Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: mason22 on July 03, 2002, 01:24:18 PM

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 03, 2002, 01:24:18 PM

can't get it working...

anyone else? if so, please describe each step in getting it to work.

Also, i'm a photochop user and i have a hell of a time trying to get the index colors to be correct. I can get the RGB values fine, it's just getting the index colors to be assigned the right position in the color table...

Nate, Super, Ht, any tips here would be heplful! ;)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 04, 2002, 12:16:12 PM

punt.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: jconradh on July 04, 2002, 01:26:12 PM

>>PUNT<<

AND not to seem super dumb, but what advantage is there to using the additional alpha channels?  How do we use them?
I honestly would like to know as I am clueless.  It appears they have to add something to the sights so I need someone to explain it SLOWLY to me, LOL

:D

Jeff

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Saintaw on July 05, 2002, 01:09:14 AM

punt!

I'd like to know too.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Innominate on July 05, 2002, 02:20:53 AM

Quote

Originally posted by jconradh
>>PUNT<<

AND not to seem super dumb, but what advantage is there to using the additional alpha channels?  How do we use them?
I honestly would like to know as I am clueless.  It appears they have to add something to the sights so I need someone to explain it SLOWLY to me, LOL

:D

Jeff

Alpha channel allows for partial transparency.  It's like the alpha slider in the gunsight setup, except every pixel gets it's own alpha value.

Title: Re: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 05, 2002, 07:17:11 PM

Quote

Originally posted by mason22
can't get it working...

anyone else? if so, please describe each step in getting it to work.

Also, i'm a photochop user and i have a hell of a time trying to get the index colors to be correct. I can get the RGB values fine, it's just getting the index colors to be assigned the right position in the color table...

Nate, Super, Ht, any tips here would be heplful! ;)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: jconradh on July 06, 2002, 12:19:55 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Innominate


Alpha channel allows for partial transparency.  It's like the alpha slider in the gunsight setup, except every pixel gets it's own alpha value.

OK , but how can this be used to an advantage?  So you can have more bold or darker sections of a sight?

Thanks again!

8^)

Jeff

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Starbird on July 06, 2002, 12:34:35 AM

I tried making an alpha for the default sight.

I tried both black and white backgrounds, and both times it just made a dark looking sight.

I'm wondering now if the original sight needs to be changed. Not sure exactly. Going to experiment more this weekend.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 06, 2002, 06:23:42 AM

Quote

Gunsights now accept a 64x64 256 gray scale file to control alpha. This file must be in the sights folder and named sightname_a.bmp with sightname being the name of the gunsight the alpha file is for.

Did someone try it?

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Innominate on July 06, 2002, 06:40:28 AM

Doesnt seem to work at all.

What the alpha allows for is more realistic looking sights, where the brightest parts are completely opaque, but have a halo you can see through.  This can't be done without an alpha file.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 06, 2002, 06:55:41 AM

Hmm.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: jconradh on July 07, 2002, 12:51:13 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Innominate
Doesnt seem to work at all.

What the alpha allows for is more realistic looking sights, where the brightest parts are completely opaque, but have a halo you can see through.  This can't be done without an alpha file.

So if it was working how would you add an alpha channel?
I own Photoshop...
Should I just go into my big PS book?

Thanks...

Jeff

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: moot on July 07, 2002, 06:56:09 AM

The official AH help manuals do help.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: hitech on July 07, 2002, 08:36:22 AM

Sorry about that, messed up the docs, the alpha chanel should be named  name_alpha.bmp instead of name_a.bmp .

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 07, 2002, 09:39:23 AM

Great info! Thanks HT. :)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 07, 2002, 09:48:47 AM

HT, it works now...thanks again. ;)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 07, 2002, 10:13:50 AM

How can I get an illuminated gunsight...mason? :)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 07, 2002, 06:36:25 PM

you need a sight like this:

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 07, 2002, 06:37:20 PM

...and an alpha channel like this:

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: jconradh on July 07, 2002, 10:52:31 PM

Thanks!  Makes more sense now...

Jeff

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Sancho on July 08, 2002, 06:27:48 AM

HT, why not use a graphic format with alpha channel like tga or png?

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: jconradh on July 08, 2002, 07:07:13 AM

Wouldn't tga be difficult to edit with windows paint?  I surmise he tried to make it the easiest format for everone to modify.

Jeff

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Innominate on July 08, 2002, 08:20:50 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Sancho
HT, why not use a graphic format with alpha channel like tga or png?

Bitmaps are a hell of a lot easier to deal with than more complex formats.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 11, 2002, 07:10:48 AM

Illuminated Gunsight is still dark at night. :(

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Tumor on July 11, 2002, 03:41:37 PM

Could someone please explain the point of these gunsights?  I'm using mason's... it does look a little differen't but I don't see the point of it, other than eye candy.

Tumor

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 12, 2002, 11:11:46 AM

kurakura sent me an illuminated gunsight... :)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 12, 2002, 11:19:01 AM

It's time to fly Soviet planes... :)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 12, 2002, 02:35:08 PM

ewww, i like those Mitsu!

can you post them?  purty please!  :D

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 12, 2002, 02:55:56 PM

he said these gunsights are beta...but it's already great. :)

you can get them here:
http://www.age.jp/%7Etsb/sights/test.zip (his webspace)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 12, 2002, 04:51:52 PM

tell him those are great!

they have a very realistic glow to them....i learned something from looking at them.

thank you!

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Wotan on July 12, 2002, 05:53:54 PM

wow look great i know what i gotta do know :)

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: JB73 on July 12, 2002, 05:57:02 PM

GREAT sights mitsu and mason22...
im working on a few of my own and will post them on the images BB real soon i hope:D

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: CavemanJ on July 12, 2002, 08:41:15 PM

so, what, in the alpha.bmp files the darker the area the more see through it is, the lighter the area the less see through it is?

Looked all through the help file but didna see anything about how to make these things.

I like my current sight, but I'd love to give it that orange illuminated look

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 12, 2002, 09:18:15 PM

cavemanj,

for the _alpha.bmp black is opaque, white is transparent. anything in between will be a shade of what ever color is on the .bmp of your sight.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: CavemanJ on July 12, 2002, 11:34:01 PM

ahhh I got it backwards then!

the areas I want to be more visable are black on the _alpha then?

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: mason22 on July 13, 2002, 01:18:07 AM

if you mean more visible as in you can see through, then yes black.

but if you mean you want more of the illuminated gunsight to show, then the area of the gunsight lines needs to be white. this will allow the color and glow of the gunsight lines to show through.

here's an alpha you can play with to understand it:

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Wotan on July 13, 2002, 01:32:41 AM

just down ther ones mitsus linked  and take a look at umm

Thats how ya get that illuminated look.

my mistake has been just blurring the alpha then going back and adding a solid white out line. looks somewhat illuminated but to see these I know what I gotta do.........

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Furious on July 13, 2002, 01:58:25 AM

Mitsu,

Could you ask kurakura to post a step-by-step tutorial please?


thanks


F.

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Edbert on July 14, 2002, 04:06:40 PM

GREAT WORK GUYS!

I love the effect you have created but would like to try my hand at a less busy sight. I want to second the request for some instructions....TIA!

Title: Gunsight Alpha Channel
Post by: Mitsu on July 17, 2002, 03:01:31 AM

Furious,

sorry I don't know...

At least he said he will complement nabe's gunsights.