Somehow I managed to goof up making a transparent texture

Garry's Mod mapping
#1

I followed this procedure and Hammer/Source won’t recognize the alpha layer in my textures:

[ul][li]Open the source image in Photoshop[/li][li]Create layer from background, select background with quick select, hide selection (background is now clear)[/li][li]Save as PNG[/li][li]Open in VTFEdit (VTFEdit recognizes the alpha layer)[/li][li]Make it into a .VTF[/li][li]Make a corresponding VMT, including the line “$translucent” “1”[/li][li]Put VMTs and VMFs in folder, add to cstrike/materials [/li][/ul]

Where am I screwing up? Do I have to paint the area I want clear black first? I have no idea.

Edit: Here is the image I want to turn into a texture. I have written permission from its creator to use it. I’ve spent an hour fighting with it and I’d appreciate it if someone could turn it into a vmf for me and show me where I went wrong. Thanks.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5042/bloodmxbytit0mod.th.png

#2

.png doesn’t save alpha maps
Use .tga instead.

#3

I did this, vtfedit will not recognize the alpha layer.

#4

did you save the .tga as a 32bit image?

#5

Yes. VTFedit shows the alpha layer as white and not a checkerboard.

#6

Alpha layer was all white? Or had a gray/white checkerboard under the white?

#7

Turns out Photoshop won’t let me save alpha with a Targa. What the fucking christ. :commissar:

Edit: Any time I create an alpha channel and try to crop it, it turns into a layer mask and doesn’t do what I want it to.

Edit 2: I only have maybe 60 minutes of experience with photoshop, most of it fighting with this.

#8

Just gotta be sure… did you create the alpha channel in the “Channels” tab and NOT the “Layers” tab?

#9

You can get a targa plugin

#10

I used to use photoshop, but then I realized that you have to do tons of complicated steps and I got paint.NET instead, and it’s very simple to do alpha and it’s free too. I think there’s a tutorial about under TF2 – Sprays on fpsbanana.com

#11

Yes. This was my mistake at first but after correcting it, it didn’t make a difference.

Turns out the first VTFs I made (the ones from PNG) are fine in-game. They just look broken in hammer.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6853/kingly1.gif