Icon alpha problems-So far effecting two of my mods with no indication as to why

lordrj15

Manx Modder
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Oct 14, 2014
Messages
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Lancaster University
Dear civilization modding community,

I am a fairly new modder, but one that hopes to bring relatively good quality mods with the help of some very talented and more professional modders, but twice now we've come across an issue involving Icon Alpha which affects some of my mods, but not others, and we can't find the problem in XML, we've used code from mods that experience no Alpha icon problems. We've had multiple people gaze at this code and we cannot find any issues.

The two mods in question are:

Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate

And my upcoming Olmec mod

(Though they show different scenes, they suffer from the exact same problems)

Has anyone seen this issue before, and if so, could they tell me how they fixed it?

Thanks, ryanjames
 
Have you checked your icon alpha dds files?

Can't think of much more without anything else available. The alpha icons are separate from your normal Civ icons, and need to be made a certain way.
 
Have you checked your icon alpha dds files?

Can't think of much more without anything else available. The alpha icons are separate from your normal Civ icons, and need to be made a certain way.

Yes, we have, VHS is all true, and I've used the same method with other mods and it's worked fine. When you say certain way though, is there anything in particular I might of missed? I know it is a white version of my icon on a square transparent image of 256x, 128x etc.
 
Yeah, it should be white on top of transparent or black. Have you saved it with the right compression settings? Do you have all the sizes? The alpha icon goes down to as small as 16px.
 
Yeah, it should be white on top of transparent or black. Have you saved it with the right compression settings? Do you have all the sizes? The alpha icon goes down to as small as 16px.

I have all the sizes, though I didn't check any compression settings, could you explain what they are and what settings it should be at?
 
I would actually have no idea what the proper compression settings are, to be honest. I have all of my artwork saved as uncompressed. Sorry.

Perhaps try re-exporting the files? I'm honestly just guessing here without any files or logs.
Make sure the files have alpha layers?
 
I would actually have no idea what the proper compression settings are, to be honest. I have all of my artwork saved as uncompressed. Sorry.

Perhaps try re-exporting the files? I'm honestly just guessing here without any files or logs.
Make sure the files have alpha layers?

Alpha layers?
 
Similar to the regular Civ icons, the alpha layers are what you need to have parts of the icon "show up" in the game's UI.

Oh, well, I don't use those, so I guess it must have been chance that some of my mods seem to work XD

Could you send me a link to one of these layers? Thanks
 
Er, it's not something you download for it; you add the layers within your image manipulation / creation program (GIMP or Photoshop, or what have you) during the process of creating your icons.
You might be able to simply load up your icons and add an alpha layer from there. The directions differ depending on which program you use, though.

If your other icons don't have any parts "sticking out" and you used the templates, those template files already have the alpha layer embedded, matching up with the circles, and could explain why they worked without you having to do anything extra.
 
Er, it's not something you download for it; you add the layers within your image manipulation / creation program (GIMP or Photoshop, or what have you) during the process of creating your icons.
You might be able to simply load up your icons and add an alpha layer from there. The directions differ depending on which program you use, though.

If your other icons don't have any parts "sticking out" and you used the templates, those template files already have the alpha layer embedded, matching up with the circles, and could explain why they worked without you having to do anything extra.

Here's the process, create a 256x256 transparent square, get the outline for my icon and fill it with white, then paste it onto my transparent, re-adjust the icon size, then merge/anchor my layer (so that there is only 1 layer) and export as a .dds file.

Then just resize it for the other alpha
 
I still don't know what program you use, but it sounds like you skipped creation of an alpha layer there. The alpha layer shows up / is grouped with the RGB layers for your image -- separate from the actual image layers you normally use.
 
I still don't know what program you use, but it sounds like you skipped creation of an alpha layer there. The alpha layer shows up / is grouped with the RGB layers for your image -- separate from the actual image layers you normally use.

I am using Gimp 2.
 
Hmm. Strange. GIMP should automatically create an alpha layer when the image has more than one, but maybe not true when you merge them?

Try loading up your image and going to Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel.
 
Hmm. Strange. GIMP should automatically create an alpha layer when the image has more than one, but maybe not true when you merge them?

Try loading up your image and going to Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel.

Knowing my incompetence with Gimp, it's more than likely I disabled something, or switched something off, or plainly anchored it wrong or something.

Thanks for the help, I will hopefully have time to create and test new alpha icons tomorrow, or maybe tonight.
 
Hmm. Strange. GIMP should automatically create an alpha layer when the image has more than one, but maybe not true when you merge them?

Try loading up your image and going to Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel.

Nope, it's still refusing to show up, and it was putting the alpha thing in.

But seriously, this is driving me up the wall!

Do you think you could take a look at the mod itself?

Here is a link

thanks
 
Well, I'm sorry to say, but I'm not quite sure what is wrong with them. I don't see any obvious errors with the way you have everything set up.

I do see these in the Database.log:
Code:
[324674.834] Invalid Reference on Building_YieldChanges.YieldType - "YIELD_TOURISM" does not exist in Yields
[324674.959] Invalid Reference on Civilization_Religions.ReligionType - "RELIGION_CATHOLICISM" does not exist in Religions
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_vD" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
But none of these should affect your alpha icon.

Still, the first error is because Tourism is not a Yield -- check LeeS' XML building guide for how to properly incorporate tourism into a building. (Look at the Eiffel Tower as a reference.)

The second one comes up because in BNW it's been split into RELIGION_CHRISTIANITY and PROTESTANTISM, etc.

The others look like copy/paste errors (although why you'd need to copy and paste a 2-letter name is questionable.)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out why the alpha icons weren't working. They look like they're imported into VFS, defined in the icon atlases, and looks like they should be referenced properly. The files themselves look like they are uncompressed RGBA8 with an attached alpha layer and no mipmaps. Maybe try with DXT3 or DXT5 compression? Perhaps someone else could take a look and see.

Sorry.
 
Well, I'm sorry to say, but I'm not quite sure what is wrong with them. I don't see any obvious errors with the way you have everything set up.

I do see these in the Database.log:
Code:
[324674.834] Invalid Reference on Building_YieldChanges.YieldType - "YIELD_TOURISM" does not exist in Yields
[324674.959] Invalid Reference on Civilization_Religions.ReligionType - "RELIGION_CATHOLICISM" does not exist in Religions
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_vD" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MajorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_MinorCivApproachBiases.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
[324675.364] Invalid Reference on Leader_Flavors.LeaderType - "LEADER_v" does not exist in Leaders
But none of these should affect your alpha icon.

Still, the first error is because Tourism is not a Yield -- check LeeS' XML building guide for how to properly incorporate tourism into a building. (Look at the Eiffel Tower as a reference.)

The second one comes up because in BNW it's been split into RELIGION_CHRISTIANITY and PROTESTANTISM, etc.

The others look like copy/paste errors (although why you'd need to copy and paste a 2-letter name is questionable.)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out why the alpha icons weren't working. They look like they're imported into VFS, defined in the icon atlases, and looks like they should be referenced properly. The files themselves look like they are uncompressed RGBA8 with an attached alpha layer and no mipmaps. Maybe try with DXT3 or DXT5 compression? Perhaps someone else could take a look and see.

Sorry.


Thanks for your time, yeah, I've got the tourism yield sorted, I must've left the line of code "yield tourism" that I had before. And I think one of my keys was sticking the day I was doing the leader, sometimes it was putting "v" because ctrl wasn't working properly XD

More fool me for my laziness.

Yeah, I guess I'll have to ask someone else, though this is simply bizaare, and I can't seem to find anyone who's ever come across this before . . .
 
Bump, there has to be someone who experienced this problem, and fixed it . . .
 
I couldn't see anything either. I didn't have a chance to load it in game. Does the error affect others or just you? You could try clearing the cache, it could be a glitch.
 
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