PSP8 issue with MSTS and 3DC

I don’t get this problem of inverted TGA files when I use PSP8.1 ??? In fact the only problem has been the change of format which has been sorted by the use of TGATools2 as per my previous post.
Are you sure that you don’t have the 3DC option of inverting Texture Translucency Layers ticked which is creating the problem??
Steve

Richard, this is not purely a 3DC issue but most people affected visit here, I beg your indulgence.

I moved to Paint Shop Pro 8 from PSP7 to produce textures for MSTS models made with 3DC. I’ve found that PSP8 files containing an alpha channel and saved as tga do not work well with MSTS or 3DC.

1 – PSP8 created tga files used as textures seem to prevent 3DC from generating an optimized lod .s file. Near/far or single levels are generated OK except for point 2.

2 – Exported .s files using PSP8 created tga texture files have no alpha channel mapping and the texture is flipped vertically, see point 3. When viewed in 3DC the models do have correct alphas and texture mapping.

3 – Ace files made by makeacewin from PSP8 tga files do not receive an alpha channel and are flipped vertically, see attached.

Reverting to PSP7 yields correct results. Let me know if I’ve missed a setting in PSP8 that cures the above.

From what I have read on various forums there is at the moment an apparent problem with PSP8 and saving alpha channels in Targa files. I don’t think it has the ability at the moment to save an alpha channel as a 32 bit uncompressed file correctly.

I have seen this type of error reported by a few people and like you reverting to PSP7 to save the targa file corrected the problem.

I would suspect JASC are working on the problem.

JASC has admitted to the problem with TGA files in PSP8, according to others who have encountered problems.

Problem NOT Solved andnbsp;:-[

Having got excited about the TGATools fix – I also just tested the Microsoft MakeACE and MakeACEWin programs and I’m afraid they failed to read and convert the Alpha channel data.
So it appears the MakeACE are not capable of reading the latest TGA format.
Back to PSP7 for the moment……………. andnbsp;

Steve

I’ve found a resolution to this problem.
Apparently PSP8 uses a slightly different TGA header (one that is still valid for a TGA file) but this causes some programs (such as TGATools) to miss read the file.

Martin Wright has now fixed TGATools to accomodate the new PSP8 file headers and as far as I can tell now, all is OK.

New versions of TGATools are on Martins site ……
[img:1kdltfji]http://fly.to/mwgfx[/img:1kdltfji]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://fly.to/mwgfx">http://fly.to/mwgfx</a>&lt;!– m –>

Thanks Martin for helping sort this one

I glad to finally report that a way has been found for users of PSP8 to create TGA files with Alpha channels for conversion and use in MSTS andnbsp;
My previous post outlined the problem and I happy to say that Martin Wright, developer of the TGATools2 program has been able to modify that tool to load PSP8 TGA files and convert them to ACE files for MSTS.

The PSP8 file needs to be saved as a 24bit/Uncompressed Truevision TGA file (change the Save option to use Uncompressed file)

The workaround requires a download of the latest version of TGATools2 (can be found at [img:13ids307]http&#58;//fly&#46;to/mwgfx[/img:13ids307]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://fly.to/mwgfx">http://fly.to/mwgfx</a>&lt;!– m –>
)

Correct sequence is :
1 Open TGATools2 and use Load to open the required PSP8 TGA file.
2 Save the file from TGATools2
3 Reload the newly saved file
4 Export the file to ACE using the Alpha option.

Martin has cleverly managed to convert the PSP8 format file to a PSP7 format (hence the save step in TGATools2) and then use that converted format to run as normal through the MakeACE program (which would only accept the old TGA format) from within TGATools2

Many thanks Martin – I can now justify my upgrade fee for PSP8 ( which does have some nice new features for users of digital cameras !!) andnbsp;

Steve

Good News. I can now purchase PSP8 and use it instead of 7.04. I have been eyeing off some of the new goodies with PSP8 but the Targa problems had scared me away from it until now. <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –>

Thank you Steve, thanks ??? to your post I can now commence exporting models to MSTS, since I didn’t have PSP7 to fall back on, I had to hope a fix or work-around would eventually appear.
I would also like to point out that JASC has released PSP8.1 which is a massive 23.5 Mb download, this seems to fix .TGA textures from being inverted when exported to MSTS though no mention of this was made in the release notes.
Thanks again. andnbsp; andnbsp;John H…

PSP8.1 saved and created targa files still results in inverted targa file formats shown within 3DC. The dummies at JASC still can’t get it right even after a patch to supposedly fix the error.

They can forget ever getting my cash again. Thank god I’m moving to Adobe Photoshop CS soon !