smeagolheart
Monarch
Into
Hello. I'm not an artist by trade and the Gamefont files with their craazy alpha channels and what not really had me pulling my hair out for many hours. I used GIMP, DXTBMP, Photoshop and MS Paint to try and get the files going with limited success until I finally figured out "the secret" to do it the "easy" way which I hope will help some other intrepid modders out there struggling with their gamefont's and their diabolical alpha channels.
On to business
So the best tool I've got comfortable with now is Adobe Photoshop. I use CS3 in this tutorial but I think it will work with most/all versions. So in this scenario I will be walking through I will be cutting and pasting from one gamefont.tga to another one. You can adapt these instructions to creating your own new art but near as I can tell you'll have to create your own alpha channel yourself.
What the Heck is an Alpha Channel?
So you may be wondering what is an alpha channel in CIV4? Well it's probably best to just look at the thing yourself in Photoshop. It could be described as a white silhouette on a black background of the visible icon (ex: the christian cross). It manages the transparency in the game. Mess it up and your game will crash. Over and over again. If you have pixels that are 98% black on the alpha layer (not 100%) then your game will crash. Or your missionaries will spread whales. Whatever the case of a messed up alpha channel or gamefont file won't be good.
So back to the scenario which is this: Take cool icon from one mod, paste into another. (note: in this example I'm editing the gamefont75.tga, methods are the same for both). Fun fact: icons in gamefont.tga are 21x20, gamefont75.tga are 16x16.
1. Open up in photoshop the gamefont.tga file that you want to copy from.
2. Open up in photoshop the gamefont.tga file that you want to paste into.
3. Remember which is which on the window bar in photoshop
4. Ok you should see something like this on the "copy from" gamefont file . I've zoomed in a couple times, you probably want to also ("ctrl +" keys for zoom)
5. I'm going to be copying the sword and peace symbol icon. The "secret" I alluded to earlier is very soon forthcoming.
6. Ok I've highlighted using the "Select tool" the two symbols. Don't do anything else besides selecting what you want to copy. I've copied the magenta border and cyan dots. Both very important. I've zoomed in even more to be very precise because this is very exacting work and if you hose it up, you will crash when you try it out. So as I say, the magenta border and the cyan dot are important
7. Now, the secret... First, Click Channels (next to "layers" see 1 in picture). Then click the eyeball next to alpha channel 1 (see 2). Then shift click on the alpha channel so all the channels are highlighted so that it looks like mine where all the channels are blue (see #3 below).
8. Now copy your selection you made earlier and you will also be copying the underlying alpha. This is because all the channels are selected (blue). Note that it is also possible to just select the alpha channel (unselect the RGB channels) and copy only the alpha layer or whatever you need.
9. Now go to your paste into gamefont file.
10. Once again select all channels and view the alpha layer.
11. Now paste your copied image. Use the "Move tool" (see green arrow) to move the selection around then click the select tool anywhere else when you are happy with the location. In this case the new icons are in an empty area so it's not too bad but you may need to move other icons away to make room for your cut and paste job. For example the religions are followed by the corporations then theres a blank space etc. There's probably more info on other threads about this.
12. The cool thing about this way is that the alpha layer was included in your copy so you don't have to mess with it also. Trying it that way can be double the work and it can lead to nightmares - literally. You can always view the alpha channel just by "un-eyeing" the RGB channels as well..
Good luck and happy graphicing!
Hello. I'm not an artist by trade and the Gamefont files with their craazy alpha channels and what not really had me pulling my hair out for many hours. I used GIMP, DXTBMP, Photoshop and MS Paint to try and get the files going with limited success until I finally figured out "the secret" to do it the "easy" way which I hope will help some other intrepid modders out there struggling with their gamefont's and their diabolical alpha channels.
On to business
So the best tool I've got comfortable with now is Adobe Photoshop. I use CS3 in this tutorial but I think it will work with most/all versions. So in this scenario I will be walking through I will be cutting and pasting from one gamefont.tga to another one. You can adapt these instructions to creating your own new art but near as I can tell you'll have to create your own alpha channel yourself.
What the Heck is an Alpha Channel?
So you may be wondering what is an alpha channel in CIV4? Well it's probably best to just look at the thing yourself in Photoshop. It could be described as a white silhouette on a black background of the visible icon (ex: the christian cross). It manages the transparency in the game. Mess it up and your game will crash. Over and over again. If you have pixels that are 98% black on the alpha layer (not 100%) then your game will crash. Or your missionaries will spread whales. Whatever the case of a messed up alpha channel or gamefont file won't be good.
So back to the scenario which is this: Take cool icon from one mod, paste into another. (note: in this example I'm editing the gamefont75.tga, methods are the same for both). Fun fact: icons in gamefont.tga are 21x20, gamefont75.tga are 16x16.
1. Open up in photoshop the gamefont.tga file that you want to copy from.
2. Open up in photoshop the gamefont.tga file that you want to paste into.
3. Remember which is which on the window bar in photoshop
4. Ok you should see something like this on the "copy from" gamefont file . I've zoomed in a couple times, you probably want to also ("ctrl +" keys for zoom)
5. I'm going to be copying the sword and peace symbol icon. The "secret" I alluded to earlier is very soon forthcoming.
6. Ok I've highlighted using the "Select tool" the two symbols. Don't do anything else besides selecting what you want to copy. I've copied the magenta border and cyan dots. Both very important. I've zoomed in even more to be very precise because this is very exacting work and if you hose it up, you will crash when you try it out. So as I say, the magenta border and the cyan dot are important
7. Now, the secret... First, Click Channels (next to "layers" see 1 in picture). Then click the eyeball next to alpha channel 1 (see 2). Then shift click on the alpha channel so all the channels are highlighted so that it looks like mine where all the channels are blue (see #3 below).
8. Now copy your selection you made earlier and you will also be copying the underlying alpha. This is because all the channels are selected (blue). Note that it is also possible to just select the alpha channel (unselect the RGB channels) and copy only the alpha layer or whatever you need.
9. Now go to your paste into gamefont file.
10. Once again select all channels and view the alpha layer.
11. Now paste your copied image. Use the "Move tool" (see green arrow) to move the selection around then click the select tool anywhere else when you are happy with the location. In this case the new icons are in an empty area so it's not too bad but you may need to move other icons away to make room for your cut and paste job. For example the religions are followed by the corporations then theres a blank space etc. There's probably more info on other threads about this.
12. The cool thing about this way is that the alpha layer was included in your copy so you don't have to mess with it also. Trying it that way can be double the work and it can lead to nightmares - literally. You can always view the alpha channel just by "un-eyeing" the RGB channels as well..
Good luck and happy graphicing!
