Flag Help

Flintlock1415

Flintlock1415

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Is there anyway to create a flag by creating the alpha channel directly in GIMP or photoshop, therefore by passing the need for DxtBMP. I am wondering this because I haven't found a mac version of DxtBMP and am trying to fix the problem with the alpha channel.

Help is appreciated! :D
 
Another flag problem... It seems to me that we should write a new tutorial about that.

What you said is possible. The main problem is, that you need a certain plugin that allows you to handle dds files. Adding an alpha channel just works like adding any other channel. There are such plugins for both, Photoshop and GIMP, but I am not sure if there is a Mac version of those plugins. I can remember that another Mac user asked for help for creating flags and he figured out how to do that with Mac, but didn't told me how. However, there are other programs that can handle dds files also, like dds converter (buggy) or The Compressonator by AMD. You may check if there is a Mac version of them.

It is possible that your flags are already working for you. Some machines show flags properly only if they don't have any alpha, others do the same only if the flag has one. You should check what kind of machine you have (simply try the flag out), if you didn't already.
 
:bump: #2
Okay, I got a little closer, but it still isn't working. I created a 128x128 file in Gimp, with a transparent background, painted a simple white 'F' on it, and saved it as a .png file. I converted to a dds (dxt 3) and placed it in game.

It shows up, but it is very odd looking and the teamcolor only shows in certain spots.
Any help?
 

Attachments

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  • FlagProb.png
    FlagProb.png
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You can only see the team-color, where the picture is transparent.
This means, the alpha-channel has to have the same color like the parts, which you want to be transparent.
What i want to say: When you have a flag, and a black alpha-channel, all black parts of the flag are transparent=teamcolor.

When you look at the flags here, you have in most times 2 different types of flags:
- Real flags. They have no teamcolor.
- Flags with only two colors. They use nothing for the picture, but the picture is used as alpha-channel -> Flag has only one color, and the part of the alpha-channel, where the sign is, is black (or so).

I think i'm talking very confusing :D.

my conclusion: Search for either a real picture and convert it (then it has no teamcolor edit: better it has no teamcolor, this doesn't look good with pictures. You can disable teamcolor in the artdefines, through seting
PHP: 
<whiteflag>1</whiteflag>
), or you have to make a flag with only two colors (then search for a symbol or so).

I guess, most other options don't look good.
 
I used this to make the flag (from Lankou's tutorial)

Code: 
I just create a 128x128 pixel .PNG file in Phtoshop with a transparent background.

Then I add a WHITE pattern to it (say a skull and crossbones)

save it as a .PNG

Use .dds converter to convert it to .dds
Except I used Gimp. Can you explain to me how you set up your alpha channel?

edit: Oh and this is meant to be a decal, so I used <whiteflag>0<whiteflag>, but I also tried it with whiteflag 1, which didn't work.
 
Don't know what you guys think... I recognized that there are times when there are no questions about flags at all and there are times where there are multiple similar questions about flags at once. It's a bit like a demon :satan:. In deed it seems like there is no tutorial about flags alone - or if there is any, it is quite old and hence difficult to find - so I think such a tutorial (in the tutorial section) would be needed. Let's do some exorcism! A lot of information has been collected here, also about bicolour flags I have no experience with (but I also don't intend to use such a flag anyways...). So maybe one of you guys can write a tutorial? I suggest start with bicolour flags and I'll write a chapter for non-bicolour flags later which you coud then add to your tutorial. However, if you really want me to write the non-bicolour flag part, it would take me some time to do that (although there is not much to say) because I don't have much time now... Opinions?
 
Hey iggy, I just got your PM, and thank you for this! It's going into the Mac Modding Index right away! I've looked at older versions of Aorta before a long while ago, but it could only use targa files. (This was before I knew anything about .dds textures. :crazyeye: ) After I found Squish, I didn't think of using other converters.

I'll try it out over this week and let you know how it goes!
Thanks again! :)
 
:):)Thanks Flintlock! And Cool3a2: I like the idea of consolidation. Not quite sure yet how it will work, but I'm open to ideas. Drop me a private message. Though I must warn you that if I start playing a game of Civ ... I sort a vanish for awhile.
 
I'm not so sure how well the Mac techniques would be integrated into a flag making tutorial, as most use Windows and would just be repeating iggymnrr. It would be nice to a consolidated thread still, even if I may not be able to use some of it. :) :p
 
Well, I think the Mac techniques could build another chapter. I'd start with windows, either with bicolour or non-bicolour (I always get confused by the words decal and nondecal; maybe non-bicolour flags would be better to start with as they are easier to create due to now or very few channel work), as this is what most people will look for. Then I'd explain special techniques for Mac. But that part has to be in in any case. It's not the first time that a Mac user has troubles creating a flag.
Theoritically you could already start the tutorial, if you have time and like to do so. I'd suggest to create a thread in the tutorials section, write the tutorial in the first post. For the missing parts (my parts for example) you could already add some headline, then leave the content empty. Add your text. Later on I could then post my text in that thread. Copy that into the first post where you have empty sections. If we think the tutorial is finished, we'll do a pdf version for download as well. All you'd have to do before starting, is deciding who of you will start the thread. I think you could copy'n'paste a lot of things from here, with some small changes maybe.

At the moment I am in stress, but I think I can put together a first version at the weekend.
 
I be willing help too. I also am wondering how the search engine here works. I'm thinking about what tags it looks for to find things and inserting them to make things easier to find. As far as Windows/Mac goes, it looks like a program like Aorta simply allows you to break your artwork into smaller pieces and assemble them at the point where conversion to .dds takes place. Perhaps there is a similar program on Windows that does that.
 
Green was the color I chose for my Civ. I just retained my primary color. i.e border/player color. To get rid of the green you probably have to know how to make a multi-color flag. LOL see cool. j.k. I guess I haven't had the need to figure out multi-color yet. I do have some from other mods that look like they get rid of team/player color altogether. (I haven't figured out the other buttons on Arota yet. It may be possible to do something useful with them or maybe it's still in Alpha version.) Its kind of amazing what a blank white or black jpg can do. Off hand, I'd used graphics in matching formats like 2 bitmaps or 2 PNGs or 2 jpgs etc. in Aorta. (Imagine that you are simply dividing your artwork into 2 pieces for dds purposes.)
 
YES!!! The photo flag in the tutorial is really working! On a lark, I renamed it to a flag in another mod that has working multicolored flags and dropped it in that mod. It worked! No team color problems just a nice photo. This means multicolored flags can be done rather easily. I plan on revising my tutorial this weekend to include multicolored flags. (After doing some testing with it in Warlords and not just vanilla Civ.)
 
I also worked on a tutorial about decal flags, but under windows via GIMP. It is not yet finished as I have to work on the pictures. And I also have to add the info that the flag needs to be resized to 128x128, I simply forgot that...

However, we should put our work together and post it in the tuorials section. If you like I can send you my text and the pictures tomorow via pm.
 
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