Help Please :D

I am trying to renumber Train artisan's Santa Fe Warbonnet and I am using Photoshop 7. How can I keep they alpha channel. When I open it up, edit it, & save it & open it w/ TGA tool I see no alpha channel...Chris
Love MSTS
NALW Rocks GO Big Boy!!!!
TA, Please Do 611 & 1218
Wanting the GS4, 1522, ETC.

SUPER CHIEF: *Raton Pass*

Big Boy YEAH GO 4005!! Lovin it

611, J all the WAY!!

A Y6

BB is from www.geocities.com/skytop45/
N&W 611, Y6, cars, hoppers, boxes & Cabooses are from Ron's Train Gifs
www.trainweb.org/railmation/traingif.html

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RE: HELP PLEASE :D, GMOF3A, Aug-07-02, 02:42 PM, (1) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, Engineer_Kyle, Aug-07-02, 03:11 PM, (2) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, Cell0518, Aug-09-02, 03:34 PM, (3) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, robertreedy, Aug-14-02, 10:06 PM, (5) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, MartinW, Aug-21-02, 07:02 PM, (9) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, rdamurphy, Aug-14-02, 09:53 PM, (4) Photoshop Plugin, dispatcher618, Aug-18-02, 12:00 PM, (6) RE: Photoshop Plugin, rdamurphy, Aug-21-02, 01:26 AM, (7) RE: HELP PLEASE :D, Cell0518, Aug-21-02, 05:42 PM, (8)

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-02 AT 02:46 PM (EDT)

Hi.
Re- save the file with the alpha channel to the loco your reskinning in TRAINSET.
If all else fails...save the bitmap from PS7 to desktop. Open the bitmap with MS paint if you wish or whatever paint program...and "Select all" then "copy" (As long as the format is the same as what your TGATOOL is editing with). Open your loco file in TGTOOL2 and paste it in the bitmap file your skinning and save to the corelating .ace file selecting "Ace Alpha"..you'll have your alpha channel then.
Hope that helps.

Paul...
www.mstsgmo.com

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Hi, funny you should ask this question, because I am currently working on a tutorial for this exact thing. (Hope to have it done soon!) What you need to do is the following:
1. Open TGATool2 and locate the .ace file you wish to work on.
2. Make sure you have TGATool2 set up with Photoshop as your editor of choice if you don't already. (You can do this by selecting the "Prefs" button and then the option to select your editor.)
3. Once you have your .ace file loaded in TGATool2, in the menu bar, find the option to export .ace to image editing program. This should open up Photoshop and you will see your image there.
4. Go back to TGATools2. In the same location you found the option to send image to main editor, a couple of options below it is an option to send alpha channel to main editor. (This will only work if the .ace file has an alpha channel to begin with. You will see it in the top right window in TGATool2 if it is present.)This will open up a second session in Photoshop with only the alpha channel.
5. With the alpha channel drawing in Photoshop selected as your active window, go to the "Select" menu and choose "All". This will highlight your whole drawing. Go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Copy".
6. Select the other drawing window to make it active. (the one with the original .ace drawing) Go down to the bottom right tool set where you should see three tabs: "Layers, Channels, and Paths". Click on the "Channels" tab. You should now see the RGB colors instead of layers. Click the "Add Layer" button down below just as you would to add a new layer to a drawing. This will create an alpha channel.
7. Click on the "Alpha1" layer to make it active. Don't worry if you can't see your drawing anymore, it is still there. Go back up to the "Edit" menu and select "Paste". This will paste the alpha channel in the correct place because the two drawings are the same size.You can now go ahead and edit your drawing as you please. Once you have saved it as a .tga file you can then import it back into TGATool2 and it will automatically load your alpha channel with it.
Hope this helps you out. Sorry if it is too lengthy and if you already knew most of this stuff. If you need any further help, go ahead and post a reply or you could send me a private message.
Happy Skinning!!!!!

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Thanks Kyle... answers the question
ChrisChris
Love MSTS
NALW Rocks GO Big Boy!!!!
TA, Please Do 611 & 1218
Wanting the GS4, 1522, ETC.

SUPER CHIEF: *Raton Pass*

Big Boy YEAH GO 4005!! Lovin it

611, J all the WAY!!

A Y6

BB is from www.geocities.com/skytop45/
N&W 611, Y6, cars, hoppers, boxes & Cabooses are from Ron's Train Gifs
www.trainweb.org/railmation/traingif.html

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-14-02 AT 10:09 PM (EDT)

I'm totally green on this, so flame or help whichever you or anyone else chooses. I was trying to make an autumn tree out of a regular tree last night and everything went beautifully except for 2 things that maybe you can help me with:It had an alpha channel, but I simply exported the main texture into my program, then imported it back into TGATools2. Checked compression, have the new make.ace(?) I think, and saved it to ACE. Came out beautifully in the window.1. Problem one - it was over 1mg in size.2. When I went back to run trains through the area, it shimmered so bad until you were very very close, that it almost gave me a headache.Do any of these symptoms sound 'normal'?

RobertR .. ADF-M&RM at http://www.adfrr.com

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Most of the default tree textures are in DXT1 format. This might be to stop the shimmering.To export DXT format ace you will need the Makeace from the MS Patch and set Tgatool2 accordingly. Set it to "Patch#1 Makeace" and tick the "Use DXT compression" box.DXT1 is a DirectX format that is directly supported in Hardware with most graphics cards. This gives it much better performance in many situations. The drawback is that it only allows 1-bit alpha.

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Much better solution: Go to the Adobe website, go to support, and then go to FAQ, the Second one has an item about how Photoshop7 no longer saves alpha channels like 6 and before did, and points you to a download of a small plug-in to restore this functionality. Much better solution...Rob

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It sounds like what we really need is a Photoshop Plugin to read and write ACE files... but I imagine that would get legally sticky with Mr. Gates.- dispatcher618
(teaches Photoshop to college kids)

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Actually, it's a great idea, it wouldn't be a legal problem, since the scripting engine is licensed to Adobe from MS, and saving or opening a particular file format can't be copyrighted anyway. (.zip files for example). Rob

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THANX for the info Chris
Love MSTS
NALW Rocks GO Big Boy!!!!
TA, Please Do 611 & 1218
Wanting the GS4, 1522, ETC.

SUPER CHIEF: *Raton Pass*

Big Boy YEAH GO 4005!! Lovin it

611, J all the WAY!!

A Y6

BB is from www.geocities.com/skytop45/
N&W 611, Y6, cars, hoppers, boxes & Cabooses are from Ron's Train Gifs
www.trainweb.org/railmation/traingif.html

Alert | IP

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