Masked Textures

[Xavious]

How does one make masked textures using photoshop?

I know about the bit-depth and size and all, but how do you define the areas of the texture that you want to go invisible?

[DieHard SCWS]

There is a plain and simple answer for that

Make sure all the parts in your texture that needs to be masked completelly black.

Check if either one of these values:

RGB:
R = 0
G = 0
B = 0

CMYK:
C = 0 %
M = 0 %
Y = 0 %
K = 100 %

Webcolor:
# 000000

In general people use the RGB value, but all do the job, they are all black.

In the editor, if you now hit masked during import than the texture will automatically asume all black parts are masked from that point.



But also textures that are not masked in a package, you still can make those masked in the editor by rightclick on the texture, choose Properties, choose Surface and than make bMasked true.


In reallity it does not matter if its black being used, it can be any color, the editor just recognises the last color in the 255 color palet. And since black always picks that spot its that color that will be used.


So if you want to use another color, because your texture is black from itself like a Ninja skin than you should change the palet so the last color is red, or blue or whatever other color, just not black or you will have an invisible skin
.
.
.

[Xavious]

Good good, cheers muchily.

Hmm, tried it out. Can't get it to work...My texture is 128X128 and in .pcx format (it imports fine and all), and a large area of the texture is black using the RGB value. But when i import it and check the 'Masked' box, it doesn't seem to mask at all.

Here is the pic:

http://www.tcpclan.degroenepulk.nl/phpforum/download.php?id=280

(you may need to copy and paste that link into your browser, or perhaps even get it from the topic at the TCP forum (spam section))

[StalwartUK]

Thanks, that cleared up a few questions that I had about masked textures.

[DieHard SCWS]

Yes it won't work for me either


But there you go, this is why i choose backthan for BMP, unless someone finds the correct PCX index coloring settings. Because there seems to be a difference in how the files are being handeled (in Unreal ?).


Lol here we go for the third time this week



Ok try these settings:


[img]http://www.celticwarriors.net/Media/Pictures/IndexColoredOptions.jpg[/img]

And save it as BMP with these settings:


[img]http://www.celticwarriors.net/Media/Pictures/BMPSaveOptions.jpg[/img]


And to correct myself on previous posts, the index coloring settings as stated above DO NOT work with PCX !!! only on BMP !!!


The file you uploaded was already in the wrong index coloring seems.


What you need to do is this, open the file in Photoshop, convert it to RGB(so its more or less being reset), than to index colored as stated above and than save it as BMP file as stated above.

Import it in the editor and see if it works now, let us know if it did
.
.
.

[Xavious]

Cheers muchinessocity, ill try it presently.

Edit/

It worked like several bags filled with charms.

[DieHard SCWS]

.
.
.

[Xavious]

Just one thing though:

Call me a photoshop noob, but could you please clarify what you meant by 'change the palet so the last color is red, or blue or whatever other color, just not black.'

Where is the palette? How do i change it? I put a pale green for the masked areas now, so i'll need to add that on the end of the palette...

[DieHard SCWS]

Go to: Image --> Mode --> Color Table and choose Custum.

There i was wrong again :-/, its not the last but the first color.

So double click on the first color and change that color, you will now see all black colors are changed into the color you picked.


And that includes the black parts in the eyes, which is probably the reason you wanted another color instead of black.




But there is another thing called color bleeding, if you pick a complete different color as Sonic is, than ingame you will notice that the outside from Sonic will have a tiny outline with that color (that is called color bleeding). Its the transition between the masked color and the actual picture.




Sonic already has a small (blue # 171A5C) line surrounding it, and you should pick a color that is slighty different from that line that already surrounds it, if i were you try # 171A5F


Than off course you have to make the eyes black again, and any other part that previously were black and still are supposed to be black.




In effect always choose a color that matches the outside as close as possible, in this case it should be a dark blue color like # 171A5F




This is the reason why we want to be able to use Alpha channels in the S3TC textures, alpha channels will never give color bleeding.


I hope this will help you.
.
.
.

[Xavious]

Hmm...

I go into the color table, change the first color to the dark blue color as you suggested, then i go back to my picture, and change bits such as the eyes back to black.

Then then when i look in the color table again, the first color has gone black again...


Nvm, i got it working. Cheers for all your help.

[Buster]

OR make the "eyes" black+1 ...

[DieHard SCWS]

You could indeed, but you still should re-color the the masked color to prevent noticable colorbleeding as much as possible.


Since Sonic is mostly blue on the edges, its a smart thing to choose a similar blue color as masked area.
.
.
.