editing window_a.bmp

[attaway]

Hello, esteemed painters!

I love my new Golden Age Simulations Travelair 6000, but on my machine the windows in the vc have a pattern of little semi-transparent dots. I tried editing directly in photoshop, saving window_a.bmp as an 8 bit indexed image, and indirectly, using dxtbmp.

What I got was either opaque or very weird dark windows. Horrors!

All I want to do is apply a gaussean blur. Surely that is do-able. What am I overlooking?

Stephen

[windrunner]

Hey Stephen, what alpha channel did you used when processing the bmp via dxtbmp? try with a white one ( I advice you to save DXT3 with a white alpha, and not DXT1 like the default one).

As you can see, the bmp is mostly black. And the mdl "read" it as transparency. I'll take a look by myself, but some videocards are nasty with this sort of files. If that doesn't work, let's ask Paul he will give us the right answer in a minute.

[scubakobe]

Windrunner is correct.

It should be a completely white alpha channel since the mdl is told to make black pixels transparent.

Your new window may also be sort of pixeled, try saving it as DXT3 and see if you can preserve the resolution.
Doing that to the current window won't change anything though.

[attaway]

Hi Windrunner and Scubakobbe:

I found a white alpha channel saved in dxt3 resulted in opaque black windows. Setting the alpha to black resulted in completely transparent windows.

Makes sense, black=transparent.

I tried pasting the window bmp itself into the alpha channel but the results were very rough - pretty nasty banding.

Hmmn. At least I'm making a little progress. More advice would be appreciated, though.

[windrunner]

Ok, can you post a screenie so I can see what's there straight? this is making me curious....gonna check it myself!

[scubakobe]

Yah, if you could post the window bitmap you are using it would be nice too.

Does the frosted edges on the window texture you made appear white and then the rest is black? You should make the frosted appearance on top of a full black layer.

Then make the alpha white and it should work.

[attaway]

Hi Windrunner and Scubakobbe:

Ok, here are some screenies:

First, the standard, dotty window_a.bmp:


Now my bandy version, which is no improvement at all:


I made by bandy version as a dxt3 using the standard window_a bmp as an alpha layer - meaning the alpha layer was mostly dark.

A white alpha layer consistantly gives me opaque flat black chalkboard-style windows. So does any change to the standard 'dotty' window_a.bmp.

And here is a link to my bandy bmp: www.california.com/~attaway/files/TA6Kwindow_a.bmp.

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you guys. Been pretty busy with the new year up to now.

Stephen

[spad54]

This not an editable texture, but one that is applied in the compiling process and simulates "dirt" and "grime" on a working aircraft's windows. In order to eliminate this we'd have to recompile that model and release a modified .mdl eliminating the texture all together. This may happen in the future if there is a great enough call for it, but not planned for now.

[wozza]

Hi Spad
the texture window_a.bmp can be converted all you need to do if you dont like the grime effect is open the bmp in Dxtbmp and first paint the gray and black texture a solid black (it can be any color you like)
then fill the alpha channel a slightly off black try rgb 20 20 20
now save it as a dxt3 bmp (this is the important step)
and your done

If you paint the alpha channel pure black 0,0,0 then you wont see any glass at all ,so you can tweak how transparent the glass is by the alpha channel when saved in dxt3 format
Cheers
Wozza

[scubakobe]

Hey stephen,

Why is your bitmap all black?

That oculd be the problem.

Unless that is the alpha channel.

[spad54]

Nice and it works! Thanks Wozza!

The more I learn, the less I know!

Best to all

Paul

[attaway]

Another thank you to Wozza.

rgb 20 20 20 for the alpha channel does make a very nice window.

And thanks again for the beautiful aircraft, Spad54. She is a very nice addition to my Golden Wings hanger.

And thanks to all of you who participated in this very informative thread. Now I can do windows!

Stephen

[windrunner]

Glad to know you made it! it's been a good team effort!