Odd problem with DXTBmp

E

EMatheson

Charter Member 2016
I've been struggling to edit the alpha-channel on a few of my textures - and much to my dismay, DXTBmp has been failing me lately. All the greys in my edited alphas are being saved as pure black - or they are darkened significantly. Whites and blacks are untouched, but the greys are shot through. Why is this happening and how can I fix the problem? Or, what other program offers the same freedom to edit the alpha channel?
 
Hmmmmm...

No real answer here, just a few thoughts...

Are you saving your files in a format that uses the alpha channel?

Have you been using DXTbmp previously and it worked properly?

Do you have the dlls that go with DXTbmp?

Have you tried reinstalling DXTbmp? Or checking for a newer version?
 
Ive been saving in 32-bit 888-8 format. DXTBmp was working perfectly a week ago, but now the alpha channels it saves are all skewed drastically dark - except where it is pure white, which is unaffected. Reinstalling DXTBmp didn't help.
 
Hi EM,
Hmm, sounds odd??!

Have you updated your graphics card drivers around the same time (or automatically)?

Have you gone though every setting/tick-box etc and made sure you hadn't try something out before, changed a setting, and not changed it back?

What OS are you running?

Cheers

Shessi
 
Just a thought- is your alpha using the same number of colors as your texture ? I've experienced some oddities when trying to save when my texture is using high numbers of colors and my alpha is using 16 colors, tho I admit not using 888-8 in AGES.

Not that I really know anything, but I found MS paint to be great for bit corrections (touch ups) before or after major alterations with photoshop. PSP and photoshop have more features that I usually need for erasing or adding panel lines, windows, markings etc.
 
I had the same issue.
It was coming from PAINT.NET, which was saving the Alpha in an incorrect format somehow.
Now I use the GIMP instead, and it works fine :)
 
Have you tried saving the RGB portion as 24 bit and then letting DXTbmp create its own alpha template? 888-8 should use 256 levels of gray for the alpha. DXT3 only has eight levels, so fine gray levels will tend to get a little mucked up, which can give an odd "layered" look to gradient transparencies.
 
On Daube's suggestion, I started using gimp as my default DXTBmp editor, which solved the problem. I guess my other programs weren't saving the bitmap as a proper grey-scale image like they used to (although I really don't know why they should have suddenly stopped cooperating the way they did). Gimp saved them as greyscale images first try.
 
Dragging up this old thread. I'd never had any problems with DXTBMP before. For the first time since switching to Windows 7, I'm trying to repaint an aircraft, my old Airhead Decathlon. Simple enough. DXTBMP will not work properly with MSPaint, Paint.net, or GIMP. Paint returns an alpha with a bizarre yellow tint (how's that even possible?), Paint.net gives a really dark alpha (mirror finish, in fact), and GIMP seems to work OK until I reload the texture into my aircraft, and all the textures are offset. Sure enough, when I reload the texture back into DXTBMP, my textures (not just the alpha) are off to the right by about 10%, with the back end of the texture at the far left. I tried compatibility mode to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks.

Pat
 
I paint mostly for FSX, but my paints are simple enough that with slight mods they work in FS9 as well. I use DXTbmp as well, but my version is 4.00.96. Check your version and see if maybe it's outdated. . . .also, I suspect that as with the previous problem posted by EMatheson, the snafu isn't with DXTbmp at all, but the paint program for some reason. I use Paint Shop Pro for repainting and then save (for FS9 skins) as a simple bitmap. Load up in DXTbmp, save as 32bit, or the older DXT3 and I've never had one livery come out with any problems.:salute:
 
Thanks, falcon. I do have the latest DXTBMP. When I reload the image or refresh the alpha with GIMP, everything looks fine, no offset. It then saves it with the offset. I used to always use GIMP as my editor. When I switched to Windows 7, I also changed over to the 64-bit GIMP beta, which I now suspect may be causing my troubles. I guess I'll keep tinkering with it. Thanks again.

Pat
 
I've used Jasc (now Corel) Paint Shop Pro v7 interfacing with DXTBmp for 8-9 years now and have never had any problems. Bought PSP7 off of eBay, it's always available on there and/or at Amazon. Also use it for photo editing, has paid for itself many times over. I started out using the freeware version of Serif Photo Plus with DXTBmp and it worked OK too, but I prefer Paint Shop Pro.
 
W7 Home Premium 64 bit here. I have my DXTbmp set to the default MSPaint and have no issues with it. You may want to head over to Martin's site and make sure you have all the required dll's.

On the left, click Graphics Tools, then Required System DLLs.
 
I've experienced both the offset image and the strange Alpha in the past, both vanished, wish I knew what I did to stop them.

Along with the latest DXTbmp, have you got the latest set of dll files from Martin?

I had issues with Alphas saving nothing like the edited Photoshop version. Are you changing the alpha and then saving the original under a different format, say DXT3 as 32-bit (888-8). If you plan to do that, I found Save the format change before making any edits, reload, then edit. Then save again without format change.

As for the offset when saving a bmp, I suspect a bad format to begin with, I found that if I opened and saved with 'imagetool' without changes, then opened, edited and saved with DXTbmp, all was well.

I hope I'm remembering this right, sorry if I haven't, but I tried many, many things to get round it.

Jamie
 
Thanks, TARPS, Tom, and Jamie. It had been so long since I installed a clean copy of DXTBMP, I neglected to install the required DLL's. After the installation, no changes with GIMP, still the ridiculous offset. But MSPaint now works as long as I save as a 24-bit BMP, not 256-color. No loss of quality, and no darkening of the alpha.

I guess life would be boring if things didn't get changed up every once in a while. Thanks, all.

Pat
 
GIMP and Paint.Net save to DXTBmp just fine now - though I have experienced the yellow alphas and the offset.
I guess the BMP standard has been modernized in some ways recently - so the latest versions write what is called "Color-space information."
By my interpretation, that means the BMP format now supports some degree of the basics of jpg style compression - that is, it defines broad areas by their general color rather than each pixel specifically as before.
In the GIMP export page - where you export the new BMPs for use with DXTBmp - there is a menu in the file options window that reads "Compatibility Options." Expand that and uncheck the box for "Write Color Space Information." Then save as normal - it'll work OK. If you want to compile straight to 32-bit and have no need to DXT compression, GIMP works great - as long as you untick that box.
 
EMatheson said:
In the GIMP export page - where you export the new BMPs for use with DXTBmp - there is a menu in the file options window that reads "Compatibility Options." Expand that and uncheck the box for "Write Color Space Information." Then save as normal - it'll work OK. If you want to compile straight to 32-bit and have no need to DXT compression, GIMP works great - as long as you untick that box.
Click to expand...

Yep, that did the trick with GIMP. Many thanks. I think the older I get, the less I'm able to deal with changes to my routine. Oh well, guess I can't go back to Windows 95 and FS98. ;) Thanks again, all.

Pat
 
Not sure if that makes any difference at all or not but are you saving and closing the image in the paint program before re-importing it into DXTBmp ??
I use PSP and DXTBmp and both programs are open at the same time.

1. Open the texture in DXTBmp and click the export icon.
2. This opens the texture in PSP with the name NORM for the texture or ALPHA for the alpha layer.
3. Edit the texture in PSP and when done click on save but do not close the bitmap.
4. Click on the re-import icon in DXTBmp
5. Click on save texture icon in DXTBmp and select the options I want.

I normally work with layers in PSP and before step three I usually merge all layers. If I know that this particular multi layer texture is not yet finished I also do a save-as to preserve the layered image.

If I then need to continue work on this at a later date I export the texture out of DXTBmp but then work on the layered image, merge it and then import it as the top layer into NORM before sending it back to DXTBmp to avoid the image degradation you otherwise get.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Stefan
 
Thanks so much, Stefan. I had tried keeping my editor both open and closed after the problems surfaced, same results. And I do anchor layers/flatten before I save them. I think my problems were a combination of not having installed the required DLL's, and not saving the alphas as 24-bit BMP's. Today I even got Paint.net to work properly with the alphas. Strange than I can save the image in 32-bit with no problems, but the alpha would only work with 24-bit.

And thanks for the idea about saving my work if I don't finish in one sitting. I can't seem to find the time (or patience!) these days to work for several hours straight, and your idea will certainly help. One of these days I'll have to purchase Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop and not have to deal with all of these headaches. ;)

Thanks again.

Pat
 
Hi Pat,

doing it the way I do I never actually change how the NORM or ALPHA bitmaps are handled. They are simply opened by the external program, PSP in my case, and then saved and re-imported by DXTBmp....this way I don't change the attributes of that texture which might cause the issue you described.

The exception is when I save a layered file for later continuation. But in this case I will continue work in the layered one, then flatten it and copy that flat layer as a new layer into a re-opened NORM or ALPHA from DXTBmp as the top layer. The lower or background layer may now have some loss of detail because it has been compressed as DXT3 or what ever, but the new top layer is crisp and clean.

Just a thought :D

Stefan
 
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