Saved DDS producing square shield

[Jagger]

I have been modding TGA's recently. Redid the macedonian hypastists and was pretty happy with the results.

I started redoing the macedonian peltasts. Basically, I substituted a light blue for the orange areas. When I finished, I loaded everything up and tested it in the custom battle. Everything worked out fine except for the shield shape. Instead of a round shield, I ended up with a square shield. It looks like the black background surrounding the shield in the TGA is now displayed with the shield resulting in a square shield.

The TGA is saved as a DDS DXT 5 file. Any ideas as to what caused this problem and how I can solve it?

Thanks in advance!

[Thedevil003]

You have a problem with your alpha; it should be save as interpolated alpha.

[Jagger]

Thanks, Devil.

I am using the DXTBMP tool for saving and exporting the TGA's. I have been importing the TGA into the DXT tool, then exporting to Paint. After making color changes, I then save the results as a BMP. Then I use the DXTBMP tool to reload the BMP. Once reloaded, I save as a DDS DDT5 file to convert the BMP back to a TGA file.

Where did I introduce the problem with the alpha? Typically I don't do anything except paint the BMP with PAINT. Then save and convert, etc.

Some of the options I see under alpha are to "refresh alpha", "import/export", and "apply alpha to image". I don't see an option to interpolate or save the alpha. Would selecting any of these options result in an interpolated alpha?

Thanks in advance!

[Plantagenet]

The only time I've seen those squares is when I messed with the black background. So if you cut and paste anything, it must be just the object itself, no background. You can't just paint it black where you've altered it, you apparently have to leave it alone altogether.

[Jagger]

Actually I have been wondering how to cut and paste but I haven't even attempted to do it yet. And I am not sure I can do it with MS Paint.

The only thing I did besides the import/export/save process was to touch up the shields and change the color of the trim in some other segments. Somehow I seem to have accidently converted the alpha background from transparent to opaque. I suspect it happened during the save process but I really don't know.

[Jagger]

I think I just found the problem!!!

I saved as a DXT1 instead of DXT5 file. DXT1 doesn't have an alpha.

Let me go test.

[Jagger]

Not the problem, back to square one.

[Jagger]

Not the problem, back to square one.