Skinning Problem - I need help.

[grato]

So I was reskinning the Acolyte of original WCIII. My first test (when I had only finished his hood) was fine, but then, after I finished his arm, saved it, converted it and imported it, I could only see the team colours in game.

Have you got any idea what could have caused this (and how to solve it)?

 

[Arowanna]

Extract a new acolyte.blp
Copy on your own version.
Paste it on the new acolyte.blp
Resave the file and try again.

This usually fixes it.

And instead of using the WE as a "unit shower",
download Warcraft III Viewer.

 

[grato]

Sadly, that didn't work. It still looks messed up. Maybe I misunderstood you, because my English isn't too well.

What you recommended was:

• Extracting another Acolyte.tga from the war3.mpq
• Copying my edited skin over the new .tga
• Converting the .tga to BLP.
• Try again.

Is that correct?

 

[GregerTheGreat]

Sadly, that didn't work. It still looks messed up. Maybe I misunderstood you, because my English isn't too well.

What you recommended was:

• Extracting another Acolyte.tga from the war3.mpq
• Copying my edited skin over the new .tga
• Converting the .tga to BLP.
• Try again.

Is that correct?

Yeah, I think so. I have no idea what could cause this.

 

[grato]

Hmm, too bad. I hope someone else knows.

 

[Arowanna]

Yes, that should be it.
I don't know if it might be something with the alpha,
and skip .tga in my opinion.

 

[grato]

Uhm, but how am I supposed to edit the skin then. I can't edit a raw .blp, I DO need to convert it first. Or is there any secret way I don't know about?

 

[Arowanna]

I put .tga behind because of this problem and started using
.bmp and .jpg, but you don't need to put .tga away if you don't feel like it

.bmp is "worse", but worked for me when I made textures.

 

[grato]

It works in .bmp. Thanks! +rep

 

[grato]

Alright, so I've got the same problem with another skin I was editing. It worked fine, until I touched his forehead, then it got all invisible/teamcolor again, even though I was editing it in .bmp and not in .tga.

The problem exists only in WE, in the WC3Viewer the skin works fine.

 

[A.R.]

The transparency issue is due to a problem with the alpha channel in the texture. What program and export settings are you using?

If you're using Photoshop, go to the Channels tab (next to the Layers tab). You should find the alpha channel there. The alpha channel tells WC3 (or any other program) what parts of the texture to make transparent. If your entire texture (besides the team colour) is invisible, chances are that it'll be entirely black.

Also make sure if you're exporting to .bmp, you export using the 32bit setting.

 

[grato]

I use GIMP, and I already checked the Alpha Channel. Those parts where there should be teamcolor are transparent, and the rest is black. Strange thing though, that in my saves which work the alpha channel looks exactly the same.