GIMPed MIPs.

You can also use the Nvidia DDS tools to stitch MIPs together also.. just a FYI for those listening.

 

[Moz]

for some reason a my 8bit pcx 1 bit transparency no longers works at all anymore. before it worked perfectly but now not at all. no matter what I import the mask never shows up. :S

 

[UncleDrax]

Make sure it's setup to be a mask, (texture properties, Masked = ture) also I believe the transparent color is the one at index 0 in the color palette.

 

[Moz]

It is.. I did a test and imported a facade that did work last week... same problem

seems I've angered the unreal goblin/

Time to reinstall RO.. again..

Also UncleDrax, do you know why the grass deco mesh in arad has the pivot point offset like that? it caused some of my grass to hover so I had to repivot it. (well I had to reconvert the mesh anyway to change the skin)

Also

RandomYaw 1 + Aligntoterrain 1 = BIG MESS.

Aligntoterrain already yaws based on angle, there is no need to use randonyaw too because it causes alot of headache.