Ever wanted to create and/or import a texture into the editor with invisible or transparent parts to it? This technique could be handy in making custom signs, glass windows, emitters, etc;.
This tutorial is intended for an intermediate level creator, and requires some basic Photoshop knowledge. The first part will be preparing the texture in Photoshop. The second part will be importing the newly created file into the editor.
Part 1: Creating an Alpha Channel in Photoshop
All right, the first thing you need to do is open a new sized canvas that will fit into the UT grid. A perfect square canvas is easier to work with, but not necessary. Just make sure it will lock into the UT grid and is a dividend of a square. For this tutorial I created 256x256 pixel canvas.
Hit control+n to get this window:
Enter the fields as I did and click <Ok>. You should now have a 256x256 square canvas on your screen. Now create a new layer. This new layer is where we'll put the new image. I'll use simple text.
With that canvas, hit control+a to select all, then hit control+c to copy (make sure the corrosponding layer is also selected).
Next we'll add that alpha channel. In the bottom right hand corner of Photoshop, there's a window with three tabs: Layers, Channels, and Paths. Click on Channels.
Now click the <Create New Channel> icon.
We should now have five channels: RGB, Red, Green, Blue, and the newly created Alpha. With the alpha channel selected/highlighted, hit control+v to paste the image. The image should now appear in the alpha channel box.
To finish up this part of the tutorial, we'll need to save this as a targa file. Targa seems to be the file type of choise for UT2k4 as it supports alpha channel. PNG also supports alpha, and compresses better than targa. Unfortunately the editor does not support PNG. Anyways... just give it a file name, save as a targa file, and make sure the alpha channel box is checked. Then when prompted, use the 32 bit pixel option.
File / Save as...
That's it! Congratulations on finishing part one of this tutorial: Creating an Alpha Channel in Photoshop. In Part two we'll import the file to the editor.
Part 2: Importing an Alpha Channel Texture
Importing a custom texture is very easy. In the editor, open the map of which you want to import the texture. First, open your texture browser.
Next, click File / Import... Now find the targa file you saved. Click on it, and hit <Open>. Another small window will open up:
Do not use spaces in these names...
Package: myLevel (incorporates the texture into the map itself)
Group: New_Sign (not necessary, but easier to find in sub folders)
Name: CTC_red (your choice)
**Extremely Important!!! By default, the Alpha box is not check. Be sure you have it checked, then click <OK>.
You should now have a texture like the above with a transparent background. Give yourself a pat on the back! Just save your map and you're all set
Here's an example of it in game on one of the sweetest maps around...
I hope this tutorial is of some help to somebody. Thanks for reading.
