OpenZone 5.6

[GeorgeS]

So I'm working out the tranparency flags for trees.

Here's the settings I am using

http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...mu/oz_shot.jpg


And the actual bitmap is

http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv/orion2/eqemu/f.bmp

I think I've tried about everything within the program.
Also used the Convert to Transparent Bitmap. That created the alpha mask which is correct, but when choosing transparent, the entire object is invisible.


George

[KhaN]

KhaN Tips :
- Use a normal BMP (without transparency), compile the zone, et OZ do its job.
- Open your favorite DDS Image editor, save your zones BMP as DDS with all the functions DDS support (alpha mask, mipmap, ...) with the SAME name as your BMp zone texture.
- Open S3DSpy and replace all the textures.

When creating zones (for my testing), i never do this step, this is rather, the last step for me in zone creation process, but it allow to have DDS for yours zones, which is, lets say it WAY BETTER than crappy BMP (Yes sorry, WC, you know how much i hate BMP :p ).

[Windcatcher]

You're close, GeorgeS. You want "masked" and "opaque" selected after using the convert to transparent bitmap option. Let me see if I can explain it all a bit better:

"Convert to Transparent Bitmap" takes a 24-bit .BMP file (one that doesn't have any alpha channel) and creates a 32-bit .BMP file where the alpha is 0 for the transparent parts and 255 for the parts you want to see. It determines what should be transparent by looking at the colors in all four corners of the bitmap and choosing the most prevalent one as the transparency color. If you already have a 32-bit .BMP file that has correct transparency information in its alpha channel, this step isn't necessary.

For the "Edit Polygon Properties" dialog:

The "masked" option tells the client that this polygon has parts that are opaque and parts that are totally transparent (e.g. tree leaves). You would want this checked for such textures.

The "solid" option tells the client not to perform collision avoidance for this polygon. You would want this checked for textures like tree leaves, so the player can pass through them.

The "opaque", "semitransparent", and "transparent" options affect the *entire* texture. In the case of tree leaves (and 99.9999999% of any textures you use), you would want opaque checked. Checking semitransparent makes the entire texture appear at 50% transparency (regardless of the actual alpha values in the texture), and checking transparent makes it invisible (regardless of the actual alpha values in the texture). I never said that .WLD made sense (grin). The benefit here is that you can have a texture that's opaque in some parts of your zone and semitransparent in other parts, while only needing one texture to do the job. You can think of the semitransparent option as having the effect of multiplying all alpha values by 0.5. I think the original reason for these settings is that earlier versions of the client only supported 8-bit indexed-color .BMP textures that didn't have any alpha information (as opposed to the .DDS-format textures it now supports). These settings were what made tree leaves and semitransparent/transparent polygons possible back in the day. Nowadays you could just use 32-bit RGBA textures instead of having to deal with those three settings, though they're nice when you're experimenting with semitransparency and don't want to have to make a whole new texture.

One thing the client does with the masked setting, as another example, is when you use an indexed-color texture. If masked is set, it chooses the first color in the color palette as the transparent color. A good example of this is the texture for the old-world ships that has the ropes that bind the sails. 95% of the texture is composed of color 0, which comes up as transparent when rendered.

[GeorgeS]

Ok had to edit the message. I managed to sort of figure this out

Textures look ok for the most part except for a color fringe around the leaves

check this out -

http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...mu/texture.jpg

edit - fixed this with a color replace tool that changed mask color to green

Now I notice the fringe at the top of the texture - I cannot figure out what's causing it. Just trying many different things...
http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...ure_fringe.jpg

edit - ok fixed the fringe.
After about 10 hours...
Now my trees work!
http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...qemu/trees.jpg

George

[Windcatcher]

You are learning, young Jedi...

Care to post what you had to figure out for the benefit of anyone else trying to learn OpenZone? I remember running into problems like that for my tree textures, but I don't remember what I had to do to fix it.

[Sakrateri]

Yes please , knowledge is best shared btw thanks again wc for all the hardwork , this proggie is awsome, I have made several unique zones and the players love them

[GeorgeS]

I will post a very detailed pdf with the procedure for making tranparent leaves.. I already have this down to an art now

Something peculiar after (object/export as mesh), the mesh entry is not present when clicking the 'mesh objects' button (right window pane). I have to restart OZ to see it again. The object is immediately present when clicking on 'select ground textures' however.

Scaling a mesh selected from library and exporting to S3D, all end up being the same size. Rotation and move works however.
(I created a small and large tree by taking my mesh library large tree, scaling it down, 'object/export as mesh' and named to ~small_tree)
Looks like size inheritance is permanent from parent object

http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...mu/scaling.jpg

...and the zone preview
http://www.wizardportal.com/optimaiv...tput_scale.jpg

another finding -
Textures ~.bmp exported with OZ to .S3D are not identical as original.

Later (tutorial coming...)
George