Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
Hi, Getting back to the original question (TGAs showing up with only 256 colors). I tried it myself and I got only 256 colors, too. It looked ok, but having at least 16bit would be muuuch better. So, why does HL reduce the color depth? To me that does not make any sense, does it? cya, TheTinySteini ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
[hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
Hey guys, this isn't really a coding question, but problems like this usually fall upon the coders shoulders like it has in my mod, so I thought I would put it out to you guys anyways ;) We are using TFC style menus for our player class selection. We have 24-bit colour TGA files for each of our classes that are displayed in the menus. The files look fine in an editor, but when they are displayed in-game, the colour palette is reduced which causes banding in large areas of similar colours. My guess is that the colours are being reduced to 256 colours, but poorly. Is there any way to improve the appearance of these graphics? I have tried reducing the graphics to 256 colours, but then they don't appear in the menus. I have also tried reducing them to 256 colours then back up to 24-bit, but that doesn't work either. I think I have to reduce them to a specific 256 colour palette, then up them back to 24-bit, but I don't know which palette to use. Anyone have experience or a pointer to info on this? Thanks Rob Prouse http://www.tourofdutymod.com ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
You need to use a 32-bit TGA 24bit color and 8bit alpha HL will change the color to 16bit and use the alpha for transparanticy(sp?) -Ms From: Commando [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 11:54:59 -0400 Hey guys, this isn't really a coding question, but problems like this usually fall upon the coders shoulders like it has in my mod, so I thought I would put it out to you guys anyways ;) We are using TFC style menus for our player class selection. We have 24-bit colour TGA files for each of our classes that are displayed in the menus. The files look fine in an editor, but when they are displayed in-game, the colour palette is reduced which causes banding in large areas of similar colours. My guess is that the colours are being reduced to 256 colours, but poorly. Is there any way to improve the appearance of these graphics? I have tried reducing the graphics to 256 colours, but then they don't appear in the menus. I have also tried reducing them to 256 colours then back up to 24-bit, but that doesn't work either. I think I have to reduce them to a specific 256 colour palette, then up them back to 24-bit, but I don't know which palette to use. Anyone have experience or a pointer to info on this? Thanks Rob Prouse http://www.tourofdutymod.com ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
A question just out of curiosity: How large may those tga images be? Are there the same restrictions (256*256) as there are with textures or can they be any size you want? TheTinySteini You need to use a 32-bit TGA 24bit color and 8bit alpha HL will change the color to 16bit and use the alpha for transparanticy(sp?) -Ms ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
yea the max is 256x256 and it must be in sizes of 16 (or 8 can't remember) but HL will give you an error if it's wrong I beleive -Ms From: Sebastian Steinlechner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 18:38:05 +0200 A question just out of curiosity: How large may those tga images be? Are there the same restrictions (256*256) as there are with textures or can they be any size you want? TheTinySteini You need to use a 32-bit TGA 24bit color and 8bit alpha HL will change the color to 16bit and use the alpha for transparanticy(sp?) -Ms ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
Actually you can have at least up to 512x512 as we use them in TAE. Michael Shimmins The Absconder Effect (http://www.tae-mod.com) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Steven Guy Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 3:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus yea the max is 256x256 and it must be in sizes of 16 (or 8 can't remember) but HL will give you an error if it's wrong I beleive -Ms From: Sebastian Steinlechner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 18:38:05 +0200 A question just out of curiosity: How large may those tga images be? Are there the same restrictions (256*256) as there are with textures or can they be any size you want? TheTinySteini You need to use a 32-bit TGA 24bit color and 8bit alpha HL will change the color to 16bit and use the alpha for transparanticy(sp?) -Ms ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
Thanks, but I should have been clearer, they are already 32 bit (24bit colour) and transparent, but when HL converts them to 16 bit the palette it chooses seems to be very limited (or at least not optimized for our images), so I get banding in large areas of similar colours. If I knew more about how HL does the conversion to 16-bit, then I could adjust our class screenshots accordingly to make them look as good as possible. Other mods like CS have done a pretty good job with this, but I expect they had graphics artists who knew about things like this instead of coders who throw on graphics artist hats when they have to ;) That's the problem with being a coder isn't it, you need to be competent in all areas of creating a mod from graphics, to mapping, to modelling. Rob Prouse http://www.tourofdutymod.com At 09:27 AM 12/04/2002 -0700, you wrote: You need to use a 32-bit TGA 24bit color and 8bit alpha HL will change the color to 16bit and use the alpha for transparanticy(sp?) -Ms ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
Yeah we experienced the same thing, just pointing out it is possible, sorry should have been clearer. Michael Shimmins The Absconder Effect (http://www.tae-mod.com) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Chris Glein Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 6:17 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Actually, I wouldn't recommend using TGAs as large as 512. Although they will work for most people, some rather popular video cards out there seem to choke on them. We had this problem of large TGA images with an earlier version of SI, and it was fixed by breaking up the image into two smaller ones. Trust me, you don't want the hoards of obscure crash reports from something like this ;) -PNB -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Shimmins Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 10:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Actually you can have at least up to 512x512 as we use them in TAE. Michael Shimmins The Absconder Effect (http://www.tae-mod.com) ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus
since tgas are turned into a texture in memory (i am assuming) and *most* video cards only accept square textures and *most* can only do up to 512x512 *or less* it causes problems sometimes. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Christopher Long Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 10:03 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus TGA's go up in powers of 2. 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512 or so i heard.. i emailed the valve guys a real while back asking about this. Something to do with gaphics cards and limitations... aparantly you can use other sizes and they may distort. If you want a weird dimensioned tga use the alpha channel to hide the excess parts you don't need. Unless we can use any size we want now but last talking to valve i think it was ken birdwell or eric smith that told me can't remember but thats what i was told. Maybe they can restate it again for us :D what the vgui tga image size limitations are. - Original Message - From: Chris Glein [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 6:17 AM Subject: RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Actually, I wouldn't recommend using TGAs as large as 512. Although they will work for most people, some rather popular video cards out there seem to choke on them. We had this problem of large TGA images with an earlier version of SI, and it was fixed by breaking up the image into two smaller ones. Trust me, you don't want the hoards of obscure crash reports from something like this ;) -PNB -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Shimmins Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 10:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [hlcoders] TGA Files in Menus Actually you can have at least up to 512x512 as we use them in TAE. Michael Shimmins The Absconder Effect (http://www.tae-mod.com) ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
