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Adding alpha to TGA for resample...

Gridley

Gridley

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us-massachusetts
Not sure what forum to put this in...

I'm trying to make a traditional photoscenery using resample. If I save my image as a bmp, pass my inf to resample, everything works great except I get no land/water effects. This is, according to the SDK, because I need to use 32-bit TGA format with an alpha channel to get reflective water. However, if I add an alpha channel to my bmp, and save it as 32-bit TGA, resample refuses to load the image. I'm certain I'm adding the alpha channel incorrectly - I've tried Photoshop CS and GIMP. While PS is my preference because selecting the land to paint white is simple with the magnetic lasso tool, GIMP seems to handle the alpha differently (as a transparency channel).

Any tips on how to get this to work?

Thanks!
sg
 
Problem solved, new problem created.

I was using some older version of resample. Must have renamed it to use with VTP/LWM scenery. Nice to know - you must use the FS2004 SDK version of resample.exe to work with 32-bit tga.

Now, I'll give a little more background and describe the current issue.

First, I'm trying to make a photoreal scenery of bermuda. I've got a decent 4.2m/pixel image of the whole reef. What I really want is photoreal water...

So after having played with VTP photo, I gave up because I couldn't get reflections/waves on the water, plus the issues with seams made it less attractive.

I switch to using resample. Now in the SDK docs, it simply states that "if you want to add reflections/waves to your textures" you must use 32-bit tga format, with 0 = water 255 = land. So thats what I did.

Here's the result:
Helpme.jpg


What you can see is that where ever the LOD13 had both white and black in the alpha channel, I get photo textured land, and water class textures (not photo real - alpha transparency). The water class textures have reflections/waves. Where ever the alpha was just one value (regardless if it's land or water), I get photo textures but no reflections/waves on the water.

As I said on my avsim cross-post: "Am I barking up a dead horse?" :stirthepo

I'm pretty sure I've seen photo real water with reflections (FranceVFR maybe?). What's the trick?

Thanks again!
 
Hi,

If I remember correct there was a problem with textures that have an alpha channel that is only transparant (so no land on it). I can't remember the solution exactly, but maybe you could try to remove those texture files?
 
The photo textured water is what I'm after, mostly. I can get the land to photo texture, and use water class that has reflections, but I really want to show the beautiful water and reef structures, preferably with reflections/waves too...

THANKS!
 
Humm, now you are confusing me. Do you want to the water from your photos to show or not? I got the impression that you wanted the FS water to show, as that has the reflections etc.
 
I want the water to be photo textured AND show reflections/waves. I don't want to see FS's water class...

Impossible?
 
I have never seen that before, I don't think those two can be mixed. The reflections and the waves are a property of the waterclass/LWM water and I have never heard of a way to add them to a photo as well.

The closest thing you might be able to come is to make a semi-transparant photo with the waterclass below.
 
Thanks Arno.

I thought to try VTP photo, and use a layer 0-3, but still no luck. I wonder what is sacred about the water class textures that allows them to show reflections?

Guess I'm stuck with either photo water or reflecting water...
 
Using straight forward, old fashioned photoscenery with resample and a bmp, it looks pretty good, but you can see why I want to have photo-real water around there:
TXKFPhotoreal.jpg


Thanks again for the help!
 
That looks very nice indeed :). But can you also land on it now or is that not possible?
 
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