Working with transparent images

Hey all,

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity). It doesn’t seem to be capable of exporting TGA images with transparency information either. What am I doing wrong? Is there a plugin available to add this very basic functionality to PhotoShop? Gif or PNG is not an option here.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 19:56:00 +1300, "Nicholas Sherlock" reverently intoned upon the aether:

Hey all,

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity). It doesn’t seem to be capable of exporting TGA images with transparency information either. What am I doing wrong? Is there a plugin available to add this very basic functionality to PhotoShop? Gif or PNG is not an option here.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

You should be able to write TIFFs with alpha channels so you might explore that option.

Sean wrote:

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 19:56:00 +1300, "Nicholas Sherlock" reverently intoned upon the aether:

Hey all,

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity). It doesn’t seem to be capable of exporting TGA images with transparency information either. What am I doing wrong? Is there a plugin available to add this very basic functionality to PhotoShop? Gif or PNG is not an option here.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

You should be able to write TIFFs with alpha channels so you might explore that option.

Thanks, but I can only really import BMPs and TGAs into my application. PNGs are too messy for me as they require an extra conversion before the engine can use them and I have no facility for TIFF import.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

Hey all,

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity). It doesn’t seem to be capable of exporting TGA images with transparency information either. What am I doing wrong? Is there a plugin available to add this very basic functionality to PhotoShop? Gif or PNG is not an option here.

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity).

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity).

Here is what you do:

Create your image as RGB.

Load the transparency as a selection.

Save the transparency as an alpha channel.

Save in TGA format.

Hey all,

I’m trying to make semi-transparent images for use inside a game that I’m making. I can’t seem to get photoshop to export a 32bit bitmap with transparency information in one of the channels (Ie. 256 shades of opacity). It doesn’t seem to be capable of exporting TGA images with transparency information either. What am I doing wrong? Is there a plugin available to add this very basic functionality to PhotoShop? Gif or PNG is not an option here.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock