Tools For Modders

[Commando]

If you intend to make models or skins for TA5, it is recommended that you use GSH's DXTGen utility that is posted on his site.  I'll post a direct link to it shortly.

http://www.visi.com/~nathan/bz2/BZ2DXTGen_v22.7z

[bigbadbogie]

It converts textures (.tga .pic .bmp formats) to .dxtbz2 format.

This format is very useful. It shrinks the file sizes of those textures substantially. It is also the format that BZ2 will search for first when looking for textures.

[Commando]

I believe bz2 performs better when those textures are used too vs. the old texture format.

[Nielk1]

They are pre-mipped so that the graphics card doesn't have to do it for you.

[TheJamsh]

unless of course you're card doesn't support this format.

Ive always found whenever i use .dxtbz2 formats any black areas on my textures go totally transparent. It was easily visible in RD's Uler 1.3. really annoying.

[mrtwosheds]

Yes it's a damn useful feature of .dxtbz2. Color value 0 0 0 is transparent, 1 1 1 is not and it still looks black.
In photoshop a tiny little tweak of the levels ensures that there are no transparent areas where they should not be.

[Steeveeo]

I tried leveling out my textures when I was toying with them, I made SURE that there was not a single 0,0,0 colored pixel on the image, yet I had transparent spots all over the thing...

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

GIMP, is a good choice for making unit_icons and wire_frame pics. Truespace 7.6, also rocks for generating 32x32 and 128x128 model renders for use with GIMP. I know these tools seem irrelevent, but the topic does mention tools for modders. Truespace also rocks at storing/managing/viewing 3d model libraries; I have creatd several dozen categories like combat units, buildings, and props.   

[mrtwosheds]

I tried leveling out my textures when I was toying with them, I made SURE that there was not a single 0,0,0 colored pixel on the image, yet I had transparent spots all over the thing...

Maybe this has something to do with GIMP, photoshop does not cause this to happen.

[Red Devil]

Tried Paint.Net?

[TheJamsh]

Paint.NET is a very good program, and there are litterally hundreds of plug-ins for it. IIRC, It has a similar interface to Photoshop 7, but much more user-friendly.

A little pointer... Steeveeo uses PS CS4 i believe, so doubt its a problem with THAT.

[mrtwosheds]

Well I'm mystified, I just don't have this problem, indeed one map I made ages ago had transparent textures on it deliberately, now with dx9 they fail to be transparent and just come out black...Its not my video card because I have seen the transparent areas on maps made by people who do have this issue. So I guess it must be to do with the graphics programs or how they are used.

[TheJamsh]

GSH updated the DXTGenerator a few months ago, to STOP black areas being changed to fully transparent areas. I don't think it was intentional to begin with.

The man himself confirms it:
21:46   <GSH> Items from opaque black textures shouldn't have gone transparent. But, transparent source textures shouldn't have been changed

[GSH]

You need at least version 23 of dxtgen -- as linked by http://www.bzuniverse.com/forum/index.php/topic,6735.30.html to fix that problem. No stock textures that shipped with 1.3ta5 seemed to be affected by that bug; only a few bumpmap textures. (Those are in 1.3ta5's patch13.pak, but not used by ta5.) If you used dxtgen to upscale opaque textures, it seemed to trigger that bug more often.

But, as I said on irc, the changes made to dxtgen apply only to input textures that were 100% opaque (e.g. 24 bit, or 8-bit palletized w/ only 24 bits of palette data used per entry) to begin with. If the input texture had an alpha channel (32-bit), then it should have done the right thing from the beginning.

-- GSH

[mrtwosheds]

A tool for making volumetric textures, For fog, that is in BZ2.

http://www.mdxinfo.com/resources/volumetexturetool.php