Wha?? Vertical_symbols.dds, why are the hammers using the food's space?

[Neomega]

http://www.sendmefile.com/00428580

I dun get it. This is most strange. The file

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art\interface\symbols\ Vertical_Symbols.dds deals with the food-hammers-gold on the map.

So I tried to change the food to lightning bolts, and to do so I just covered the 2 bread, 3 bread and 4 bread symbols in white, and then used an alpha map, hoping to "bleed" through the lightning bolts, with a white glow.

But what I got was totally unexpected. The bolts came in as expected, but the hammers and gold, if they were on a tile with 2, 3 or 4 food, also came through as white!!

the link is to download a zip containing this file.

Here is what I got:



Here is a look at what I was hoping for

in PSP 9, the red shows areas that will be revealed due to the alpha channel

the gold and hammers... WHA!? Why are they using the color map that the food is supposed to be using (the white area)

there is another section that deals with these icons, C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art\interface\symbols\commerce, or ..\food, or ..\production, but I haven't done anything with those.

I am dumbfounded. Any ideas?

 

[Rabbit, White]

This is indeed strange. Have you tried to do the lightning by drawing it on black background (just like the other resources)? Essentially you'd be using the same image for both alpha and rgb channels, which doesn't seem like it should change anything but it's worth a try.

 

[Neomega]

After much more extensive testing, I have found, for some reason, the alpha map does require it's black counterpart.

That means I can't do the glow effect I was going ot try to achieve with my lightning bolts. At least not 2d, maybe in 3d. But I doubt it since these are only billboards.

 

[Padmewan]

Try removing the alpha channel -- if this file is like the others, you'll see that Firaxis uses magenta and aqua to draw borders between objects and also indicate that something is in the slot.

 

[Rabbit, White]

After much more extensive testing, I have found, for some reason, the alpha map does require it's black counterpart.

That means I can't do the glow effect I was going ot try to achieve with my lightning bolts. At least not 2d, maybe in 3d. But I doubt it since these are only billboards.

Why not? Wouldn't you get glow if you simply use the same image for both alpha and the rgb channels?

 

[Neomega]

Why not? Wouldn't you get glow if you simply use the same image for both alpha and the rgb channels?

No, because in reality, the colors are gray, so they are not overlaying white over the terrain, but gray, giving it a smoky look. It doesn't look too bad.... but it isn't what I was hoping for.

(note the "shadows" in the desert)



Also, I found on the right and left sides, there needs to be a 1 pixel thick black line, or the color will "smear" across the other symbols. But, unfortunately, that was not the cause of the white out.

 

[Rabbit, White]

Try making a "hard" lightning in the RGB channel, so where now it transitions into black thus actually being grey, make those areas just white (probably a constrast of +30 or so should do it). I'm thinking that somehow the fact that the whole thing was white messed it up, but if you just have some white drawing then it might work. Actually, don't even bother with that, try a white stripe - basically the minimum white area that is needed to cover the lightning areas.