Texture Transparency on Car/Helmet Models

Can I use the same transparency technique used on the track fence and tree textures, on the car or helmet models , I haven't managed to achieve this effect with my tests.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2009 04:08AM by spoodge.

Sorry about the one liner, I was going nuts with this last night. Here's where I'm at with this.......................

In Photoshop I Create a 512 x 512, jump to the alpha layer and add some white mess.
Export to Driver 1_2.tga -> Alpha Channels box checked -> 32 bit Compress RLE box checked.

Open the file in XNView, Everything looks fine alpha's there and working.

Then I go to ZModeler Create 2 sphere's, and name them Helmet and Visor.
(Visor I leave alone....that seems to look after itself, and annoyingly is sort of transparent.)

I assign Driver 1_2.tga to the Helmet, I've tried all "blending modes" Glowing Semi-Transparency, Color Key and Testing with the <= >= Func

Switches, again I can see the transparency (Except when using color key.)

Export to car_helmet_00.gp4, and open in GP4 Builder, turn on Alpha Blending, and again I see the transparency. I go to Tools edit materials

and check the Transparency check box, then Save.
(I've noticed that when I save with GP4 builder and re-open the file in ZModeler it has reverted back to the "Unused" blending mode.)

In Slimtex I convert the TGA to TEX, I've tried All combinations of Formats and Compressions (I'm wondering if this is the step I'm failing at,

as i see the transparency in ZModeler and GP4 Builder).

All to no avail, In game no transparency ...nadda, not a thing.



Why am I doing all of this ???....well I got an idea that I might be able to have Individual Helmet Shapes for the drivers.

For example , I've noticed I can add shape's to the car_helmet_00.gp4 file with no I'll effects, other than if I don't map the shape to either

Driver1_1.tga or Driver1_2.tga the game can't find the texture, as it looks in the helmets folder, (Obviously made this way for Idividual

texture's).....but it does find the texture when I put it in the helmet/shapes folder and I can name the texture to anything.

ie, There's the Helmet Shape and Visor Shape Mapped to Driver1_1.tga and Driver1_2.tga, I add a sphere and map it to sphere.tga. If I put

sphere.tex in the helmet/hi/button folder, i get white textures in game, If i put it in helmet/shape folder it shows in game.

anyway.....

What I was hoping to experiment with was Putting 4 different Helmet shapes into the car_helmet_00.gp4 file and Mapping them to the

Driver1_1.tga and Driver1_2.tga's...then controlling the visibility of the shapes with the alpha channels in the textures.

Obviously you would need to UVW map the shapes onto a big texture split into 4 quarters, then for the individual drivers tex files you would

simply move the alpha channel to control the transparency. One quarter visible, the other 3 quarters transparent.

4 Shapes in Max



Driver1_2.tga



UVW Mapped



Alpha



Result



That's the theory, but can't get it working In game.

What are you exactly trying to do, make the wing on the helmets transparent?

Very good idea! I would personally have all helmet shapes on top of the other (so it's easier to place using team editor)- but like your texture, map each helmet to a different part of the texture.

Have a look at the type of texture the fences etc are in slimtex - I think its something like DXT1 with full transparency or something like that- where as cars are like DXT5 (or is it the other way round?). From memory, the old helmet tex files only with a black alpha made it go black rather than transparent, but that was a long long time ago when GP4 Master was the main tool!






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2009 04:54PM by fongu.

did you put textures in full trasparence?

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My GPGSL Career

@Renault#1Fan

No, this is for a mod I'm playing with where I'm wanting different "Head" shapes.
I've completely replaced the helmet shape, that's not the issue.
I'm using driver 1_1 for the individual face textures, but would like different shapes as well, it isn't your standard f1 mod lol

@fongu

Yup that's just an example I align them all to the same place.
First thing I did was look at the track fence.tex, its dxt1 / semi transparent I used those settings but it wouldn't work in game.
I'm not sure where the problem lies, maybe zmodeller material settings?
I do get the black alpha in game, not transparency.

@senna9194

I've Tried them all lol



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2009 05:08PM by spoodge.

if i don't do a mistake,it's dxt5+semi trasparency the correct

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My GPGSL Career



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2009 05:14PM by senna9194.

have you tried copying a fence texture into the cars.wad and rename to driver1_1.tex?

try dxt 1 and semi transparency if you haven't already done it. this is the format for things like trees or fences imo

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

thx for the reply's guys....

fongu Wrote:
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> have you tried copying a fence texture into the
> cars.wad and rename to driver1_1.tex?

Yup, that was the first thing i did, lol, good place to start
It shows up black in game

senna9194 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
if i don't do a mistake,it's dxt5+semi trasparency the correct

I'm sure I tried that, I'll give it another go.

anyway,if it function for helmet,i don't see why it won't function for cockpits

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My GPGSL Career

I am may be wrong but to my understanding
the alpha layer is used to play with the transparency regarding track TEX files, tgi files,
(black: transparent, white: displayed)
and the alpha layer is used for shine effects regarding cars and helmets.
TEX files for cars are DXT5 full transparency and I saw also some TEX for tracks
DXT5 full transparency....

gezere Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am may be wrong but to my understanding
> the alpha layer is used to play with the
> transparency regarding track TEX files, tgi
> files,
> (black: transparent, white: displayed)
> and the alpha layer is used for shine effects
> regarding cars and helmets.
> TEX files for cars are DXT5 full transparency and
> I saw also some TEX for tracks
> DXT5 full transparency....

I think your right......
That's what I was trying to confirm, I'm sure I've tried everything but I always had a niggle that it wouldn't be possible, other than the visor you can't have transparency on car/helmet models...maybe there's a hack.
I have had a "ghosting" effect on car models, but don't know how I did it....it was more of an error than intentional.
I suppose the next logical step is to look at the helmet visor and see if I can learn anything from that.

Thanks for you help...I'm narrowing it down

I don't think you can make objects in the car_helmet_00.gp4 transparent unless you make it attached to the visor object. Though then you still need to make the visorspecmap.tex fully black which would also disable the cockpit visors on the cars. And it'll not help getting multiple helmet shapes as you can only make 1 visible at the time or all. Only thing then to get multiple helmets is placing them strategic so you can position the helmet so only 1 version is visible at the time, this does sound really hard and probably impossible.

The theory sounds great but GP4 is pretty intolerant towards transparency, I've experimented with helmet transparency in the past and never made it work. Mapping object to the visorspecmap also didn't work either, GP4 does not recognize it.

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If you are racing, keep on racing and get some points!

GPG Super League S11 | Driver #41 | Team-manager | Snake Motorsports Racing Group | Next Race: Emmeloord - Flevoland GP | Constructors: 10th | Best Race Finish: 1st
GPG Super League Season 9 Testers Champion*

MDBSnake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Only thing then to get multiple
> helmets is placing them strategic so you can
> position the helmet so only 1 version is visible
> at the time, this does sound really hard and
> probably impossible.

That might be the solution, and actually not that difficult..4 helmets spaced vertically...evenly, and adjust the helmet position...ah no...if I use the bottom one I'll have 3 helmets floating above the car

I'm not going to give up on this one, and thanks for the feedback I'll keep experimenting, I'll have a go with the visor.tex thing. The car visor isn't a problem with this mod....because it's not there ...well it is, but it doesnt look like a visor and is mapped elsewhere. It's a.....ahem "fun" mod to keep me amused. I daren't post a screenie...lol.

spoodge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MDBSnake Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Only thing then to get multiple
> > helmets is placing them strategic so you can
> > position the helmet so only 1 version is
> visible
> > at the time, this does sound really hard and
> > probably impossible.
>
> That might be the solution, and actually not that
> difficult..4 helmets spaced vertically...evenly,
> and adjust the helmet position...ah no...if I use
> the bottom one I'll have 3 helmets floating above
> the car
>
> I'm not going to give up on this one, and thanks
> for the feedback I'll keep experimenting, I'll
> have a go with the visor.tex thing. The car visor
> isn't a problem with this mod....because it's not
> there ...well it is, but it doesnt look like a
> visor and is mapped elsewhere. It's a.....ahem
> "fun" mod to keep me amused. I daren't post a
> screenie...lol.

if you put one shape higher 1000m than another one will function

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My GPGSL Career

senna9194 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if you put one shape higher 1000m than another one
> will function

I wonder how long that would take with the realtime helmet position tweak

Well, if you are able to put it outside the 'dome of heaven' as it's been called in another topic It might work ^^ Though editing the positions correctly will be very hard and the car_helmet_00 grows to 3 or 4 times the current size

---

If you are racing, keep on racing and get some points!

GPG Super League S11 | Driver #41 | Team-manager | Snake Motorsports Racing Group | Next Race: Emmeloord - Flevoland GP | Constructors: 10th | Best Race Finish: 1st
GPG Super League Season 9 Testers Champion*

sounds like an interesting proposal, and we need someone to make some different helmets (although with a lower poly count)






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2009 11:19PM by fongu.

wow guys,
this could it be ! but "heavens dome" is pretty high somethimes (i don´t know if the tweaker can make this distance).the upper helmets "just" has to get out of the visuable range, especially when you drive after a car in a far distance. but it´s worth a try.
attach the hans and that stuff to the carshape (driver), reduce polycount and create nice lower lods, bingo...

matt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2009 02:10AM by schroeder.