Texture shine/no shine and .dds alpha chanel

[doofis]

Certain Mods have only an "OILED" skin texture, this is due to the textures alpha channel I understand, however I cant find a tool that allows me to edit the alpha chanel in a given texture to eliminate the shine. of course they are .dds files, though photoshop has a .dds plugin, I'm still quite unable to open any alpha chanels, anyone have info on the proper program i would need so I can EDIT the alpha chanel in a .dds file for Oblivion?

[Tchos]

Open the "channels" palette in Photoshop. It's in there. And the shininess alpha channel is in the normal map, not the texture map.

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

Correct, the alpha chanel on a difuse(texture) map controlls transparency. (white=fully visible, black=fully transparent)

 

The alpha chanel on a normal map controlls specularity(shinyness). (white=too shiny, black=absolutely flat; I suggest using values between 10% and 90% gray)

[doofis]

Thank you both for the comeback, I should mention I have photoshop 5.0 I been allover it for a few years and never found a chanels palete. So I'm still stuck unable to edit alpha chanels, In my case I guess it would be the normal map alpha to control the shinybess, maybe I need the new version of photoshop?...$$$$!

[Tchos]

Photoshop has had a channels palette at least as far back as ver 2.5, when I began using it. It's existed in every subsequent version as well, including in 5. If a palette isn't open, you need to choose it from your Window menu.

[firespark]

You can also use a program called dxtex, it's in the sdk package of directx. You can then quickly drop your existing image into the alpha channel and it will be converted. It's a quick way.. later you can edit the alpha1 channel in photoshop to your liking.

 

 

Save it as dxt5.

[Lucherenren]

Photoshop has had a channels palette at least as far back as ver 2.5, when I began using it. It's existed in every subsequent version as well, including in 5. If a palette isn't open, you need to choose it from your Window menu.

 

 

Alpha channels have been around since Photoshop went full color, after the Macintosh II was introduced.

I used 2.0.1 a lot on my old Mac before upgrading to the subsequent releases (gawd, that does indeed sound like ages ago).

 

An excellent open source alternative is GIMP coupled with the DDS and normal map plugins (it handles mipmaps quite well, from what I've seen so far). LHammonds has uploaded all the necessary software and information on the Nexus.

 

Have fun with your textures!

 

Ah, if you don't want to empty your wallet for Photoshop - there's also the lighter and much less pricey Elements edition, which should still be more than enough (just in case, ask for a demonstration at the store).

[doofis]

Thanks all. I am using photoshop elements 5.0, (I should have been more specific earlier). it doesnt have alpha channel edit under the windows drop down menu, though it was cheap like 50 buks, ill be checking out Gimp and dtex for sure!

[Tchos]

Ah, elements. That's a different story. I don't know anything about Elements. The Gimp option is probably best, in that case. I wasn't too thrilled with the feel of Gimp when I tried it, but using the Gimpshop version might ease the transition. It makes it a bit more Photoshop-like.

[ghastley]

I've been trying to get the GIMP to do this for a while. It appears to differ considerably from Photoshop in not allowing you to directly edit the alpha channel. You can use the eraser tool on the RGB channels to "thin them out" but any attempt to make the alpha channel all black (for zero specularity) removes all the normal data completely.

 

If anyone knows a way to do it in GIMP, I'd love to know.