Any DDS/Alpha/Gimp experts out there ...

[whoward69]

... who could tidy these up for me?



(They're on a white background, which when I set the alpha channel to colour white gives the pin a greenish hue. Also need the "halo"around the pin head removing.)

TIA

W

 

[ww2commander]

Try these...its seems they were not transparent from what I can figure!

 

[whoward69]

Thanks.

Better (and certainly usable)



Think I was trying to be too clever with Gimp (white background pin jpegs placed on a white canvas in Gimp and then trying to set the alpha channel - should have created jpeg pins on a trans bg and placed them on a trans canvas!)

The "halos" can be tidied up at a later date (ie probably never )

 

[ww2commander]

Whilst on the topic of graphics...

Is there anyway to make the game use PNG icon atlases instead of DDS for building, units etc.

I noticed the image quality drops significantly which is bugging me.

 

[whoward69]

Is there anyway to make the game use PNG icon atlases instead of DDS for building, units etc

That's an easy one ... No

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

That's an easy one ... No

Really?

Why would they purposely disable it from using common formats? I can understand why games use those rare formats (to prevent easy access to the files), but...

EDIT: It's a lossy format, on top of that. Can you use uncompressed dds files then...?

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Really?

Why would they purposely disable it from using common formats? I can understand why games use those rare formats (to prevent easy access to the files), but...

.dds isn't a rare format (although certainly less common than .png. I imagine they didn't "purposely disable it", but rather that they would have to spend significant time setting up a way to read .pngs to make them usable.

EDIT: It's a lossy format, on top of that. Can you use uncompressed dds files then...?

AFAIK, yes.

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

but rather that they would have to spend significant time setting up a way to read .pngs to make them usable.

But why set it up so that it reads DDS files by default anyways? What advantage does the format have over PNGs?

 

[whoward69]

I can understand why games use those rare formats (to prevent easy access to the files)

DDS is may be a "rare" format (which is debatable) - but it is the native format for DirectX, so the decision is understandable (although why they then messed around with it storing images in multiple files is beyond me!)

 

[Barathor]

I'll give it a try and see how it looks. I assume I can open the contents of the zip in Photoshop; I'll download it now.

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

DDS is may be a "rare" format (which is debatable) - but it is the native format for DirectX, so the decision is understandable

I suppose...

(although why they then messed around with it storing images in multiple files is beyond me!)

Wait, what?

 

[whoward69]

Wait, what?

See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=389316

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=389316

So what's the reason for splitting them up into 2 files?

Is one like unpacking info/how to use the image in game, and the other the actual graphic, or what?

EDIT:

On a slightly related note, is there a way to get Powerpoint 2010 to note interpolate an image that's inserted into it?

I'm using the cutout effect in it to make unit icons and such for a mod, and GIMP doesn't have a filter like that, so it's my only option right now.

Oh, and it's re-sizing them too. I copy paste some of the image from GIMP to powerpoint, and it is clearly interpolated in powerpoint, and when I copy and paste it back into gimp, it's like 40% bigger, too.

A plugin for GIMP that doies this would be nice, PS has that filter, too.

 

[Barathor]

Here's a try at it. I zipped the PSD file with the alpha channel and also the DDS file of the blue pin.

I can create the others if that one turned out well.