tga files, track maps

Nick Deeley · Apr 20, 2009

I've been having a look at updating a couple of circuit maps as I felt they didnt represent the circuit quite right (not naming them), as I would like to share these in the near future to those that would like them, I'm having trouble with saving them.

I save them as .tga files, with 32bits/pixel, no compression (RLE). (using photoshop cs3).

But the game still loads up the old one, and that looks weird, kinda half faded type thing, even though its gone/deleted (well, moved elsewhere for backup). The new circuit layout has the same name. I've loaded up the saved .tga file into photoshop and thats fine.

Is there something else I need to edit?

Andrew Evans · Apr 20, 2009

you've definitely deleted both the old tgas? (they show in different places anyway)... and your tga is setup with all the detail on the alpha channel? and named exactly the same as the old ones?

if the answer is yes to all 3 then i'm lost

Nick Deeley · Apr 20, 2009

It was the alpha channel that was causing the pain..I've managed to do it for one, but I cant remember how i did it.

I keep going round in circles, in photoshop it keeps appearing as red when i copy the data over to the alpha channel, it doesnt line up with rgb channels, it appears with a grey background in game when theres no background in photoshop, tried inverting the colours on the alpha channel and everything else, its the right colours in photoshop but too grey or cant see it very well in game...:curse:

Andrew Evans · Apr 20, 2009

it'll appear as red when you've got the alpha channel and the rgb channels on at the same time....

how i've been doing it is this:

create a new image the same size as the tga and do all the work for the alpha channel there (i find working in the alpha channel in ps to be a pain in the ass)....

make sure you have a black background and all the detail is white...

once yer happy... copy and paste the image into the tga alpha channel...

go to layers, add a new layer to the image

go back to the alpha channel and switch on alpha and rgb...

go back to the layer and colour in the bits appropriately (the white parts being the bits that will show the colour in the finished tga)....

when happy, switch off the alpha (not sure if necessary) and save the tga with the default options...

profit???

edit: open any of tga, from any of the tracks i've converted, in ps and should be able to see what i'm talking about (if not clear)

Nick Deeley · Apr 21, 2009

Thanks, but its still not right.

Followed those steps, except for the working in the Alpha channel, and it appears as a light grey in game with a transparent background. Almost what I'm after, as I want it black with a transparant background.

Each time I go back to the layers, it switches to the RGB channels.

Why do they make it so difficult? Why cant they just make the track images as png's or something thats easy to work with?