Black squares in icons

from Sins Forums

Hi,

I'm trying to add some missing icons to SW Requiem mod. I have opened Hudicon and Infocard and Mainview to see which tga to modify. I took some images on the web and reduced to icon size. I have created some brushes with topleft pixel and size of the square to make like i did to add more player icons ( Obiwan, Darth Maul, etc .... ). The problem is that i have the black square in my icons. I'm using photoshop CS5 x64 and after a few tries i don't understand what is the problem. I have noticed when saving my tga file in 32b/pixel option that my icon is upside down. When i save in 24b/pixel the icon is normal but i have the black square appearing around my icon.

I'm trying now with a new tga, with black background ( #000000 ), and it's the same problem, i have tried to to take and existing and working tga file, i have copied/and paste on it my icon and always the same, that annoying black square ....

Anyone has an idea ?

 

 

modding
13,331 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Can you upload a sample? I suspect its your save settings but it would be easier to tell if I had a before/after photo.

Also if you ever finish it please post it on the main Requiem site in case we'd like to add it to the main mod. :)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Are you from SW Requiem Team ?

I have no "before" photo but it was the SquadTech icons by default (AWING).

Here are 2 screens of my problem :

Awing black square

Awing topleft icon

 

As it was only a try i took the same icon for Mainview, Infocardicon and Hudiconsmall

 

 

 

 

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Don't forget the alpha layer.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I have done loads of icons but I use Gimp with transparent background.

Try changing the backdrop colour so you can see what is transparent. Taking images off the web are usually not transparent and the surrounding colour needs to be removed.

Have a look at Gimp (free) settings I use. With this background it's very easy to tell what is transparent.

 

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Hum ok i understand why it is not working ... i thought it was like a .gif but with black background .... I have never used layers, when i open a working mainviewicon for exemple i see 4 layers, R, G, B and alpha1 ( and RGB ), but i don't really know how it works. I understood that in alpha1 black is not selected and what is in white is selected but that's all :)

Maybe i should take a few photoshop lessons about layers :)

Thanks for your answers.

I have tried gimp a bit but i'm too lost, commands are a bit different than in PS.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

PS is better so stick with it. There are thousands of tutorials online.

Not to sure about PS, it's been a while but in Gimp the layers and channels are different. You can have 1 layer of sky and another layer of a plane on top but the channels can be different for each layer. Channels are usually the Red, Blue, Green and Alfa.

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Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Dunkelzahn63, reply 2
Are you from SW Requiem Team ?
 

Yes, though this is a general modding question, you should talk to me about anything solely about the mod. I'll be the one putting the next release at least together.

Quoting Dunkelzahn63, reply 5
Maybe i should take a few photoshop lessons about layers

I'm actually photoshop certified (though not with CS5, but I don't think its that different) but I don't have the software on my home computer, and I currently don't have access to it anywhere else. I've been using paint.net for my image modding, which is good enough for manipulating existing images to get them into Sins.

If the transparency is the only thing you are having trouble with, I should be able to fix that rather easily. Just upload it somewhere and PM me a link to it. If you have more than just the Awing icon you can send that too, though you should probably try to explain everything you've changed so we don't have any issues later down the line. Also say if this was for the Entrenchment or Diplomacy version.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Yes my problem is with transparency. I made some other icons but i don't think you'll be interested with. I made Y-wing icons but they aren't anymore in requiem mod. I made them because i wanted fighters back like in SOGE, i took buttons from SOGE but wanted to make icons like you made in requiem for A-Wing and Y-Wing. I made different icons for defiance with "DEF" letters on it, and "CAR" for capitalship_carrier to differentiate them from MC80 classic icons, all aren't working even with alpha layer, grrrrrr ( i'm not a master in PS except in cartoon scans retouch ).

I have created a new tga file so no issues risk. All my work is for 1.21 diplomacy.