Alpha not saving?

doeseph

I've got a low poly house I have to do for a school RTS that has some alpha elements on the side of the house, broken boards and what not, and I'm trying to save as a PNG. But whenever I bring it into max, the alpha areas are white.

I don't know if I'm saving it incorrectly or if I'm doing something wrong with the render, can someone help me out? I've saved as a .PNG, I've also done the "Save for Web & Devices" PNG-24 with transparency checked and it still doesn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Ryan Clark

I think you need this:

http://www.fnordware.com/superpng/

I assume you're using some flavor of Photoshop, but I'm not sure which one. I had a similar problem saving PNGs in Photoshop 7 once, and SuperPNG solved it.

doeseph

I'm using CS4 currently, does that matter?

Ryan Clark

Alas, it might. In this thread someone complains of SuperPNG not working in cs4... http://www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/110571

I'd give it a try anyway. If it doesn't work, could you just use a different file format, such as TGA?

Ryan Clark

Here's another thread of people experiencing this problem. Might have some useful info: http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47910

Turbosmooth Operator

Newer versions of SuperPNG didn't work for me either. I had to get an older version for the alpha to be saved out. This is the version I have that allows alphas: http://www.joemaruschak.com/super.zip

Keep in mind that SuperPNG pretty much destroys the PNG once it is saved, so be sure to keep your original files.

throttlekitty

Memory's really fuzzy on this one, but older photoshop versions would only correctly save some formats w/alpha channel via Help>Export *cough mumble* (export transparent image?). Not sure if it's still there in CS4, but worth a shot, especially since you don't have pixels in your base layer in the upper left.

Edit: found this vid, it's awesome: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4thBQOSL7aY]How to make a transparent image[/ame] (jpeg ftw)

ZacD

My best advice is, don't use PNG. TGA is what I use 99% of the time, and probably most people here.

throttlekitty

Ohyeah, that is a much better solution.