transparent dds

[bud9961]

does anyone have a good link on how to make transparent dds files, i had one i been using that uses color overlay then delete and rename a blue channel alpha 1 blah blah but its hit and miss its sometimes taking me hours of trying over and over to get it to be transparent, if my artwork is in another layer do i want the background black or white in alpha or do i just select all on alpha and select cut, sometimes i do and its doing the opposite making the artwork invisible and the outline of the rest visible its driving me bonkers there has to be easier way than what im doing, the instructions i have are really vague, oh and im using photoshop, also if i have alot of black in my artwork does that mean you dont want the alpha black? is that why sometimes its white and sometimes its black, sorry if these are dumb questions ive used photoshop a long time just never messed with alpha channels or dds, thanks for any replies

 

heres a link to one that doesnt work i want the arch like object to show https://ibb.co/YQgWfWL

Edited August 27, 2021 by bud9961

[LarannKiar]

Follow this tutorial.

[bud9961]

Follow this tutorial.

thats not what im looking for im not modifying textures im making from scratch , thats nifskope not photoshop, i know photoshop can save dds with transparent backgrounds because ive already made 3 of them just takes me hours of trying different things till works and i cant figure out exactly what im doing different to make work

[bud9961]

just an update i think got it figured out , they are coming out transparent now did like 4 of them, im not sure about the details or what it does but the rgb channels need to show white on background and the alpha black on background and seems to work, i guess the problem i had before was they were all showing black in my screenshot. amyway got them cranking out now hopefully it helps someone else

[pepperman35]

just an update i think got it figured out , they are coming out transparent now did like 4 of them, im not sure about the details or what it does but the rgb channels need to show white on background and the alpha black on background and seems to work, i guess the problem i had before was they were all showing black in my screenshot. amyway got them cranking out now hopefully it helps someone else

Perhaps you could generate a tutorial depicting your method.

[DiodeLadder]

"Alpha Test" works by telling GPU not to draw the pixels with alpha value below "Alpha Test Reference". (Take a look at the material file)

 

Bethesda DDS format is 8 bit, and therefore each RGBA channels have values ranging 0 - 255. When you check these channels individually, they will be expressed in greyscale images in image editors like PS.

 

If you have the Alpha Test Reference = 128, for example, a greyscale value of less than 128 in Alpha channel will tell the GPU to not draw this part.

 

By the way, the RBGA channels are just a way to store 4x greyscale values in one file. For example, _s files in Bethesda DDS have Specular and Gloss values expressed in greyscale as 2 separate images, packed into red and green channels of one DDS file (so that they can load one DDS file instead of two).

[Larko84]

Right click on channels tab/create alpha. Black hides the texture. White reveals.

 

Fallout 4 Modmaking tutorials: Adding transparency to armours