Texturing tattered banners, are there any tips?

[Shadowhider]

Hey there all

I have a general question that could use some good answers. Another modder loved a banner I made for them and now they want me to do some tattered ones as well. I was looking at the dds/converted psd file for the tattered Kvatch banner and I looks like there is some alpha applied to it. Is it necessary to apply the alpha to it? If so could someone give me a slightly detailed walk through with their approach to making them?

This is a first attempt for me at one of these so any help at all would be immensely appreciated  

Thanks guys!

Shadow

[WindmillTilter]

In my opinion alpha is definetly the way to go for that. Probably the easiest aproach is to create a new layer. Paint on the new layer for all the holes and tears you want in the banner. Click on the channel tab and add a new channel, fill it with white. Switch back to the layer tab and Ctrl-Click on the thumbnail for your new layer (If you don't normal click the Alpha chanel will remain selected). Fill the selected area of the Alpha chanel with black. I'd make the "Tear" layer invisible before export to avoid colour bleed from the compression, and of course save in a DXT compression  that supports explicit alpha. (Actualy I guess you're only using black and white in the alpha on this one)

In you're banner nif add a NiAlphaProperty and asign it to the NiTriStrips. Set Flags to 237 and leave the rest alone. I believe that 237 is for if you won't see another alpha'd object through the invisible section and 4845 is if you will (glass pane in front of flame for example), but I can't swear to that. Either should work for you and there's probably info available at the Wiki.

Let me know if you have any questions.

WT

[Shadowhider]

Thank you for the tips! Copied and pasted your whole post onto notepad!

I'll give it a try this morning and reply again if I have any issues!

Thanks again WT!